A New Year

I've never been a fan of the "New Years Resolution" trend in which people try to turn their lives around at the start of the new year. As Christians, every day is a day for repentance, forgiveness and fresh starts!! Forget New Years Day, start right now!!

However, being such a goal oriented person (by this I mean, someone who loves challenges, to-do lists, and accomplishing tasks), I can never help but come up with a few new goals and challenges on the brink of another year. :) Ask me again in a few months (or even a few weeks) and I'll have re-evaluated and added to my list of goals and projects. My husband and I do this regularly when it comes to marriage, parenting and finances. It's a great practice to keep tabs on progress and success-- and of course it provides accountability too!!

So here you have it, my personal goals for the future. While this list is not exhaustive, it contains a few things that I will strive towards this year. These are my personal goals, not to include our financial/career, parenting, and marriage goals. Many of these tasks I already do regularly but know that I should do them even more regularly and with more heart than I do now.

1. Read more-- I'm challenging myself to a book a week. I know that is a bit unrealistic for an expentant mother with two busy little boys, but I'm going to aim high anyway. I have always loved reading and need the extra push to get going. Plus I'm hoping this will in turn cut down on the amount of time I waste on the computer and TV.
2. Practice/play the piano 90 minutes a week-- I had been fairly faithful with this one since our last move, but again have grown negligent in keeping up my skills. That... and the boys love "helping" me practice so its hard to have uninterrupted time on the piano.
3. Exercise 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week-- This I already do, but have been tempted as of late (with a growing pregnant belly and colder weather) to give up and just get fat!!
4. Read the Bible/pray daily-- this I attempt to do already as well, but definitely need a jump start on. I'm challenging myself to read the Bible in a year (something I haven't done for a while). We already do regular mom & kids devotions every morning at breakfast and family devotions every night at dinner, so its easy for me to skip out on doing them on my own. So this is for "just ME devotions"
5. Memorize Scripture-- My personal goal is a verse a week, however Nick and I just agreed to memorize the book of Galations together as well, so I'll probably have to increase my speed.
6. Complete a BIG household project a week-- this means something from my house project list that are beyond the day to day cleaning, like wiping down the walls, washing windows, or reorganizing the linen closet).
7. Scrapbook once a month--- I'm so far behind, I really need to scrapbook every day, but once a month is a good start.

There are a number of other little things that I could include (like learning to ballroom dance --Nick gave us dancing lessons for Christmas!!-- or doing preschool with BOTH boys) but I'll hold off on that lest the list get annoyingly long and impossible.

Happy New Year!!