January Goals

I am copying this idea from Jessica on Making Home. Instead of making large sweeping resolutions for the year, I am going to make about 5 measurable goals/month, since short term goals are usually easier to keep than long term ones. I may elaborate on some of them, and at the end of the month I will report on how I did. Even though January is half over already I will start there.

1. Tackle at least one organizational project each day.
Our house has become more and more messy since the addition of a cute boy November 4th, not helped by several illnesses and the Holidays. Today I finally organized and put away all of the gift wrapping things, which were scattered across the end of our room, before I sat down to write this.

2. Calculate our gross lifetime earnings, and current net worth as per chapter one in Your Money or Your Life, a book given to us by our special friends the Kimery family, who have become so dear to us as mentors. This is supposed to start us on a path of changing our perspective on and relationship with money.

3. Meet with Chris Smith, the Small Business Grant manager at a local credit union who helped my sister, Rebekah, get a $2000 grant to kick start her Mary Kay business, and who thinks I will be eligible for the next round of grants available in July.

4. Start developing the worship aspects of Breakfast Church, the small group hosted at our church's community house, where RJ and I live.

5. Get back on the (mostly) no sugar wagon. The holidays through me for a loop, and I am so addicted to sweets, but I know it is poison for me, and I want to teach our boys better habits.

6. Finish reading A Generous Orthodoxy.


Okay, I realized as I typed the above that these all pretty much have to do with larger resolutions, only this breaks it down into manageable chunks. So I will also share what my long term goals are for this year.

1. I realized when reading the Duggar's Book, which my mom got me for Christmas, that I have to quit riding the fence about organization and simplicity if we are open to the possibility that God might give us many children. He may choose to give us only the two we have already, but since I believe that simplicity is best, now is the time to get it together. This isn't so much a new year's resolution, but wake up call to quit procrastinating.

2. Your Money or Your Life has nine steps to becoming more financially solvent (or having a better relationship with money as they say). My plan is to take it slow and tackle one per month so I don't get overwhelmed. I wonder if later down the line it is going to say "Step _- Get a job that does not involve selling fast food for near minimum wage, you dummy."

3. I have little assignments like this every month to help be get my business up and running by July. The strategy keeps changing, but most of the important tasks stay the same.

4. We really want to be the best stewards we can of this resource for our whole church, and use our time here to really develop our own philosophy of ministry and getting our hands dirty (which will be literal once RJ starts digging the garden).

5. The first goal I thought of for this new year was that I wanted to take baby steps in reforming our families diet, meal plans, and shopping. I have done lots of real food research, but am alwys lazy when it comes to applying it. There are things we don;t have access to, like raw dairy products, and it can be overwhelming on the whole, but I hope I can take little baby steps to improving our nutrition. I so wish I could afford this E-Course by Kristen at Food Renegade. No doubt my boys will have her book for home school curriculum one day.
This idea first struck me when I read Jessica's article about how her homemaking skills have improved gradually through the years. It was really awesome to realize that it takes time to master the whole house, but I can make constant progress.

6. We have a lot of theology books I haven't read yet. Usually I have read to unwind, so these are the ones I skip over when looking for a new book to start, but I am ready to start stretching my brain in these ways again, and think about something besides cloth diapers and breastfeeding. Maybe I'll be able to read one a month?

Anyway, Efrim is waking up so I'd better go.