2012 Resolutions

After reviewing last year's goals, I have devised a list of goals for this year.  


Rolling Over and Revisiting from Last Year:

1. Emergency Fund  *  For realz this time...I want to build  Baby Step Numero Uno and stash $1,000 in the Emergency Fund!  
2. Read  *  I've taken up a little audio reading and will one day in the near future have myself a  Kindle.  I will finish 24 books this year!
3. Date Nights with Hubs  *  Two times per month....one low key date and one a bit more extravagant...
4. Family Dates  *  I mentioned  last year that one month is the whole family date, the next month one parent with one kiddo (like daughter/daddy and mother/son), the next month switch (daughter/mom and father/son)....then start all over with the whole family...
5. Family Game Nights  *  one time per month
6. Journal  *  Dare I shoot for 3 times a week again, when I am struggling to sneak one?  Hey...I think I will...
7. "Me Times"  *  I need to get these scheduled in or they fall to the wayside.  Like last year, I want to make sure I have a plan and am taking time out for myself on a regular basis...
8. Monday Missions  *  I am revisiting the  Monthly Missions Checklist, as well as seeing what  Katie adds each Monday
9. Organize  *  I plan to use the previous resources I have through  Get Organized Wizard, as well as this new one I just purchased to be doing something daily!
10. Quiet Time  *  I still want this back...

New, or at least New-ish

1. Move More  *  walking, dancing, yoga....at some point I want some movement in my every day!
2. Drink More Water  *  at one time, I drank 64 ounces of water each day...I had a huge jug and filled it up to make sure I finished before the day was out... Nowadays,  I can do really great at this at times....sometimes I am not measuring it but getting more water in...  I think I could get back up to 48 to 64 ounces and be in a good place...
3. Continue Digging through My Archives  *  While I may not break it down like I did in November and December with the whole  Dig/Dream/Do Project, I absolutely loved checking in with myself from previous years....
4. Grow  *  I want to tweak goal setting throughout the year and plan on projects for each month....I got lots of ideas...  For one, I  got this book and  Katie said she was going to work on this book in 2012 as well (see)....and it looks like she'll be posting on her  Facebook page on Mondays and Fridays.  Also, I love  Rosie and she has many an interesting suggestion....so I will be doing some GROWTH projects monthly as well...

That is 14 resolutions and some of them really pack a punch.  I really liked how I broke it all down, starting in January of last year....so I'll be doing that again this year!  I'll continue with these categories:  FAMILY, HOME, HEALTH, SELF, PROJECTS....but I'm going to add:  ARCHIVES (to include things from my monthly "dig") and HOUSEKEEPING (not home organization, just taking care of some old business from previous goals that I didn't do but wanted to follow up eventually).  

Digging Up Archives--January

Repeating what I had done here and here, I am now digging through blog posts in previous Januarys (or is it Januaries?).  This digging, dreaming, doing project of mine is a work in progress and it is still taking shape :) And unlike the last two "digging up archives,"  I start with the year 2008 because I hadn't started blogging until the summer of 2007.

2008 - I really enjoyed reading through this year.  I was still adding a few Works for Me Wednesday posts (although with a different hostess).  As much as I can remember reading the many posts on Wednesdays, I am still a bit surprised at how much I actually posted.  Still blogging about my struggle to lose weight.  In addition, I was adding a few "Thursday Thirteen" posts.  This was a carnival (or meme....when will I ever figure that out?) that you could list 13 things....any theme was up for grabs.  Apparently the website back then is gone.  But, these folks are reviving it =0)  I really, really liked that I listed 13 Accomplishments of 2007!!  Another one that was fun was 13 Kids Movies I'd Watch Even If I Didn't Have Kids (wonder if it's time for a  2nd edition).  I posted randomness, which I did a few times but haven't in a very long time....  My favorite post of January 2008 is about My African American Friend....I love being her friend!!  She has moved to Florida and I can't pop over to her house for tea anymore.  But we are friends on Facebook and after reading that post, I "popped" over to her wall and said hello!

2009 - I started the Scripture Memory Quest.  I still blogged about my weight (my goodness, it really was almost an obsession of mine).  January of 2009 had a few good posts.  A couple of good ones about my kids:    Are They Nerds? and one about the creativity of my kids, especially my daughter and when I am gone  =0)  And I wrote something kinda cute about hormones.  And I am reminded of just how much I respond to this lady and her Bible studies!

2010 - I only had one post in January of 2010 and it was several bits of randomness.  

2011 - Being not terribly long ago, I remember how I seemed to have something going on within me....it was a crazy good month with 16 blog posts.  I set New Year's Resolutions, which for several months I broke down and wrapped up (I was especially energetic in January with following through).  I set a   soul resolution and I did a couple of JamWithMe Thursdays over at Faith Barista.  For a few weeks, I blogged about Every Monday Matters and for a good part of the year, starting in January, I participated in the Me!  Challenge.  Probably my favorite post was about Bed and Breakfast Dates with Hubs!!

Dig It, Dream It, Do It Project--December

Checking in with myself to see how I did actually doing what I set out to do for the month!

BODY=almost got a Check.  Being nice and gentle to my body is an ongoing process.  Some days I can be both nice and not-so-nice in the same day.  Heck, I can do that in the same moment.  And I was moving, then allowed the weather to be a handy excuse to not move....then I got sick.  This will take some more work!

MIND/HEART/SOUL=half a Check maybe.  I did read more, just not every day!  Still want to make that a habit...  I journaled a couple of times...not every week.  I don't think I said that affirmation ONCE (dagnabbit)!  Budget notes:  well...I think that I will figure out another way to "report" this because well....I just don't know that I did that at all :(

SPIRIT=well not much of a check at all.  I did find a book that started out a bit positive in the spirit department.  The beginning of December was great....several days in it was going well....then it fizzled :-(  I also didn't find that book of scriptures I was memorizing...I still wanna look for it!

EXTRA=not much of a check here either...I didn't email my friend b/c I didn't find her email address.  I didn't make the recipe.  And as for the blog posts....I did post one, and I suppose it is "from the heart" but I was fairly weak on this category as well...

365 Days Later...at least getting close to 365

As we say goodbye to 2011, I am thinking about the year and the resolutions I made one year ago here.  For five months, I took those resolutions and broke them down each month (January, February, March, April, and May).  Then, at the end of the month, I would wrap up how I did each month (January, February, March, April, and May).  While I wasn't 100% successful, I really remember how this kept me on track for some things.  I have a good, warm feeling about those goals for the first few months.  And the reason I stopped was I got a new job, which put my life in a whole new direction.  For 3 months, I stayed with my aunt during the week, commuted an hour to work from her house, then went 3 hours back home to my family.    Then in September, the family moved out here with me (moving....ugh)!  Life was keeping me pretty busy without me adding too much additional pressure on myself....


I am going to do the New Year's Resolutions again, and I may repeat some of these goals so I wanted to take a moment and check in with the resolutions made a year ago and see how I did, in spite of the C-R-A-Z-Y twists and turns my life took....

• Lose 25 pounds....while this is not HUGE, I don't have any real plans other than trying to heal emotionally and implement healthier habits.  This gives me wiggle room for the whole year.  I've been reading this book and doing the activities to heal emotionally.  I find it quite helpful, but after weighing myself this morning, nothing is "magically" happening yet--LOL!
• Wow, I don't remember what I weighed a year ago, but before 2011 was over I had a paradigm shift in how I approached weight loss.  I have been hinting at this in recent posts and do completely intend to blog about this, but I don't know what I weigh right now...and that is just not going to be important to me anymore.  This is not easy for me because I do want to be thinner....but I am trying to be kind to my body and embrace my curves!
• Increase emergency fund to $1,000.  Number  59 of my giant to do list was to stash 2 grand in there.  Well, life has been hard while Hubs has been without steady full-time work and sadly, it is WAY DOWN!!!  Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps tell us we need $1,000 in that emergency fund and I am committed to getting that back in there....
• I want to LOL but this is seriously not funny!!!  Currently have $90 in our emergency fund....this one needs revisiting for 2012 FOR SURE!!!!
• Read 20 books.  I love to read and love it so much that I often get in over my head buying books and wanting to read books that I get overwhelmed.  Hubs has often made fun of me for reading several books at once.  But, I do it anyway....but I need to get focused to finish them.  I read several this past year, but I didn't keep up with it.  This year, I am...
• While I did keep up with it better, to the best of my calculations I read 15 this year and not 20 (although I could've missed a few....and I didn't count cookbooks or eBooks).  Hopefully in the near future I'll be getting a  Kindle and currently try to keep up with my reads on  Goodreads!
• Date nights with Hubs!  I want to get back on board with Project 52.  I talked about this back in July and actually stuck with it for 4 dates.  Well, the plan is to commit to 2 per month.
• I did great on this goal for the first 5 months....got in 10 dates :)  Since the transition and move, we've had a couple of great days together but nothing "on purpose"....will be revisiting this for 2012 as well!
• Family "dates."  I have two kiddos.  For about 3 years now, we have set a little money aside each month to do things together as a family.  We had fun last night doing some of these activities.  The plan is to have monthly family dates.  One month, we do something all together.  The next month, we have one on one dates....Hubs with one kiddo, me with the other.  The next month, we flip the one on one dates.  This is number 9 on the big list.
• Was doing well on this one, too....for 5 months.  Since the transition and move, nothing really "on purpose"....I want to revisit this as well...
• In addition to the dates, I want to have a family game night once a month.  Last night, we played Mille Borne.  I really enjoy playing games and hopefully this will not overwhelm and frustrate the family but remind us to have fun together.
• Four months, did well...and we did play Scrabble as a family on Christmas....and a few other games as well here and there (including a couple video games together as a family)....I'll revisit this one, too!
• Schedule regular "me time."  This is a project for me to come up with what I need to do to take care of me.  I don't know if this will be daily, weekly, or monthly....but I want to not forget to nurture myself!
• Thanks to a wonderful  challenge, I did quite well on this resolution.  Almost every week, I found some "me time" and listed most of them in this post and then went on to do one, two, three more.  A total of 30 weeks, which is 30 different ways to nurture myself...some of which are still done regularly...
• Journal 3 times per week.  I really believe in journaling.  I will often go on streaks of journaling several days in a row.  But I want this to become a habit.  I figure 3 times per week is manageable!
• For the 5 months when I was really keeping track...I did well, journalling at least 2 times every week and many times, I got 3 times in a week.  Since the move and transition, I was trying to journal once a week but missed this many-a-time!  Worth revisiting for 2012!!
• Learn 6 new things.  Continuing on in the spirit of 12 New Things that I cannot find on the blogosphere any longer, I want to add to the new things I've already learned....just on my own.
• That was such a good idea....I did 2....origami and speed reading =0)  
• Create some sinking funds.  This post explains them well.  It seems everyone in my family is saving for something.  I want to get into that mentality....when I want something that is a bit pricey, I want to create a sinking fund for it!
• THAT sinking fund disappeared....the money in that envelope was used, I am sure, during the transition....sigh...
• Implement some Monday Missions.  I love Kitchen Stewardship!  She teaches so much about health and food and cooking and being green.  She also offers small steps so we can each determine what we can do to work toward change. 
• I did okay on this....some months much better.  It has been a process over the couple of years that I have been reading her, and I still love her approach.  I'll revisit this one in 2012 as well....totally worth it, even if it is simply paying attention to health habits...
• Simplify!  Starting with Project 333.  Over the next 3 months, I am going to pare down my wardrobe and find the 33 items that are my essential wardrobe!
• Yep....I feel like I did this one quite well.  I might not have done it like a rock star, but I simplified and took a bit of a spin on it, as I described  here.
• Design my personal fitness plan!  I have found that I enjoy Zumba.  I also have several video games on the Wii, including this Christmas gift.  In addition, I have several Yoga DVDs and really will take a yoga class soon (#49 on my to do list).
• This was an on again, off again relationship.  I did take a Yoga class...I did some Yoga on my own...since moving, my family has taken some walks around the neighborhood and I have  Just Danced...but I'm currently off again.  Be it weather or being sick or just forgetting....I tend to have a ready excuse :(
• Create a home maintenance routine.  I'll leave it at that!  It is self explanatory, huh?  -sigh-
• Don't think I did this one either....any routine I semi-started is long gone now that we've moved...
• Declutter and organize using tools from Get Organized Wizard!
• I did well on this....again until the transition and move.  I want to revisit this one in 2012!
• Create rotating meal plan!  Again, I think this is self explanatory.  Why is it so overwhelming?  I don't enjoy the stress of meal planning and grocery shopping each week, and I know that if I would take the time to create this....it would simplify this activity and help it become less stressful!
• Cheese and crackers this is a hard one for me...I've purchased items that I don't use...or only use once.  Grrrrr...
• Using resources from Get Organized Wizard, I will focus on one area each month.  Personal development is the one for January :)
• I think I did okay, some months were better than others...  But as before, the transition and move really threw things in a tailspin....worth revisiting in 2012.
• Focus technology time!  I need a strategy for my online activity (such as Facebook), as well as one to limit the time watching television.  In addition, I want to come up with a plan for blogging more!
• Yeah, I don't think I ever got around to that one either....
• Quiet time!  Where did this go?   I used to have DAILY time in the morning and it seems to have disappeared!  I want to get it back, including time to pray daily, have regular Bible study, and memorize Scripture!
• This is something I was working on during the first five months and have continued to try to work on it with my  Dig It/Dream It/Do It Project and it still needs work.  (Speaking of which, I may merge that "project" in with my monthly goals somehow...)
• Keep working on goals and habits...tweaking them, adding to them....this is so good for me to focus on and work toward!!!
• Yeah, even when I wasn't "officially" working on these original goals, I was still working on little projects here and there...

25 Words

I have mentioned Rosie Molinary before.  I really enjoy her.  She is so inspiring and teaches how to love ourselves in very practical ways!  Over at Voxxi, she challenged us to describe ourselves in 25 words in this assignment.  It wasn't until I had done the assignment, that I realized I had taken my own spin on it.  But I decided to use my words to create a Wordle.  I have it pictured above and I couldn't figure out how to make it larger without distorting the image.  At any rate, it was a good challenge.


Here are my words:

courageous

tough-minded

dynamic

enchanting

encouraging

funny

generous

kind-hearted

smart

witty

warm

willing

steadfast

resilient

nutty

sincere

human

vulnerable

creative 

unique

beautiful

becoming

inspired

passionate

breathing

If you read the assignment, you will see that she says not to use "physical attributes."  Some may protest BEAUTIFUL, but I believe the word is SO MUCH more than the physical description!

December Dreaming

Continuing from some of the things I benefited from in November and adding to it from  December archives, here's my list for this month:


BODY

• Continue to be nice and gentle to my body and post at least once about this paradigm shift I keep mentioning.  
• Keep doing movement my body enjoys--walk, a few yoga poses, and  dancing!

MIND/HEART/SOUL (intellectual and emotional center)

• Reading...I actually want to create a habit where I read every day, even if just 10 minutes.  I have a book I read a page or two from several days a week, as part of my morning routine...but I am talking something more than that (although that does count).  Also, I am about to finish this book and need something quick for the mornings, in addition to the daily 10 minute reading for fun  I did go to the book club and it is going to be meeting every other month....next one is in January (though I've already read that book)!
• Journal....want to do this at least once per week...notice the AT LEAST....but the baby step is to get myself to journal once a week.  
• Affirmation...every morning say, "Something great is gonna happen today....can't wait to see what it is"!
• In reviewing my budget each month, I want to make a note here at the end of the month how much money I put in the Emergency Fund and how much "extra" we paid toward debt!

SPIRIT

• I want to build Bible Study and prayer back into my daily routine, so let me just say most days per week....and decide on the best time to try to make this a habit.
• I want to memorize Scripture again....I want to find the little index card book I made back in 2009 and revisit those Scriptures....see what is still memorized.

EXTRA (new for December, from the Digging Session)

• The friend who did the emotional work I mentioned here moved and we've lost touch. I'm going to email her (assuming I can still find her email address).
• I'm going to make this recipe (not sure if it'll be a gift or if I'll just have it for any Christmas get-togethers).
• I'm going to post at least two blog posts that are more "from the heart" or random, just sharing my life with the world.  That would include the post I mentioned above about my new beliefs about my body and dieting.