Goals: January Update

So it's been one month since I laid out my old/new goals and to keep accountable I'm reporting on my progress. I am overall happy with how I did in the month of January. I didn't focus on all ten this month so some I was more successful at than others.

1. Make teaching my kids first priority.....everyday. We did excellent at getting ALL of our schoolwork done this month. We are in a good schedule now of morning school and afternoon school. We passed the 100 day mark which is always a great feeling!!!
2. Focus on having fun. Some of the fun things we did this month were making a volcano, making a 3D drawing, and doing some fun chemistry experiments. When Prince Charming was away on business we also had late movie nights, banana splits, and s'mores. We have had to postpone a museum trip with friends a few times because of weather but I'm hoping to accomplish this in the near future.
3. Bible Study. I did fairly well with this one but there is no excuse why I can't be doing the study like I want every day. I will definitely work harder towards this goal in February.
4. Reading. I read one book in January!!!! Now granted I finished at 11:58pm on January 31 but I did it. It kind of felt like cramming for a test. I read "A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family". It was a great book and I took away a few new ideas. Now I technically don't consider our family an all out large family.....yet. But I do like reading books written by homeschooling moms with multiple children for the mere fact that they have many different age levels. This is where the challenge comes in for me. If I had all my kids working on the same curriculum things would be easy! But juggling two elementary students, one active toddler, and nursing a baby in the middle of it all.....that's my challenge.
5. Craft Day. I did not accomplish this goal.
6. Hospitality. We did have some friends from co-op come over for a sledding date. This months weather was so awful that I didn't want to make people get out of their houses! I did do a fairly good job at keeping the house at that "1 hour" rule though.
7. Exercise. O.K. but needs improvement. I think I exercised about twice a week and my goal is four times.
8. Start new ministry. Still more to come on this later.
9. Date nights. We went out once this month. Again, the weather kind of kept us in.
10. Blogging. While my January blogging was light I feel like I caught up quickly and actually am on top of things. That's a HUGE improvement!

So all in all I considered it a pretty successful month as far as goals are concerned.

New Year, New Goals, and New Names

So I had a goal of catching up with my 2010 blogging by January 31 and I was done eleven days early! Can I get a woo-hoo?!?! So as I look back over 2010 I realize that as far as goals I had made I failed miserably but the Lord showed me that life can still go on abundantly even when it's not going according to plan. Or should I say my plan. So here in 2011 I'm sticking with my same goals (and hoping to be successful) on top of adding some new ones. So here is the list...........

1. Make teaching my kids first priority.....every day. While we always do school some days I feel like I'm just trying to get through and I really want it to be a fun adventure every day. So some of the changes I'm making is making appointments later in the day, running errands after the kids are in bed or on the weekends, and doing my best at starting on time. I have also started monthly planning for school, meals, and basically life in general. This is making things go much smoother. Someday I would love to be able to do once a month grocery shopping but in this season of life that seems overwhelming to me. Maybe someday it won't.
   
2. Focus on having fun! This kind of goes along with the first goal. I do love to have fun but I'm one of those people that also loves to check things off of a "To Do" list. This makes me not fun at times.
3. Bible Study. Last year I was trying to read through the Bible in 90 days with some friends. Then I got pregnant.......and....well....I completely dropped the ball. I hope the ladies I was doing the study with understood because sadly I haven't talked to them much since dropping the ball. This pregnancy I wasn't sick but I was completely and totally exhausted. And it lasted the WHOLE pregnancy. So Josh bought me some great Bible study guides for Christmas and so I'm going through Isaiah right now.
4. Reading. Another goal from last year that I completely failed at. I would love to read at least one book a month.
5. Be crafty at least one day a month. I love being creative but I feel like I never make time for it.
6. Be more intentional in my hospitality. The big thing to keep this goal a reality is to keep the house tidy at ALL times so I can be open to inviting people over whenever the opportunity arrives. Even if it means they will be walking in the door in an hour. That is my goal for housekeeping. That in one hour I can have the house presentable. So far this year I've been doing fairly well at accomplishing this. I don't mean every room in my house has to be spotless but the main areas where we host people do have to be somewhat in order.
   
7. Exercise at least 4 times a week. Isn't this on every one's list?
8. Start a new ministry the Lord has laid on my heart. More on this later.
9. Have two date nights with my Prince Charming a month. This doesn't mean we have to go out but it does mean we can't watch a movie while he works and I plan for school the next day. That is a pretty lame date night don't you think?
10. Keep up with blogging. I want to make sure I have a record of our life when the kids are young. Since I don't have time to keep up with scrapbooking this is the way I need to do it for now. With that, I've decided to give my kids and husband nicknames on my blog. I really don't like doing the first letter of their name thing like I've been doing and I don't like the idea of going back and putting their full names. I almost did this but I still just don't feel quite comfortable with it. So now we will have...........
    

B.W.

So this was the only one I couldn't find a good nickname for. I talked with him a lot about possible choices but we never could come up with something we agreed on. For now we'll still use initials but tack on the middle one.

Curly Bear
She was given this name by her big brother before she was even born and we haven't used it since she has gotten older. It's good to hear again! Side-note: We really had no idea that she would have such curly hair and I can remember telling her brother that chances are she wouldn't. I guess I was wrong!!!!

Cuddle Bug
This one has a cuddle in her pretty much any time you ask. She gives out hugs and kisses continually and one of my favorite things she says right now is,"Can I kiss the baby?". Whenever anyone leaves our home fellowship she is right there with a hug to say good-bye.

Love Bird
This one like her older sister also loves the cuddles. I think she has been cuddled and held 95% of her life so far. She knows when she has been laid down and will awake immediately if she was sleeping. She has a onesie that says Mommy's Little Lovebird and I love it because she loves to cuddle and her middle name means little bird.

No picture available due to computer issues......and a lazy mommy who doesn't want to upload pictures again at this moment

And my wonderful husband will be referred to as Prince Charming or Prince Geek. He is a Prince Charming but at times I think Prince Geek may fit better. Come on, anyone who enjoys learning new computer programming languages as much as he does is most definitely a geek! But he's a cute geek.