Goals For This Year

I don't like the term "resolutions," but I do like the concept of setting goals for a new year. As this new year begins, I thought it would be good to share my goals for this year:

• Work on making our house a home. Since we just moved this summer, we still feel like we are getting settled. But it's time to start hanging pictures and making it feel more homey. I will make an effort to do this, possibly spending any "extra" (ha ha!) money I have on things for our house instead of on books, as I usually do.
• Take up scrapbooking again. Figure out some sort of plan for developing my digital photos. Digital photography is wonderful--- but it has messed with my scrapbooking rhythm big time. It's time to stop making excuses and start doing something about it! My friend Lisa had a great suggestion-- she sits down every Sunday night and places orders online for any photos she took that week. If she didn't take any, of course, she doesn't do it. But building that regular time in seems doable. Now to just order all the backlog of photos I have sitting in the various computers we have!
• Come up with a master housecleaning schedule and a rotating chore list for my kids. My husband has been asking me to do this for some time and I am finally admitting that it would be a good idea. The idea of assigning each child a room or area of the house for a week, and rotating the responsibilities from room to room, child to child appeals to me. I am also going to purchase the Motivated Moms planner to use for keeping myself on track with the household duties I neglect simply because I don't think about them! This handy guide schedules out things like "clean out coupons," "wipe down front of dishwasher," "clean microwave inside and out," etc. for you! I am excited about implementing this new tool in my quest to stay on top of my domestic duties! They even have a format that includes a schedule for reading through your Bible if that's something you are looking for!
• I wrote about my plans for reading certain books during my morning quiet time. I also want to devote time to studying prayer, worship and the Armor of God. This is for my personal spiritual growth.
• Learn more about being frugal and implement more money-saving efforts and ideas in our home. I have joined an online group for this purpose and am learning so much already! I am going to even, ahem, maybe attempt, gulp, couponing this year. Maybe. One thing that has become apparent to me recently is that part of my job description is to be a helper to my husband. One way I can do that is to go the extra mile to save money. This might mean clipping coupons. It might mean meal planning and eating at home. It might mean driving a bit further and shopping in a store I don't really love (hello, Wally World!) to get the most for my money. Whatever it looks like, it's worth the effort to make our money go further and this is just another way for my husband to "have full confidence in me." (Pvb. 31:11)
• Be more hands-on with my kids and their schooling. I have a written a whole post on this subject that I will be running next week.
• Devote more time to my goal of one day writing fiction. Meet monthly with a friend who will hold me accountable to this goal and give me feedback on my writing. (I have already set this up with a friend and we are both excited about this!)
• Read the book Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerich this year (I may participate in a women's small group that is going through this book), and put the concepts in that book to use. Also, go to a Family Life marriage conference-- after my friend Rachel went and raved about it to me, I ran the idea by Curt and he agreed it would be good. He and I have a book coming out together this year, so I know that Satan will work to keep us from encouraging other couples to have victory in an area where people feel so defeated (money). We would appreciate your prayers about that!
• And finally, the dreaded exercise goal-- this past year I broke my foot and that put the serious kibosh on running, which I used to love so much. So I have asked my husband to consider taking down the big dinosaur of a PC that the kids use in the bonus room and buying them a laptop, then using that space to put in a treadmill that I can use each day. I know I would use it if I had it, so I am really hoping to work that out.

Above all, I must temper every decision I make, thing I take on, and thought I have with my verse for the year. I found this great quote that directly pertains to my verse on another blog and want to share it here:

I am a firm believer that God gives me the strength to do the things that He has given to me and everything else I do that is not in His will I do out of my own strength. I pray for wisdom and understanding and am always having some conversation with Him trying to be in tune with what is His will for my life. (Source: http://encouragementalongtheway.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-do-i-stay-motivated.html)

This is my biggest goal of all-- constantly drawing my strength from Him, cutting out the things I find myself doing in my own strength, and dialoguing with Him about it throughout the process.

What are your goals for this coming year? If you write a post about it, be sure to leave a comment and let me know, as I would love to read it-- or just leave a comment and share them right here!

I will leave you with this verse, which I am going to post on our fridge for the month of January. It was left by a commenter and I thought it was a great goal for all of us in 09!

I Samuel 12:24, "But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you."