Goals for 2013 (and an update on 2012 Goals)

Well as most of you know it has been a crazy year for our family with many changes which is one reason my blog has been all but forgotten this year. This next year I am hoping to get a few posts written but it is still not a huge priority in my life right now. Last year I posted four goals for 2012 and as of a few days ago I finished the last of those four goals. My four 2012 goals were:

• Read 2,012 pages of classic literature/biographies aloud to the children - This was so much fun and we met our goal at the end of October and went on to enjoy reading a couple hundred more pages of Thanksgiving and Christmas books in November and December. I especially enjoyed seeing how much my four year old came a long in his ability to understand and follow the stories we read throughout the year. Two of his favorite books were Mr. Popper's Penguins and Charlotte's Web.

• Declutter 2,012 items from our home - I ended up going way over this. I stopped counting when I reached the 2,012 mark but ended up getting rid of at least double that much as I did some major life style changing purging this year. I love the freedom I now have after having minimized our life so much. There is still a lot more that needs to go but one in one out and regular purging of unnecessary items has become a habitual part of my life largely because of this goal.

• Listen through audio of the Bible with the children - We would put on audio while we worked or played around the house and listened through the entire Bible together. My 4 year old would often stop to listen and ask what section of the Bible it was or what it was talking about which spurred some great conversations.

• Read through the Bible in my personal devo time - I finished this a few days ago and as always it was a wonderful blessing. I think this is the 5th or 6th time I've completed reading through the Bible and it as a wonderful challenge and encouragement.

Now onto my goals for 2013:

• 1. Read 500 Picture Books to the Children - The goal is for Scott and I combined to read 500 different picture books (so it doesn't count for 10 books if we read the same book 10 times). I found last year with being so focused on reading chapter books that the picture books were sometimes neglected. 

• 2. Read 2000 Pages of Chapter Books to the Children - I'm working on getting a list put together to get started on but I think the first book we will start on this year is The Little Princess.

• 3. Make Five New Items Each Month for My Doll Clothes Shop - I put as much time towards my little online shop as I used to but between Oct-Dec I do still have quite a few sales. Of course that is also when I'm busy with my own family holiday celebrations so my goal is to make five things per month to help get my store stocked with some new items for the holiday rush (of course if they sell before next fall I'll also be happy) :)

• 4. Pay Down $6500 in Debt - This past year most of our extra income went toward a down payment on our new house and moving expenses. We currently have 13,000 left on student loan debt and the goal is to pay down half of that this year. That averages to right around $540 a month. We have another grid chart on our fridge to help us track it just like when did for our 6 month challenge a couple years ago.

• 5. Memorize the Book of James - This was going to be one of my personal goals then as Scott and I started discussing it we decided to work on it as a whole family. I will probably move a little quicker than the kids and hope to do about a 1/2 chapter a month to ensure a little extra time at the end of the year. I'm looking forward to working on memorizing a longer passage of Scripture with our whole family.

• 6. Exercise 12 Days a Month - Yeah I know an exercise goal for the New Year is really overdone but it's something I want to work on being consistent with this year. So I'm aiming for 3 times a week. 

• 7. 40 Hospitality Meals - One area of ministry I have enjoyed getting more involved with this past year is having people from church into our home for meals. Our goal as a family this next year is to serve 40 hospitality meals in our home (so 3-4 per month). 

• 8. Date Night with Scott Twice a Month - We don't get out much to do dates but my goal is to have at least two fun at home date nights with Scott after the kids are in bed. I'm working on putting together a list of ideas. Ideally I'd like this to happen every week but with the way our schedule is right now twice a month is probably more realistic. 

• 9. Do 52 Messy Craft or Project with the Kids - With four kids 5 & under I'll admit I struggle to make time to do the fun messy projects with my kids. It is a struggle most days to just keep the dishes and and laundry caught up but I don't want them to miss out on all the fun art and science projects just because of the mess they will make. So my goal is to do 52 messy projects this year (so about 1 per week). Bring on the glitter, glue, paint, etc! I'm working on putting together a list of projects to choose each week. We may have some duplicates but I am excited about trying some new things with them also.

• Read 12 "Grown Up" Books - I read a lot of kid books so this year I wanted to make the goal of reading 12 books (one per month) for me. I am still working on finalizing the list (it's about half way there) but the first book on the list is Ann VosKamp's One Thousand Gifts book. 

Well there you go my goals for 2013. I'm looking forward to seeing what God has for our family this year! Hopefully I'll be able to do a little better with keeping the blog updated (not making any promises as it didn't make the cut for one of my official goals this year) :)