Happy New Year!

Hello out there!  Anyone remember me?  I'm that girl who writes a bunch of posts all at one time ... and then nothing more for a couple of months.  Oh well.

I want to do something new and different here on the ol' blog, but I have no idea what.  I guess the first thing is to actually write something.  Somewhere along the way on Pinterest, I discovered this plan for a 5-year journal.  The idea is to answer one question a day, and repeat the questions for 5 years, comparing your answers.  Saying today that I will do this for 5 years is a little too ambitious, but I thought it would at least give me a jump-start on blogging more.  Some questions look like one-sentence answers, while others will require a bit more.  Either way, I'll jump in and see what happens.

January 1st - What is your number one goal this year?

This is kind of a big year for me because I will be turning 40 in November.  Yikes!  How on earth did that happen?  My brain is convinced that I'm still somewhere around 32.

Turning 30 threw me into a bit of a tailspin, and I don't want that to happen again.  So here's my goal:

Fabulous by Forty: Faith, Fitness, Finances

I feel like, if I can make good progress in all three of those areas over the next 10 months, 40 won't seem quite so daunting.  I don't really have a specific plan for Faith yet.  I'll continue with daily Bible reading, plus I will likely participate in another Good Morning Girls study in a couple of weeks.  Obviously, God is the main One working in my faith development, so we will see what He has in store.

As for Fitness, my "new year" started right after Thanksgiving.  (I wanted to be a "regular" at the gym by the time the new year's crowd arrived.)  Thanks to My Fitness Pal and some really mean Muscle Pump instructors (Love you, Catrina!), I've already lost 6 pounds.  (Still quite a few to go, but it's a reachable goal.)  Believe it or not, once upon a time I was in shape.  Here I am the day I turned 34.  (Those jeans are still in my closet.  Waiting.)

And here's what I looked like this past November, roughly 25 pounds heavier.  (Since that little princess is now 4, I can't really call it baby weight anymore.)

Anyway.

As for finances, that's not something I can share in detail on the blog, but we're making some changes there, as well.  Remember all that gallivanting around, looking for a job for David?  Those trips weren't free.

So those are my main areas of focus for this year.  Of course, there are always improvements to be made in other areas of life, but those are the biggies right now.

What about you?  Got any goals for 2013?  I'd love to hear about them.



 This post may be linked up to one or more of the following blog parties.  Check them out! Monday: Menu Plan Monday on I'm an Organizing Junkie Wednesday: Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family Friday: 5 Minute Friday at The Gypsy Mama, Company Girl Coffee at Home Sanctuary, Pieces of Amy Other days: A Wise Woman Builds Her Home

2012 Goals: Monthly Checkup - Part 2

A couple of days ago, I posted how my first 3 goals were going.  Verdict: mixed results.  I'm happy to report more progress on the remaining two.

Priority #4: Kaplan (where I teach math online)

One part of this goal was to be more focused on my tasks so that it didn't take up so much of my time.  For the most part, I've been successful with this.  Of course, it helps that I'm just teaching one class this term.  I've also improved a great deal on student outreach and cleaning out an overwhelming e-mail inbox.  I still need to do a bit more to adequately prepare some discussion board posts for classes that I teach frequently.  (This would help with the "not taking up as much of my time" goal, too, in future terms.)

Priority #5: Personal growth  (Remember that these were in no particular order - just as I thought of them the day I made my goal list.)

Read more: Success

Since the middle of December, I have read Grace for the Good Girl (highly recommend!), Hope for the Weary Mom, Eat That Frog!, and The Five Love Languages of Children.  I just recently started Captivating.

Make more friends: Success in progress.

I have ventured out into some new-ish territory at our church by attending Women's events and Bible studies and am happily making some new connections and friendships.  Also, next week we go for the orientation meeting for our new homeschool group followed by a roller skating party at the end of the week.  (You might want to add that to your prayer calendar....)

Blog regularly: Um, yes.  :)

Pursue an interest: Success, maybe?

I'm not sure what interest I actually want to pursue, but I am getting the opportunity to write an article for The Old Schoolhouse magazine about online learning.  We'll see where that leads!

So that's The State of the Mama at the end of the first month of the year.  Here's hoping for more progress by March 1st!



This post is linked up to one or more of the following blog parties.  Check them out! Monday: Menu Plan Monday on I'm an Organizing Junkie Wednesday: Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family Friday: 5 Minute Friday at The Gypsy Mama, Company Girl Coffee at Home Sanctuary Other days: A Wise Woman Builds Her Home

2012 Goals: Monthly Checkup - Part 1

At the beginning of the year, I posted about my goals for 2012.  You can see them here.  Since it's the beginning of February, I thought this would be a good time to do a goals "check-up."

Priority 1: Have a more welcoming home.

This one is actually going the worst, I'm afraid.  I started out pretty strong, but quickly fizzled, especially in the "develop a reasonable home-keeping schedule" department.  Beginning today (February 1st), I'm going to try something new.  It starts out VERY SLOWLY.  In fact, my first thought was, "Even I am more organized than this."  But then I looked around my house and realized that, no, I'm really not.

One blog that I enjoy reading is A Slob Comes Clean, and she has recently published a new e-book called 28 Days to Hope for Your Home.  For the month of February it's on sale for $4.00 (50% off the regular price of $7.99).  Want to join me?

Now moving on to better news....

Priority 2: Improve my health and well-being.

As of this morning, I have lost 5 pounds.  (For me, the most exciting part was that the middle number of my weight is now back to what it was a year ago.  I'm in a new weight decade!)  Verdict: Weight Watchers does work, but it can be excruciatingly slow.  This should have come as no surprise to me.  Five years ago (has it really been that long?), I lost 26 pounds on WW, but it took me 8 months.  I got pregnant 3.4 days later...

Other parts of this goal were to exercise regularly (nothing happening here yet - and yes, I see the connection to the above paragraph, but 5 years ago I WAS exercising regularly and still had those results), visit the doctor and dentist on a regular basis (doctor appointment made for March; still too chicken about the dentist), and go to bed/get out of bed earlier (progress being made on the bedtime end).

Priority 3: Continue to improve in homeschooling.

I'm happy to say that I am back to more detailed planning of our weekly schedule.  I'm hoping to extend that to a monthly schedule soon.  Megan is becoming more involved, but there's still work to be done here.  I have ordered Nathan's math books for next year (since he'll be finished with the Kindergarten ones in a couple of weeks), but I'm still pondering what to use for Phonics/Reading/Spelling.  Anyone have any experience with The Phonics Road?

Well, there are 3 more goals, but this post is already plenty long.  If you're still reading, Thank You!!  If you want to read about my other goals, you can do that here.

How are your new years' goals going so far?  I'd love to hear.



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This post is linked up to one or more of the following blog parties.  Check them out! Monday: Menu Plan Monday on I'm an Organizing Junkie Wednesday: Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family Friday: 5 Minute Friday at The Gypsy Mama, Company Girl Coffee at Home Sanctuary Other days: A Wise Woman Builds Her Home

Goal Giggin'!

Growing up, I heard my Dad talk about how much fun he used to have going frog giggin.'  (Is that what it's actually called?  Does anyone West of the Mississippi or North of Nashville know what I'm talking about?)  Apparently, it's done at night and involves spearing frogs which are later fried and eaten (or at least their legs).

So what does that have to do with goals?

Earlier this week, I shared about my goals for 2012 and how I developed them.  Well, after completing that list, I began reading this book:

I'm still reading through the book, but it has already done so much to change how I approach my daily tasks.  The main premise is this: focus on those tasks that have the greatest potential positive or negative consequences and do those things before moving on to the less consequential tasks.  With this in mind, each night I go through my list of goals and choose one task that, if done the following day, will move me closer to reaching that goal.  I do this for most, if not all, of my 2012 goals.
For example, one of my goals is to have a more welcoming home, with a particular focus area being "Develop a reasonable home-keeping schedule."  So for the past week, I have had on my task list (or Frog List) "laundry, kitchen counters and sink, bathrooms."  Since my goal is to add just a very few tasks at a time, I'll stick with that list for at least another week before adding more.

Another focus area under Personal Growth is to make more friends, so this week "sign up for homeschool co-op group" was on the list, and I mailed the registration form on Friday.

This sort of thing probably comes naturally to lots of people, but not to me.  It's amazing how much more focused I feel.  I'm beginning to believe I might actually achieve those goals this year!

So that's what works for me!  If you want to get lots of great tips on many different topics, check out today's Works For Me Wednesday here.

Let's gig some goals!  Maybe we could coin a new(ish) phrase: "Gig 'Er Done!"  Ha!