I need to change the subtitle!

A year off from blogging... whoops!  Where did the time go?  I know, this little guy stole it all and our hearts! Here's a recap of last year:
Winter- wow, the most snow days ever- polar vortex anyone?
Spring- our baby boy arrived
Summer- adjusting to life with baby and lots of days at the lake with family
Fall- my maternity leave sub was not able to finish my leave so I came back early, but part-time:)
Winter- back full-time and enjoying seeing the Christmas season through new eyes

Even if I don't end up blogging much this year, I have found that I miss having a place to keep myself accountable to my goals, so my plan is to keep up with monthly check ups.  I also hope to possibly post updates on all of the many projects that have been going on, so that I can share tips that you might find helpful, but we'll see on that one.  Spending time with the little guy sucks me away from the computer (in a good way).

Here are my goals for January

Exercise minimum of 1 hour a week (I hope to push this up a bit, but I know myself and I have to start slow)
Continue with my New in 30 Bible reading plan
Send at least cards to grandparents/nieces/nephews for birthdays
Back up files on computer and laptop
Finish rereading Reaching for the Invisible God (great book!)
Start going to choir practice for the Messiah (I've never done anything like that and I'm afraid I'll chicken out)
Plan one date night (sans son)
Take a personal day from school
Stretch every day (this is a new one, so yes, I am making a sticker chart for it;))
Help with getting all of the stuff to the accountant for my husband's business
Continue with my 3 good things, 1 funny thing journal
Visit each grandparent once
Visit with mentee
Start reading (or at least get on the hold list for) one of the following books that has been recommended to me:
The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages
In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day
Becoming Myself: Embracing God's Dream of You
Emotionally Healthy Woman
Storyline
Grace Filled Marriage
Teach Like a Champion (started reading this over maternity leave and never finished it)

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!

July- Traveling Goals!

Wow!  June just flew by!  I got a lot of my goals accomplished, :but I know I could have done more.  I think I enjoyed sleeping in too much as usual.  Here's a look back at my goals.
1.  Memorize Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, do it heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.  Keep memorized Matt 11:28; Hebrews 4:15-16; Proverbs 12:18, Psalm 90:12; Ephesians 2:10, Isaiah 41:10.
2.  Work out 60 min a week.  I have been doing really good at this and have actually been working out more- I feel great!
3.  Visit each set of grandparents once.  I was able to visit all, but one.  The one that I missed I thought we would see at something at the end of the month and then missed her.  I will try to go see her soon this week. However, I did visit with the other grandparents more than once:).
4.  Keep up with read through the Bible chronologically in a year.
5.  We are not at 97% of the goal because my school does lump sums in July, which I find odd.  We are currently at 93.9% of the big goal, which I don't think is too shabby.
6.  Follow Money Saving Mom's 4 weeks to a more organized home.  I definitely fell off the bandwagon on this one.  I did a lot of cleaning and organizing, just not by her schedule.
7.  Complete 3 goals from master summer goal list a day.  I actually completed 41 goals which is slightly less than than the needed 42, but close enough I'm counting it.
~Something that I didn't list, but am proud of is that I read through several books including Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place, which has been on my reading list forever.  I had seen the movie, but the book is even more moving.  I also read through 365 Nights which I would count towards my goal of two wife books this year.

This month is going to be crazy.  My husband and I will be out of the country for a significant portion of the month helping lead a missions trip with a large number of high schoolers.  I also have quite a few professional development days planned at school which messes with things a bit.  I'm going to try and list more specifics for this month.
1. Keep memorized Colossians 3:23, Matt 11:28; Hebrews 4:15-16; Proverbs 12:18, Psalm 90:12; Ephesians 2:10, Isaiah 41:10.  Memorize Ephesians 4:1-3 "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."  I believe that our group is going to really face unity difficulties because it is so large, so I am hoping to focus on this verse to prepare for the trip.
2.  Work out at least 60 min a week while I am in the good ol' US of A.  Hopefully I will push myself to do more.  It has really been helping shape my thighs.
3.  Visit each set of grandparents once.  I am hoping to visit the grandparent that was missed last month early this month to make up for last month.
4.  Keep up with read through the Bible chronologically in a year.  I need to print out a guide to use while I am gone.
5.  Honestly, I'm not sure at all where we will be at the end of the month.  My husband will be taking a lot of unpaid days; I will be getting a lump sum of an unknown amount; we will be donating a very large unknown amount to help pay for stuff on the trip; so I will just be glad if we stay where we are for the month.
6.  Print out Money Saving Mom's 4 weeks to a more organized home and check through the main goals for the day.  I'm giving myself leeway that if I don't think it applies, then I don't need to do it.  Also, I can pick and choose days.  I want to work on this on "open days" in July (there aren't very many).
7.  Complete 2 goals per open day from large list.
8.  Post about painting lamps, table/chairs, and dresser projects.  I'm proud of how they turned out and would love to encourage someone to take the plunge into painting.

Goals for June- Switching gears

Wow!  May just flew by!  My time was filled pushing and pushing and pushing my seniors to not give up.  One student I spent hours and hours and hours with after school and it made the difference!  I think I was as excited as he was when he passed.  Pretty much May was a survivor month as I predicted, but it ended well. If you have ever noticed in most teacher movies the teacher's relationships with others (husbands/wives/kids) suffer due to their devotion to their students.  I really keep this in mind and think that I am improving on keeping a balance.  I've got a long way to go, but this was my best May yet.

Summary of my goals from last month:

1. Keep Eph 2:10, Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 90:12, Proverbs 12:18, and Hebrews 4:15-16 memorized, and memorize Matthew 11:28.  Even though I pretty much already knew Matthew 11:28, having it as the verse of the month really encouraged me by bringing it into focus.

2. Work out 60 min a week.  I kept with this one, although one week most of the exercising was just house work.

3. Visit each set of grandparents once.

4. Keep up with read through the Bible in a year chronologically in a year.

5. Be at 91% of goal.  As of today (a few days into June) we are at 91.8%!

June Goals

I am a teacher which means summer is completely different.  During the school year I have a really bad habit of letting stuff and chores accumulate which means that I have to attack them all over a 10 week period in the summer.  This summer though will be cut down a lot because of a 10 day missions trip and at least 7 days of professional development.  This morning I have spent a very large amount of time writing down all of my goals for the summer.  I printed out calendars to put in my summer binder and brainstormed the best ways to attack everything.

First, I created a giant list of everything that I hoped to accomplish this summer and broke down the big goals into little chunks.  Next, I marked down days that I am not available due to professional development at school and the missions trip that my husband and I are going on with the high school students at our church.  Then I have to admit I just stared at the large list and the small amount of days and just sat and thought.  I tried to organize the goals and just wanted to give up.  The list was soooo long and there weren't near as many days this summer as I had hoped.

I am a determined person above all else, so I figured there must be a way.  It came to me.  KISS- keep it simple silly.  I have about 80 goals for the summer and about 35 weekdays to attack them (although probably less because I normally go on a few day trips to visit old friends).  I decided not to include weekends because they are normally full.  Rather than being specific (I will attack goal 3 on day 23), I decided that I wanted flexibility.  I will shoot for 3 goals a day per open day in the summer.

Here's my list for June

1.  Keep Eph 2:10, Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 90:12, Proverbs 12:18, Hebrews 4:15-16, and Matthew 11:28 memorized.  Memorize Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, do it heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.

During the summer it is so easy to want to be lazy.  I agree that a time of rest is needed after the crazy school year.  However, I know that I get tempted to use that as an excuse to be lazy much longer than needed.  This verse will help keep me going.

2.  Work out 60 min a week.

3.  Visit each set of grandparents once.

4.  Keep up with read through the Bible in a year.

5.  Be at 97% of goal?  This month is a bit confusing.  I am now working at a school that allows for lump pay over summer which means I should be getting quite a bit this month.  However, we will be donating a large amount of money to pay the taxes for the students on the missions trip.  I am unsure whether we will be paying that this month or next.  This is my best guess for where we should be.

6.  Follow Money Saving Mom's 4 weeks to a more organized home series.

7.  Complete 3 goals from summer goal list every open day (not a professional development day).

Feel free to add links to your goals in the comments section.  I would love to read them!

photo credit: Inkyhack via photo pin cc

Goals for 2012: Busier May!

So I'm posting a bit later than planned for May, but I am posting- go me!  This is just about the busiest time of the year for a teacher.  My life has been consumed with pushing my students to not give up, and I have been staying late after school tutoring (until 6 sometimes) helping students fill the hole they have dug themselves.  I have to have compassion though, because I know in my life I have dug some big holes and I always appreciated those who helped me get out of them.

Church has been really, hmmm, I don't know how to put it, maybe deep for me lately.  My husband and I are going on a missions trip out of the country for 10 days this summer and we have been helping prep the kids for the trip.  This is a huge step for us to take (10 day trip), plus we are leading kids, so I feel like we are being stretched, but in a good way.  I think that God is going to do something big with this trip.  It's exciting and scary at the same time.

I chose the picture above because I feel like it really describes my life right now- although maybe the couple should be running.  We have been looking at houses and I have been looking at summer jobs/training and the future is unclear.  I've been working hard trying to get our assessment methods updated at school.  This requires some new software that costs $$.  If you would like to donate click here.  There has just been a lot of things happening in education and even specifically at my school that could be very good, but could also go the wrong direction if not done right. I know that God will be with us, whatever happens.

Summary of April's Goals:
1.Keep Eph 2:10, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 90:12, and Proverbs 12:18 memorized.  Memorize Hebrews 4:15-16. 
2. Work out 60 min a week.  Completed!  However, I did count certain home maintenance things- weeding as exercise.  I figure that if I am feeling it the next day, that definitely should count!
3. Visit each set of grandparents once.
4. Keep up with reading through the Bible chronologically in a year.
5. Be at 89% of the big goal.


May's Goals:
1. Keep Eph 2:10, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 90:12, and Proverbs 12:18, Hebrews 4:15-16 memorized. Memorize Matthew 11:28 "Come to me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest."  During this crazy month, I have a tendency to try and do it all.  I get really frustrated when I can't.  I know a song that talks about this verse and it really speaks to me.  It is not that God wants us to do nothing, but really that he wants us to give our cares to Him.
2. Work out 60 min a week.  This can definitely include house work, because this time of year means lots and lots of weeding, bush trimming, etc.
3.  Visit each set of grandparents once.
4.  Keep up with read through the Bible chronologically in a year.
5.  Be at 91% of the big goal.

Photo credit: Click here.

Goals for 2012- Stretching myself in March

February is coming to an end and March is opening up calling me to stretch myself.  Next month I will stretch my goals out over 5 weeks and will try to challenge myself even further.

Results of February Goals:
-Memorize Eph 2:10
-Keep memorized Isaiah 41:10
-Exercise 40 min/week
-Keep up with Read the Bible in a Year Chronologically plan.
-Visit each set of grandparents once.
-Be at 82.25%


Ha cha!! Take that goals!

For March I'm taking it one step further.  Here's the list:
1. Keep memorized Eph 2:10.
2. Keep memorized Isaiah 41:10
3. Memorize Psalm 90:12 "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
4. Memorize Proverbs 12:18 "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."
5. Work out 50 minutes a week.  Thank goodness for youtube and hulu!  I love looking up new videos.  Maybe this month I will head outdoors, probably not because I hate being cold.  We'll see.
6. Visit each set of grandparents once.
7. Keep up with the Read through the Bible in a Year Chronologically.
8. We are currently at 83% of our big goal.  Our goal for this month- 85.5%!  My husband's side jobs have been making us reach this even faster than expected.

My last word before I sign off to go after my other goals for today is I would encourage everyone to make really small goals if big goals have not been working for you.  I am loving working out each week only because I don't have to do it that much.

This is the first year that I have stuck with my workout during the school year.  I believe it is because I started with a wimpy 30 min a week in January.  Each Saturday would roll around and I would look at all of my goals that were checked off except that exercise goal.  I could never justify not meeting all of the week's goals just because I refused to do something for 30 minutes, so I would quickly attack it on Saturday.

In February for several weeks I continued to put off all of my exercise minutes until Saturday, but this week I actually broke up the time over several days.  This is a slow way for me to switch to exercising on more than Saturday.

Good luck with your goals this month!

Goals for 2012- February

I run my goals on a four week cycle, so I consider it February already.  Here is the update from the last four weeks.

First, I am amazed at how motivating it is to have my goals posted on our refrigerator.  I feel like I have to accomplish them because everyone that comes over can see them clearly.

I was able to successfully fit 30 minutes of exercise into my week.  It was difficult, but it was such a low goal that on Saturday I kept on feeling like I can't give up on this, so I would do it.

My Bible goal has been really interesting.  I'm reading through the Bible chronologically and it has been eye opening to see what things were happening around the same time.  I read through Isaiah and learned so much.  I never realized how old that book was.  I successfully memorized Isaiah 41:10 and I'm amazed at how many times it has come to mind during the day.

Also, we successfully went and visited all of the grandparents.  I am so glad that we did, because we almost didn't visit one set and then we heard how lonely they had been.

Finally, we are at 80.08% of our big goal!  We made it by the skin of our teeth.

February (next 4 weeks) Goals:
1.  Keep Isaiah 41:10 memorized.
2.  Memorize Ephesians 2:10  "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
3.  Continue the read through the Bible chronologically in a year program.
4.  Exercise 40 minutes a week (it's so embarrassing, but this will definitely be the most challenging).
5.  Visit each grandparent once during the month.
6.  Be at 82.25% of our big house saving goal.

Goals for 2012

Oh boy, we're almost at the start of a new year, which of course means a great time to make new goals.  Money Saving Mom has some great posts about how to make your goals, so if you are having trouble you should head over here.  I used her steps to make my goals for the year.  Here is the break down of my goals this year (not including my teaching goals- that would probably add 3 pages ;) ).

1.  Memorize at least 12 verses starting with Isaiah 41:10   
      Fear not, for I am with you; 
      Be not dismayed, for I am your God. 
      I will strengthen you, 
      Yes, I will help you, 
      I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
I decided on this verse because I have an extremely busy month ahead (my fault- if only I could say no), and so I believe this verse will really encourage me.


2.  Read at least two "wife" books this year.  I'm looking into When a Woman Inspires her Husband and Rekindling the Romance: Loving the Love of your Life.


3.  Visit with each set of grandparents once a month.  Visit each sibling (us driving) once in the spring and once in the fall.

4.  Visit long distance friends over the summer.

5.  Exercise.  This year I am breaking it down by the month.  Don't laugh when you read this- you have to remember that I currently don't really exercise other than the squats I do while my papers are copying at work (yes I am that crazy lady in the copy room).  I'm trying to be realistic this year.
Jan: 30 min/week     Feb: 40 min/week    Mar: 50 min/week   April: 60 min/week   May: 70 min/week
June: 80 min/week   July: 90 min/week   Aug:80 min/ week   Sept: 60 min/week   Oct: 60 min/week
Nov: 60 min/week  Dec: 60 min/week

6.  We reached our small goal this last year and we are currently at 77% of our goal (2% higher than my goal!).  My goal is to reach our big goal by October.

7.  Use this website to choose a Bible reading plan for the year.

8.  Tape my goals to our refrigerator (it isn't magnetic :( ).  Revisit once a month online.

Goals for 2011

I find it someone interesting that it wasn't until 1/11/11 that I actually got around to writing my goals, which is kind of fun I have to say as a numbers person.  I decided that this is my year to stretch myself (hence the picture).  Honestly at school I feel like I am doing the splits, but I still think it is a good theme for the year.  Here are my goals, remembering that things change, always.

Spiritual:
This year I am taking a slightly different strategy towards my spiritual growth.  Last year, my goal was to read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice by following along with this website.  This was very good in the fact that I did get into the Word most days.  I also once again was able to see all of the amazing connections there are through the Word.

However, this year I want to be more focused.  Each month I will either have a book or some theme for the month.  This month's theme was inspired by a New Year's Eve service/singing that I attended.  The person speaking talked about how although there are so many great things to look forward to in the new year that bad things will happen.  Things that hurt.  Things that drag us down.  Things that make us want to give up and curse God like Job's friends.  But.....  We must remember.  Remember all that God has brought us through.  Remember the blessings that He has given us.  Remember what He has done so that we might be able to be called sons and daughters of God.  Remember.  Don't be like the Israelites who had miracle after miracle after miracle and yet would turn away all of the time.

This month I am focusing on the word "remember" as it appears in the Scriptures.  If you search the Bible you will find it appears over 200 times!  I feel like this has already been speaking to me in so many ways.

I also want to do more of a Bible study with my husband.  We used to do one together fairly regularly, but then school happened and it seems hard to fit in, and when we do fit it in, it feels forced.  For right now, we are going to be taking classes at our church one night a week and I will use that for our time.  I'm still brainstorming on how to fit this in as an effective way for us to grow together and not just be a chore.

I also want to keep a prayer/ Bible study journal.  I just need to go out and by the most plain Jane notebook.  For some reason I love writing in the cheapy spiral bound notebooks, and I actually don't like the dolled up diaries.  Maybe its because I'm a teacher.  Who knows.

Finally, I want to memorize 6 verses this year.  I know that is very few, but I really want this to be an attainable goal.  I'm still searching for my first one.  I know that it will need to be something about trusting in God to give me strength, since right now teaching is wearing me down.

Personal:
I still want to make the goal to visit each set of grandparents at least once a month via any means (phone or in person).  This was an amazing goal last year, and I'm afraid if I don't leave it on the list it won't happen.

Visit distant siblings at least twice a year at their homes.  Right now while we are young and don't have kids, I think we should take more of an active role in keeping up relationships even if they are far away.

Have extended family over for dinner.  Hopefully this will happen.  I am scared half to death to cook a meal for other people, but I need to get over it.

Exercise three times a week.  I have on permanent loan a really really really old treadmill.  Seriously, it has no digital readings just a 4 ft long crank to make it go faster or slower.  I can get it up to a fast speed walk, not quite a jog, so it is much easier for me to exercise even if I am not going overly crazy.  I should be able to cram in 3 times a week.

Follow a housekeeping routine.  I have been horrible at this recently.  For a while I kept up with it, but now I am just surviving.  I am thinking that for now I will focus on laundry on the weekends, bathrooms and kitchen maintenance on Monday/Tuesday and vacuuming/general house cleaning on Thursdays.  Later I might break it down more, but for now I need to be vague.

Stretch often enough to where I can do splits all three ways again ( I miss that from my gymnastics days).

Buy a pedal for my loaned keyboard and practice playing again.

Education/ Career:

This sounds horrible, but reduce my responsibilities at work enough that I can get most everything done in 9 and a half hours all but one day a week.

Focus on strategies to deal with "joy busters," ie. other employees and occasionally students who don't even do this on purpose, but somehow just steal my joy.

Improve discipline in my classroom.  Create a weekly schedule where the responsibility is more removed from me and is shouldered by more of the class.

Be less of a perfectionist.  Worry less about what others think.

Continue reading education blogs.  Continue organizing all materials.

Create a sub folder.

Read a book on small business.

Read a book on investing.

Read a book on discipline.

Financial:

Reach our "small goal" of money for our house by September.  We are currently about 73% of the way there.

Reach 75% of our big goal by the end of the year.  Right now we are tentatively planning to build in 2012.  We might push it back to 2013, but we'll just have to see.  If we do end up building in 2012 then this year we might actually start buying things for the house.  That money even though it is spent, will be counted in our percentages of money saved towards building a home, since the items such as lumber are to be used on the home.

Continue giving to our local church and charities.

BIG GOAL:
To revisit these goals once a month on this blog and force myself to review and revise based on how we are doing.

Well there they are.  I have many many other ideas especially for the summer, but this would be way to long if I wrote them all.  Hopefully I will be able to get things under more control at school so that I can take back my time and be able to get some of these other things accomplished and write on here more often.  I'll let you know how things go though, at least once a month (or at least that is my goal ).

2010 Goals Wrap-up!

I am so thankful for this blog, if only as a way to keep me accountable to my goals.  As you may remember, last year at about this time I wrote up my Goals for 2010.  I have looked back at that post countless times.  This year I might just print it off my future post on Goals for 2011 and post it near my fridge for easy access.  Here's the wrap up on how each of my goals went:

Spiritual:

• I did actually read through the entire old testament once and the new testament twice.  This was quite the under taking and I have to admit that I would get very behind and then play catchup.  Either way, it really kept me reading and studying the Word.  I find that reading through the entire Bible helps me see the amazing way that everything is connected.
• My husband and I took a class at our church last spring, but I have to admit that after a while we quit going.  We didn't realize that it was a DVD series and it ended up causing more marital strife than what it was worth.  I would end up staying to late at school and then we would be running late which would cause lots of stress for my husband.  I only include these details because I want others to know that sometimes a good thing is not a good thing for everyone.  Anyway, this last fall we did successfully go to a class that was wonderful for us.  I had to rearrange my schedule at school, but then it worked and was a blessing!

Personal:

• The BEST goal of last year was to visit with each set of grandparents at least once a month.  This has completely changed our relationship with some of our grandparents.  I know this is not doable for everyone, but I highly suggest investing this bit of time.  I admit that we might have missed a visit to grandparent every now and then, but even though we missed some we still visited many times more than we did the year before.  I can't even describe how wonderful fulfilling this goal has been!
• I still have not had extended family over for dinner:(.  Just called me a scared Sally!
• I did read The Millionaire Next Door and would highly recommend it to anyone!
• I didn't do such a good job at exercising twice a week.  However, this summer I ran a lot and actually ran up to 3 miles without stopping!  Woot woot!

Education:

• I did not take any Master's classes.  There are many reasons for this that I may write about at some point, main thing is its ok that I didn't take any.
• I did read How the Brain Learns Mathematics.  It was fairly interesting.
• I don't know whether I have tried one new hands on lesson a week.  This year I have been teaching new classes, working with other teachers who have taught these classes to create a new curriculum that takes into account the shifting order of classes for students, we are in the process of textbook adoption so there has been a lot involved with that, I have been improving my communication with parents, working on my classroom website, and also revamping how we assess our students.  Furthermore, due to budget cuts my classes have nearly doubled in size which makes me wary of things that require a lot of moving around (not enough space!).  Needless to say, all of that has been taking TONS of my time, so I always do my best to create "curious" lessons, but whether every week there is a "hands on" lesson, I don't know.
• I did not take any online Spanish classes.  I have taken quite a bit of Spanish, so a lot of the online stuff was a bit too low level.  I've really been thinking about investing in a few used Rosetta Stone disks.  We'll see though.

Blog:

• I did not really do any of my blog goals.  Somewhere through the year I realized that I was taking up husband/family/student time to write in this blog.  I decided that I needed to reorganize my priorities, and so this blog is completely back burner.  I can definitely see myself doing more with it in the future, but for now, it is really a way for me to be kept accountable:).

Financial:

• My husband traded in his small truck and this really really old truck and finally bought his dream kind of new truck.  It is exactly what he wanted.  He had been looking for years for this truck (he was looking at this truck when we were dating!).  We're lucky in that he does not have to drive very far to work, so this truck should last him a long time.  It will be handy in the future when we build our house.  Needless to say, we did not technically meet our financial goals:
• 2010 Small Goal: 89%  Actual:  72%  Started at: 48%
• 2010 Large Goal: 59.3%  Actual:  48.4%  Started at:  32%
• Good news!  Being the math person that I am I calculated the cost of the truck as a percent of the goal, and figured that we actually were saving at a higher rate per month than my goal rate.  I consider this goal met!

Stay tuned for 2011 Goals!

January Goal Check-up

It's the start of another month, so it means it's time to do a goal check up.  Go here to see my yearly goals.  Here's the run down:

Spiritual

• Keep up with the one-year Bible reading plan.  I am amazed at how much I am learning.  I have to admit that I would slip a day or two, but I am currently caught up. 
• My husband and I have started taking a class at our church and it is definitely pushing me to think about a lot of things differently. 

Personal

• I just barely squeeked in visiting all four sets of grandparents.  This has been such a great experience, but it is still seems a bit unnatural.  I would really push all of you out there to try it.
• I haven't yet attempted dinner for family yet.
• Haven't read The Millionaire Next Door.
• I have exercised twice a week!  I feel so much better!  However, I can still say that it takes so much effort to rip my body off of the couch and get up and move.  It really helps having accountability.

Education

• The only goal that I have kept this month in this category is creating hands on lessons.

Financial

• At the beginning of the month we were at 48% of the small goal and now we are at 52.33%.  We were at 32% of the big goal and now we are at 34.89% of the big goal.  By the end of the year we hope to be at 89% of the small goal and 59.3% of the big goal.

Goals for 2010

It is the start of the new year, which means new year's resolutions!  Oh wait... did I hear a groan?  Come on, these goals can be the best thing ever if you learn to take baby steps.  After all "the most important thing about goals is having one" (by Geoffrey Albert)!  Right?  Are you with me?  If you are still not convinced go here for some motivating goal quotes.

This year I have decided to break down my goals into groups.  Here they are in no particular order:

Spiritual: 

• Read through Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice.  Go here for a list of Bible reading plans.  Note: They are all for the ESV Bible (I'm not at all advocating for any specific version of the Bible), but you could just read out of the translation of your choice.
• Attend a Bible class at our church during the week.

Personal:

• Contact a "set" of grandparents once a week (that means contacting each grandparent at least once a month).  This is a low goal, but it is sadly realistic.  Maybe I will work my way up to twice a month later in the year.
• Have extended family over for dinner (especially grandparents).  This one scares me to death because I am about as far away from a Julia Child as they come, but I know my grandparents and aunts/uncles would love to see us more than when they or my parents host a get-together.
• Read The Millionaire Next Door.
• Exercise at least twice a week (this is a hard one, but I feel so much better when I do).

Education:

• Take a class for my Master's Degree.
• Read How the Brain Learns Mathematics.
• Try one new hands-on lesson a week.
• Over the summer work on an online Spanish course.  Go here to browse over 200 different free online classes.  Go here to browse 36 different languages that you can learn online for free.

Blog:

• Update to a 3-column format.
• Create a flavicon.
• Create a button.
• So many more things to come...

Financial:

• We are currently saving for a house.   We would love to have a 60% down payment on our home at least.  My husband is planning on building it, so that makes it a little more tricky to plan for financially (we are still looking at lots of house plans, so until we get down to specifics the costs can vary a lot).  Last year rather than set one big goal, my husband and I decided to cut it into two steps (a small goal and the big goal), so that we felt like we were moving along faster.  I know it is silly, but it works for us.
• Current Small Goal Percent Reached: 48%             
• 2010 Final Small Goal Percent Reached: 89%
• Current Big Goal Percent Reached: 32%
• 2010 Final Big Goal Percent Reached: 59.3%

Now I know some people are probably shaking their heads right now and thinking that I have high hopes (or maybe some think I'm shooting too low), but these are some of my goals for now.  I realize that things change, but it is important at least to have a plan that they are changing from. 

So my advice to you is write down your goals and discuss them with your spouse.  Our financial goals might change later this year because my husband has been driving a really old truck and thinks that he might need buy a newer one later this year.  I honestly don't pay much attention to his truck and did not realize it was in as bad shape as it is in until my husband updated me.

Do monthly, weekly, or daily goal check-ups (depending on the goal).  I will be posting at least once a month how I'm doing on some of these goals.  So choose a mountain and we'll climb up it this year together!