2011 Personal Goals

I finally finished my list of “goals” for 2011. For the first time, I am refusing to call them “resolutions”. I am busy. I’m a mom of four. I work full-time.  ‘Nough said.

First up is my list of personal goals…those in which I would like to accomplish this year.  Read the bible in a year is my first one, a common one among many.  I have read the New Testament, no problem, made it through in 6 months.  Moved on to the Old Testament, twice.  Have failed each time.  So this year, I found a site where you can read through the bible in what they believe to be the “chronological” order of things and so each day/week, you may read various chapters of different books or you may read straight through some books.  This way, it kinda mixes things up and to me, seems doable.

On the way to work this week, I was listening to KLove Radio and they were talking about a website, My One Word, where you choose a word in which you personally want to exemplify.  For me, I really want to work on being “gentle in spirit”.  To me, this means  showing an attitude of love, being kind toward others, and being quick not to judge and blame.  There are other things that go along with this but that’s it in a jest.  With four children, it seems there is always chaos in the house and certainly never a dull moment and I realized when thinking of what I want to “work on”, being “gentle in spirit” is something that I almost never don’t possess. I’ve ordered a devotional book to help lead me in this journey as well as this website will also give you homework to help reach this goal.  This is one that I think will be a continuing goal, one which I won’t accomplish in one year.

The next one, giving handmade/homemade items, is one that came out of giving handmade breads for Christmas presents.  I feel that we’re losing the essence of hospitality in today’s world with our neighbors, friends and family.  I enjoyed making the breads, hoping that those who received them would enjoy the taste of them and enjoy them as a treat and then  I enjoyed hearing feedback that I received of how much they enjoyed them for days after receiving or asking for the recipe.  This is such a simple and most times, inexpensive way to show people that you are thinking of them or as a “thank you” that I wanted to continue this, instead of just doing this during the holidays.  I set a goal of “12″ because it’s doable — one a month.

And last but not least is to finish at least ONE quilt for the kids.  The idea that I envision is to make a quilt for each of the children so that they have something I have made them whenever they decide to leave our home and go into their world. I’ve actually started cutting the squares for the quilts for the boys and have a good many cut and so these will be the one I will start with first.  I would love to have each of the boys a quilt made to give them on Christmas day and so this is my goal, to have one, if not two, completed by then.  If so, I will blog about this along the way.

So there you, or I guess there “I” go…my list of goals I want to accomplish this year.  I am also wanting to put together a reading list of books I want to get through but I will do this in another post, after I get them all together.  I have a bookshelf that is ever-growing with those I have found here or there and so I need to make plan!

2011 Personal Goals
Read the bible in a year
Work on “my one word” of being “gentle”
Give 12 handmade/homemade things away to friends/family this year
Finish ONE quilt for the kids

How You Doin’?

So I thought I would do an update as to where I am with my New Year’s resolutions.  In all honesty, I’m not doing too bad.  Here are the original resolutions/goals and my updates:’

1. Get myself and the family living a more healthy lifestyle. 
Kevin and I started our diets this week and we’ve been doing really well.  This is the first time in our marriage that Kevin and I have done a diet together and I must say that it’s been nice having Kevin to talk to about what we’re eating and meal ideas and shopping for BOTH him and I on this diet and knowing that the meals I’m fixing are for a purpose.  My neighbor, Celia, and I walked Monday morning in the snow and cold air and it lit a fire in me to get out and start walking more.

2. Update my blog at least ONCE a week!
I’ve actually done REALLY well with this resolution so far and a couple of the weeks so far in January, I’ve even blogged twice!  Woo!

3. This is almost contrary to the goal #2 but to be on the computer LESS. 
I have done “better” with this one but still need to do better.  Because I’ve been on maternity leave and it’s winter here, I’m inside all day and so our laptop sitting in the living room keeps sucking me in. 

4. Become clutter-free or more organized. 
I have started in on this.  I went through all the girls clothes out in the garage and got those organized by size; to give away to girlfriends; and to go to Goodwill.  I then went through some clothes that were given to me and got those organized.  So on my way!

5. Sew more! 
And here’s where my resolutions come to a screeching halt!  I haven’t done one stich…nada, nothing.  I have however been looking at various blogs with cute sewing projects…some of these blogs are in my blogroll if you ever get bored and want to try your hand at something.

A New Year means New Goals!

I always say that I am not going to make any New Year’s resolutions but this year, I have a few that I feel are important to both my physical and emotional well-being.  So, by writing them down for all to see, they may have a better chance at becoming more “concrete”.

1. Get myself and the family living a more healthy lifestyle.  If you know me “in person”, you know that both myself and hubby are built large and we need to lose weight.  But him and I have been also talking about our “health” as a whole, instead of just in losing weight terms.  So I need to make this my main goal to start making changes in food, exercise and what we do as a family so that the kids are involved as well.

2. Update my blog at least ONCE a week!

3. This is almost contrary to the goal #2 but to be on the computer LESS.  I’m a little addicted to facebook, scrabble online and checking email but now that I have FOUR children and work full-time, the computer takes up more time than I’m willing to admit. 

4. Become clutter-free or more organized.  By nature, I’m an organized person and so this isn’t really a big-time priority for me but I do “keep” magazine clippings, recipes, etc that I find I like and I tend to “stack” them sometimes and so this year, I would like to find some sort of organizational system for storing everything.  Just finding the time to do it is the main priority I thin.

5. Sew more!  This is my one “pleasure” goal.  I haven’t had a chance to do any quilting or crafting here lately and so I would like to at least start and finish one quilt.  I have a girlfriend having a baby in April and so I would like to make a small blanket for her baby and then I’ve also been buying material to make the boys each a quilt and so I would like to start on those and maybe give those to them for Christmas in 2010 and then give the girls theirs in 2011.  If I can make it through this goal, next year, I’ll add a new one of taking knitting lessons!  ha!

So those are my “resolutions” or “goals” for 2010.  I think pretty reasonable and not out-of-reach.  I’ll try to update this blog throughout the year as to how I’m doing on each one!  If you have any of your own, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what they are!  Goodluck to you all!