Goals for Growth and Change in 2013

Wow, it has been quite the year of changes!  We bought a house, my job changed (same place- added responsibilities), and we traveled overseas together with our youth group.  Each year I set goals for myself because I have found that if I am not intentional with my goals, absolutely nothing gets accomplished.  Here's a check up on last year's goals.

1. Memorize at least 12 verses.  I actually memorized 13 verses!  Although that is small compared to the whole Bible, it is 13 times more than I memorized in 2011.  The verses I memorized were Ephesians 2:10, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 90:12, Proverbs 12:18, Hebrews 4:15-16, Matthew 11:28, Colossians 3:23, Ephesians 4:1-3, 1 Peter 5:7, and Proverbs 14:1.  Each one of those verses has spoken to me during various times this year and I am so glad that I took this on.  During one various emotional breakdown Isaiah 41:10 really spoke to me.  It was like God was there comforting me specifically.

2.  Read at least two "wife" books this year.  I ended up reading 365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy and Every Marriage Is a Fixer-Upper: A Do-It-Yourselfer's Guide to Bringing Out the Best in Your Relationship.  Each of these helped remind me that being less selfish actually turns things for the better.

3.Part a- Visit each grandparent once a month.  We did pretty good on this.  There were occasional misses, but in general we always made it to each.  This time with them has really blessed our marriage because it has kept things in perspective.

3. Part b- Visit each sibling once in the spring and once in the fall.  We see them at family gatherings in the summer and winter, so I wrote this goal to deal with that issue.  Unfortunately we did a really bad job at this. Next year we will focus a bit more on reaching this.

4.  Visit long distance friends over summer.  I went and visited one and the other one came here.  Investing time in relationships really pays off.

5.  Exercise more (breakdowns of minutes are in the post from last year).  I didn't necessarily make it every week to the minutes goal, but these goals really pushed me.  I am going to continue with minutes per week goals this year.

6.  Money goal- This got changed because we bought a house before October.  We were actually ahead of schedule for meeting our goal and the house ended up be cheaper than we expected, so I will call this goal met.

7.  Read through the Bible chronologically this year.  I have to admit that I actually finished this this morning, but I will still call it met.

8.  Tape goals to the fridge and revisit online once a month.  Well, I didn't necessarily get to this every month online, I still am happy with where I am at.


NEW GOALS FOR 2013:

1.  Keep memorized verses from 2012 and memorize at least 12 more verses.
2.  Read 3 books on relationships or Christianity (or both).
3.  Visit each set of grandparents once a month.
4.  Visit each sibling in the spring and fall.
5.  Exercise 60 minutes a week (this is a stretch, but I think I can do it).
6.  Meet our monthly savings goal.
7.  Write in a prayer/Bible reading journal 5 days a week.  The past few years I have been reading through the Bible in a year, but I feel that I need to really start meditating on the Word and writing my prayers.
8.  Invite people to our house at least once a month.  I have been realizing that my husband is a quiet extrovert.  I grew up with extreme introverts as parents and I am about half introvert and half extrovert.  Also, my job puts me around people all day long, so I am not always sensitive to my husband's need for people time.  Inviting people to our house will help fill this need and will also help us reach out to our community. Furthermore, I feel that God has blessed us with a house and he doesn't want us to keep it all to ourselves.
9.  Use a magnet (yippee- our fridge is now magnetic) to hang my goals each month.  Revisit once a month online.
10.  Plan something special for our 5 year anniversary.

One last thought... our worship pastor sang this new version of Auld Lang Syne and it really resonated with me.  I hope it blesses you as well.

Goals for November- Keeping Priorities

Wow- we've made it to November!  How quickly this year has passed.  Soon enough it will be time again for new yearly goals and I'm already mulling over some changes, but not until then.

This month and I guess specifically next week is going to stretch me.  The end of the school trimester was on Friday, which means that I begin teaching three preps (different classes) for the first time ever.  I have to say that I am really worried.  I'm not sure whether I have it in me to prep for so many different courses.  I have been really trying to come home at a decent hour and have been doing alright and I am afraid this will be a set back.

The photo above was taken at my husband and I's baptism several years ago.  I believe it is very symbolic of the burial of the old life and the beginning of a new life.  In my old life I filled up every little ounce of time with stuff.  Work(school at that point) reigned above everything- even God and family.  It was/is a constant battle to keep Christ and family number one and I know this month will be a challenge.

However, God says "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well."  (I still sing it in my head the old KJV way)  I will do my best to pray that He will help me let go and let God.

I have been learning so much this last month.  While I grade papers at school I have been listening to Andy Stanley's Future Family series.  You can listen to it here.  Seriously he has a way of really bringing to life and to this day and age verses that I have heard my whole life, but have never taken action on.  Right now my marriage is amazing because of many of the verses that I have put in action by God's grace and I want it to stay that way.  The good news is that I will have a student aid for the first time ever,.....however it was a student aid that I don't know and that no one else wanted.  I will trust that God will make her a suitable helper for me.

October goals wrap up:

1. Keep Eph 2:10, Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 90:12, Proverbs 12:18, Hebrews 4:15-16, and Matthew 11:28 Colossians 3:23, and Ephesians 4:1-3.  Memorize 1 Peter 5:7  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  I was glad that I memorized that last verse because it really spoke to me this month.

2.  Work out 30 min a week.  Done!

3.  Visit each set of grandparents once.   To the best of my memory we met up with each one of them.

4.  Get caught up with the read through the Bible in a year.  Back on schedule!


November Goals:
1.  Keep Eph 2:10, Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 90:12, Proverbs 12:18, Hebrews 4:15-16, and Matthew 11:28 Colossians 3:23, Ephesians 4:1-3, and 1 Peter 5:7.  Memorize Proverbs 14:1 "A wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman pulls it down with her own hands."  I know after being married so long that my husband's main love language is time.  The easiest way for me to tear down my house is to get caught up at work.  My focus this month is going to be keeping work in its proper place, which I think is a hard thing for any teacher because my work has faces.

2.  Work out 40 min a week.  I've already done this this week, so only a few more weeks.

3.  Visit each set of grandparents once.  This actually might be tricky with the holidays, but we'll see.

4.  Continue with the Read through the Bible in a Year.

5.  Create a money plan/goal sheet now that we are in the house.  I don't like just floating along without a plan, so we've got to sit down and figure out the new plan.  Because we had so many years of just saving where we had the same budget I think this has kind of through us for a loop- having a house with so many projects makes it difficult to create a set plan, but we do need to do it.

Good luck with all of your monthly goals!

Goals for October- We bought a house!

Wow!  It has been quite a long time since I have gotten a chance to write, but I carved out a bit of time to give out the great news.  We bought a house!  All of that saving paid off.  We did take out a small mortgage, but it is small and only a 15 year loan which we could pay off much sooner than that if we want.  Also, we got a killer rate and our monthly payment is extremely low (only a few more dollars than our cheap rent from before).

All I can say is to anyone out there who is sick of saving and waiting and saving and waiting, it is so worth it!    Right now we have a lot of freedom and no stress from the house.  If we hadn't saved it could have been very stressful.  Also, we bought a lot less nice of a house than the bank said we could so that we could have this freedom.

We bought a fixer upper foreclosure.  We'll probably stay 2-3 years, maybe a bit longer.  The house is perfect for us as an "in between" house.  It is meant to have an upstairs, but it was never finished.  The house had been empty 3-5 years, depending on which neighbor you talk to which means that when we bought it there were a lot of things that we just didn't know about the house.  I love it though:).

In the last two months we, and by we I really mean mainly my husband, have moved all of our stuff out of our old place (including both of us), moved into a family cottage for a month while we worked at this house, and moved into this house.  During that month he replaced the flooring in a third of the house (vinyl planking anyone?), most of the walls and ceilings were painted, everything was cleaned (huge project), vines removed, bushes removed, electric wiring replaced (some of it had been stolen while the house was empty), toilet and vanity replaced, lighting fixtures added, septic tank emptied (after quite an episode), plumbing lines fixed (they were broken everywhere because of improper dewinterization), what plumbing lines were originally there were cleaned (after that same episode-a story for another day), kitchen cabinets modified, appliances installed, and much much more.  I can't say enough thanks to both of our parents who really helped us out a bunch and of course none of this could have been done without my husband.

I am glad we left off a large emergency fund because many of those items could have been really stressful because they were unplanned (although we in a way planned for the unplanned because with it being a foreclosed house we knew it would have issues).  Yet, those house problems just ended up being annoyances.

The house was a large disruption to my goal setting, but I decided that it was better that I help my husband and keep up with my job and that I could come back to my goals.

Here are my goals for October:

1. Keep Eph 2:10, Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 90:12, Proverbs 12:18, Hebrews 4:15-16, and Matthew 11:28 Colossians 3:23, and Ephesians 4:1-3.  Memorize 1 Peter 5:7  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

2.  Work out 30 min a week.  School is pretty intense this year because we went 1-to-1 and we have a new evaluation system.  Also, the house takes up a lot of time, so I'm pushing it down to 30 min and then will work it back up to 60 min again.

3.  Visit each set of grandparents once.   We'll see on this one.  It might be kind of tricky.

4.  Get caught up with the read through the Bible in a year.  I am nine days behind right now.  It was hard to stay on top of it at the cottage because I get emailed the readings each day and we didn't have internet.

For the moment I'm not making any money goals.  We have been keeping track of all expenses with the house in a spreadsheet and we had a budget made up.  Luckily, so far we are under budget.  Later we are going to go over everything that is left and make more specific goals.

Also, there are a lot of goals with projects, but those are for another day.

So, if you are sick of saving and waiting, I just want to encourage you to wait until the time is right.  There were lots of different times that we looked at houses and decided against buying.  We knew that it would put too much stress on us and our marriage.  I just found out today that another couple that is my age is getting a divorce.  I have no idea what their difficulties were, but I do know that financial issues can cause a huge strain and I am glad that we decided to live frugally so that we could reduce that stress.

Good luck with your future projects.  I'm hoping that at some point (it could be months) I can give you some before and after pictures.  They'll be worth the wait!