Revisiting goals

I thought I'd check in on which goals I've kept (or dropped) from the beginning of this year:

2010 goals

1. Get to bed by 11pm. (kept off and on... more off than on!--mostly I get to bed by midnight or 12:30 am)

2. Get up by 6am. (lately I've been up around 7ish)

3. Date night with Nate once a week (at home or out). (we do rarely go out, but have had a few dates when visiting family or having family visit us. A couple of times a week we watch our "shows" together.)

4. Pick a homeschool curriculum to use (when Becca is 6). (decided to do a curriculum earlier--picked Sonlight and are using it now)

5. Teach Becca to read. (this is on hold until she is more interested)

6. Memorize one new Bible passage with the girls a month. (we dropped worship times for a while, but are now doing them at breakfast with Nathan too. Right now we're finishing up memorizing Psalm 100)

7. Read one book each month. (If I add up the books I've read this year, I think I've read at least 8, so I'm on track)

8. Physical activity with girls each day. (so bad at this right now... but I'm pregnant and it's been HOT, so I'm not worrying about it)

9. Finish Ally's scrapbook. (YES! I can officially say this is done!!!)

10. Learn to knit socks. (I'm doing this very soon! I have a book requested at the library and have to go buy the yarn, but I'm excited to learn. I've been on a knitting kick.)

11. Catch up on photo albums. (713 photos are on the way from Snapfish (they had free shipping and I was WAY behind) and that will have me caught up to about a year ago. Still many photos to get, but I'm getting closer. Now just need to find a good deal on albums I like)

12. Call grandmothers 2-4 times a month. (One of my grandmothers died a few months ago, so I just have one left to make sure I call. I've probably talked or emailed with her once or twice each month.)

13. Email with brothers and sister-in-law once a month. (Getting better, but not great)

14. Learn to make sourdough bread and starters and such. (This is on hold until a different season, but I did just get an ice cream maker and want to learn to do ice cream, so I'm switching goals for now. :D)

15. Take one day (Saturday, most likely) a month to go hiking as a family. (Totally not doing this, but maybe when kids are a bit older or I'm not pregnant)

Books to read in 2010

Number seven in my list of goals for this year was to read one book a month. While sitting in Nate's office today reading, I started looking over his bookshelf and before I new it, I had a stack of books next to me to read for this year.

This stack only contains non-fiction. I may insert a fiction or two in there, but those will be unplanned.

In no particular order:

1. Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson (almost finished--from library)

2. Concise Theology by J.I. Packer (hoping to read this during devotions and look up reference passages as I read.

3. Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church by Laurence Hull Stookey

4. The Mark Experiment by Andrew Page (Nate has talked about wanting to memorize the gospel of Mark again like we did at SLT)

5. Against Christianity by Peter J. Leithart (a re-read for me)

6. Knowing God by J.I. Packer (a re-read for the second time--one I like to re-read periodically)

7. My Life for Yours: A Walk Through the Christian Home by Douglas Wilson (another re-read)

8. Keep in Step with the Spirit by J.I. Packer (can we see a pattern of authors here?)

9. The Baptized Body by Peter J. Leithart

10. When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's [Education] Philosophy for Today edited by Elaine Cooper (a re-read I thought would be good to read at the same time we are working on choosing curricula)

I think it will be some sort of miracle if I get through all of them. I'd like to at least get through 3/4 of them, though.

2010 goals

edited to add two more goals

1. Get to bed by 11pm.

2. Get up by 6am.

3. Date night with Nate once a week (at home or out).

4. Pick a homeschool curriculum to use (when Becca is 6).

5. Teach Becca to read.

6. Memorize one new Bible passage with the girls a month.

7. Read one book each month.

8. Physical activity with girls each day.

9. Finish Ally's scrapbook.

10. Learn to knit socks.

11. Catch up on photo albums.

12. Call grandmothers 2-4 times a month.

13. Email with brothers and sister-in-law once a month.

14. Learn to make sourdough bread and starters and such.

15. Take one day (Saturday, most likely) a month to go hiking as a family.

2009 Goals review

I really should be unpacking and I'll do it after this, but I'm motivated to review my goals after reading everyone else's New Year's posts.

Here is my original post on my goals for this year. It was a little ambitious. :)

Goal #1: To read God's word to and with Becca and Ally everyday

We did pretty well. Over the past few months the girls and I have memorized four good size passages from the Bible. It's such a joy to hear them reciting scripture. I hope to continue this in 2010.

Goal #2: To be active with my kids for at least 30 minutes a day

Not so good. The girls did enjoy gymnastics once a week from September to December, though. Now that it's really cold, I have a hard time getting outside, but I hope to take them out once we get some good snow.

Goal #3: To read living books to Becca and Ally everyday, throughout the day. We already do this, so we want to continue it.

It seems to me that I don't read to them as much as I used to. We do sit down at least twice a day and read a couple books/chapters at a time. And Becca listens to audio books during her rest time.

Goal #4: To "do art" with the girls at least once a week--painting, drawing, paper mache, cutting paper, embroidery, etc.

Not so great on this. I hope to have an art day on off MOPS Wednesdays starting in February. We'll see.

Goal #5: To get up early enough in the morning for both Nate and I to shower and our family to eat breakfast together before Nate goes up to work.

I was doing really well with this in June just after my miscarriage, but starting in August, I started sleeping in again and then had a brief time again in November when I did well.


Goal #6: To attempt to call our parents once a week, our grandmothers twice a month, our siblings once or twice a month, and my close friends once or twice a month.

I've done this off and on. The most important ones I try to get in are my grandmothers who both live alone.

Goal #7: To find spare moments for prayer.

This is all really depressing to not meet any goal. Anyway, I have been trying to pray in the moment, like when I first read or hear about a prayer request. Trying to pray on the phone with people when they mention something to me that needs prayer. It feels awkward at first, but I know it's a good thing to do.

Goal #8: To do at least one thing each day that serves my husband and nurtures our marriage.

I think this goal could actually be listed as met. Maybe it's not perfectly done every day, but I really think our marriage is being nurtured right now pretty well.


Projects:

Project #1: Ally's baby book of her first year.

I did make some headway on this, but it's not done yet. Scrapbooking is just not my thing. When I finish this, I'm sticking to photo albums with hand written notes and baby books with fill in the blanks and places for pictures.

Project #2: Catch up to the present on my photo albums...this is after Ally's book is done.

Obviously not done with this, since I'm not done with number 1.

Project #3: Put together our wedding album...we've been married nearly six years and still don't have an album since I didn't order one from our photographer. I have all the photos, just not put in an album.

I don't think I'll ever get to this one. :)

Project #4: Plant a garden.

This one really needs a post of its own. I did this one! Yay, one goal met. :) I'll be planting another one next year. Putting the tomatoes in a separate container since they tried to take over my small square-foot garden. Becca wants to plant some of her own seeds too.

Project #5: Landscaping the front yard.

We have this about 1/2 done! We planted a burning bush, maiden grass, a Black Hills Spruce, tulip and daffodil bulbs, and transplanted the geraniums. We still need another maiden grass, a globe Blue spruce and something else on the right side that likes shade (ferns?).

Landscaping plans

Yesterday the girls and I went up to the nursery where we got Little Bun's tree to purchase a pine tree for our front yard and try to make some other plans for what to put in our landscaping. After spending two hours there, we left with good plans and a purchase. They'll be delivering and planting a five-foot tall Black Hills Spruce in the next week. That will be going in our front yard a ways away from the house on the left if you are looking at the house.

We also bought a couple other plants that they will deliver since they are already delivering the tree. I'll post a picture below first before I describe where we are putting things.



We bought a burning bush and some ornamental grass called Maiden grass. Both were on sale...yay! The burning bush will go to the left of the porch kind of where all those weeds are growing next to the porch, except out a ways. The Maiden grass will go slightly out from the left corner of the porch, kind of behind the lilies and in front of the drainage spout. We'll be moving the lilies back a few feet so they will be next to the Maiden grass and then in the lilies place will be a Globe Blue Spruce.



We'll be putting three more boxwoods in--two to the left of the boxwood on the left side of the porch, evenly spaced, and one to the right of the boxwood on the right side of the porch. We'll be moving the geraniums, which you can see below, to the two small triangular shaped areas on either side of the front walk.



Lastly, we'll put in hydrangeas on the right side (Endless Summer or Lady in Red or both). One to the right of the boxwoods in the corner in front of the drainage spout and one behind the drainage spout. If I still have room, I'd like to find a Royal Family Holly bush. It apparently has both male and female parts, so it can produce berries with only one bush. The nursery doesn't carry them now, but may in the spring.

April goals and projects review

I'm mostly doing this for myself, but I'm putting it up here anyway. Skip it if you don't care or if reading about all this overwhelms you (it overwhelms me :) ).

Goals:

#1. Be in the Word: I'm not doing so great on this. It's pretty sporadic. Since I am trying to make myself sit down for an hour in the afternoon during the girls' rest time to read or rest, I'm hoping to use part of that time to read scripture. I did start reading Raising Your Children for Christ by Andrew Murray again, so that is my scripture right now since he has lots of it in the book.

#2. Physically active at least 30 minutes a day: This has gotten better since it's gotten nicer. We have lots of options at least: biking to the park, walking, hooping, gardening. I'm trying to get the girls outside at least once a day on the nice weather days.

#3. Reading good books to the girls: Even if I neglected to remember to read books to them, they would remind me. :) I love having children who love books as much as I do. I'd really like to start another chapter book with Becca this month.

#4. Art once a week: So I've been neglecting the art thing for a couple of reasons. First is that we are outside a whole lot more, so that is taking the place of art projects. The other is that Ally wants to participate so much more and so it's much more messy. And she hates having paint on her hands, so it's much more busy. Becca does lots of drawing and writing on her own. I'm hoping to find a nice wooden enclosed cabinet at a garage sale to hold all their art supplies.

I don't feel bad about neglecting the art, since we are doing the outside thing so much. There will be time in the heat of the summer when I don't want to go outside in the late afternoon and we can do art. We did do a shaving cream art project which went pretty well.

#5. Getting up on time: This went well for awhile. I love getting up on time. I'd like to get up even earlier and do a little yoga or something, but I've got to get back into getting up on time first.

#6. Staying in touch with family and friends: I feel like we've had some good contact with people lately. I'd like to call each of my grandmothers once a week. The Skype calls on Saturday and Sunday with our parents are going well when we are home.

#7. Prayer: It's just so hard as a mom and wife to focus long enough to pray. I suppose lots of people could say that, but this has really been the hardest time of my life for prayer. I have lots of spontaneous prayer moments when I get an email or hear of a prayer request from a friend or family. I'm hoping making myself rest and read in the afternoon will provide some concentrated time to fellowship with my heavenly Father in prayer.

#8. Serving my husband: Don't know how I'm doing here. I'm trying to give him a good birthday week this week. We had some friends over on Tuesday night, yesterday we gave him a CD and a Cliff bar snack, today I bought him some of his favorite Burt's Bees Peppermint lip balm, and Saturday will be breakfast in bed. I'll have to ask him how I'm doing and what I can do better.

Whew...now for projects.

#1. Ally's baby book: This is started! I am on the pages with her birth story and just have to put them together. I took a little break to do some sewing, but I'll get them out again soon.

#2. Catch up on photo albums: waiting until done with Ally's book.

#3. Wedding album: Nothing done.

#4. Garden: We have a compost bin! Well, a compost garbage can. :) I bought a Rubbermaid 32 gallon one, drilled holes in it, stuck it up on wood and put a couple of bungee cords on the top to hold the top on. We can roll it to mix it with the cords on. So far so good and less than $20 spent (thanks, Kate :) ).

We also got the garden built and the cage for the top. Tonight we made the Mel's mix (compost, vermiculite, and peat moss) and filled it up. Saturday we'll screw on the dividers (to make it look like a square foot garden) and plant Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce, Red Salad Bowl Lettuce, Winter Density Bibb/Romaine Lettuce, Bright Lights Chard, and Tyee Spinach.

February goal and project review

I know I said I was going to wait until Easter or something to review how I'm doing on my goals and projects, but I just couldn't wait that long. I need more frequent reviews to keep me focused a motivated.

It's been busy around here. January went quickly between coming back from my parents', Nate's trip to his annual work meeting, all of us (except Nate) getting the flu, and Ally teething and having a cold. So the blogs fell by the wayside. I have a list on each of the girls that I need to blog, just to keep record of what new things they are doing. I hope to get that on their blog soon.

Anyway, onto the review. I'll summarize each goal and project in just a few words to clarify.

Goals:

#1. Be in the Word: We've been playing the ESV Audio Bible at lunch. I usually ask Becca what part of the Bible she wants to listen to and we play that. We don't always listen to everything that is said, but we tune in and out. Becca will often ask, "What is this part?" and I'll tell her what's going on. I have plans to start memorizing scripture. I was going to start with a whole book like Philippians or Ephesians, but I think, instead, I'll start with Psalm 62:5-7, which was the passage we chose for Ally's baptism. I want to have it memorized by the end of February.

#2. Physically active at least 30 minutes a day: Failed. Except for when I went out a couple of days in a row with Becca to shovel and play in the snow. I could hop on my bike on the trainer each day, but that wouldn't help the girls be active. We danced around a little today, and that was fun. There are just so many other things to do that it hasn't been a priority...but it needs to be.

#3. Reading good books to the girls: This we have been doing well. We've read Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, 26 Fairmount Avenue, Jesus Storybook Bible, Boxcar Children books, and countless picture books to Becca and Ally (Ally is mostly the picture books and the Bible). We're working through By the Shores of Silver Lake with Becca and I think she gets a few things out of every chapter. She could tell me, very generally, one thing that happened in one chapter that Nate read to her when I wasn't there. But she likes it, and asks for more. I'm so happy both girls love books.

#4. Art once a week: The past two weeks have been good. Before that we had the flu and Nate was gone for a week, so I was in survival mode. Mostly it has been painting. Ally has been painting too, with a brush and not her fingers, since she hates things on her fingers. Becca and Ally painted with tempera paints yesterday and last week they used eyedroppers with colored water on coffee filters and then Becca used her watercolor paints.

I hope to do this paper mache project(it's number 5) with Becca and let Ally tear tissue paper for fun, do something with shaving cream like this one with both girls, and do some still life drawings with fruits and veggies. We are getting lots of good ones in our Farm Fresh Delivery bin tomorrow.

#5. Getting up on time: For the last week I have finally been getting up on time (almost, I did sleep in one day and regretted it later). I drag myself out of bed at 6:45am. Spend 15 minutes on the computer checking email, blog reader, etc. Take a shower and get dressed and then get Nate up. He gets his shower and checks his email while I get the girls dressed and then we all get to have breakfast together. The goal is to have Nate to work by 9am and we're getting close. I think he was up there on time this morning. It's been nice to have him at breakfast.

#6. Staying in touch with family and friends: I've not been so great on this, though I did talk to my parents a ton this past month. We hope to be setting up a weekly weekend Skype call between the girls and each of our parents. I don't know if we'd talk to them then, but at least the girls would get to. I want to make an effort to call both of my grandmothers once a week during the day. I'm going to email or send a message via Facebook to my brothers and sisters-in-law and my close friends at least once a month.

#7. Prayer: I've found spare moments, but I'm not always prayerful during those. There are a number of prayer requests that are frequently on my mind and those are prayed for at least weekly, if not every other day or so. When I receive a prayer request in person or over email or Facebook, I try to pray for that immediately. Oh Father, help my fellowship with you in prayer to grow.

#8. Serving my husband: Nate says I'm doing a good job at this. :) If possible, I try to give him his En Gedi, at least 20 minutes to sit and read or unwind when he comes down from work. I'm glad he feels I'm doing well in this area. :)

Whew...now for projects.

#1. Ally's baby book: I decided to make a non-digital one instead once I read that the iPhoto books only have glossy pages. Plus, I already have a scrapbook and paper to use, so I just had to spend a little for the pictures, saving lots of money. I'm hoping to make it very simple. I'll do all the journal areas by hand and not have any complicated layouts. The pictures are ordered as of yesterday.

#2. Catch up on photo albums: waiting until done with Ally's book.

#3. Wedding album: Nothing done.

#4. Garden: I have been researching composters. I had considered an indoor composter, but after reading reviews and thinking about it, I'm going with an outdoor one. Not sure which one yet. Reading the online instruction manuals has been most helpful too in determining what I want. I know I want a tumbler, not a bin.

A friend from church also asked me if I wanted to go in with her and some others on getting our seeds through a co-op. I'm excited, since picking out seeds is overwhelming to me and she is an experienced gardener. At this point we want to do tomatoes (heirloom, will buy a plant and transplant it), basil, zucchini, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, cilantro, bell peppers, green beans, radishes. This could definitely change. :)

I hope to buy the materials to construct our square-foot garden this month. I also hope to figure out how much of the mix I need in order to fill our garden.

#5. Landscaping: I've done nothing on this. I've considered just planting a tree to the left of our porch and being done with it. :)

On a side note, I couldn't bear not to do any sewing projects, so I'm working on making some longies out of some wool sweaters I bought at Goodwill. I might also make mittens and hats with the felted body of the sweater.

2009 Goals and Projects

Though it doesn't quite feel like a new year because it happened in the middle of the week, but even so, I like the feeling of starting new. This year, I have some goals or resolutions that I hope will be doable. And I have some projects that I hope to accomplish...all by the grace of God.

Goal #1: To read God's word to and with Becca and Ally everyday, at least at bed time, but also at other times during the day. We want God's word to be hidden in our hearts and the best way to do that is to be reading it.

Goal #2: To be active with my kids for at least 30 minutes a day--walking, dancing, biking, hula-hooping, kicking around a soccer ball, playing with the trikes in the basement, swimming. We want physical activity to be a normal part of our daily life. Even better if the physical activity includes being out in nature.

Goal #3: To read living books to Becca and Ally everyday, throughout the day. We already do this, so we want to continue it.

Goal #4: To "do art" with the girls at least once a week--painting, drawing, paper mache, cutting paper, embroidery, etc.

Goal #5: To get up early enough in the morning for both Nate and I to shower and our family to eat breakfast together before Nate goes up to work. This will probably be the toughest goal, but it would be so nice to be ready for the day and to begin it with breakfast together.

Goal #6: To attempt to call our parents once a week, our grandmothers twice a month, our siblings once or twice a month, and my close friends once or twice a month. I guess this is also a tough one. Email and Facebook are much easier avenues for me to communicate with people since I can do it late at night once the girls are in bed. We'll see how this one goes.

Goal #7: To find spare moments for prayer. I know there are many small ones. The most obvious one is when I'm rocking Ally to sleep after we are done singing and the music is on. I could really have a lot of time to pray to my heavenly father if I'd take advantage of that time. Doing dishes is another really good time.

Goal #8: To do at least one thing each day that serves my husband and nurtures our marriage. This should be one of the first goals, actually. :) Whether I sacrifice to give him 20-30 minutes to unwind after coming down from work (his En Gedi--yes, I've been listening to Mark Driscoll's Song of Solomon series) or if it's to regularly initiate some time of intimacy each week or it's to listen to him talk about work or it's to make some cookies he really likes.

Project #1: Ally's baby book of her first year. Done digitally on the iMac through iPhoto. I have one or two months done. My poor husband was a sewing widower, now he'll be a photo project widower or something like that.

Project #2: Catch up to the present on my photo albums...this is after Ally's book is done.

Project #3: Put together our wedding album...we've been married nearly six years and still don't have an album since I didn't order one from our photographer. I have all the photos, just not put in an album.

Project #4: Plant a garden. Plan it, construct a square-foot garden, plant the garden, tend the garden, and harvest it. I'm both excited and super nervous about this one. The garden will contain tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, swiss chard, and basil. Maybe also zucchini. I will try to make it as chemical-free as possible. The girls will also participate as much as possible.

Project #5: Landscaping the front yard. All I know is that we are going to plant a tree on the left side of the porch. Other than that, I have no idea.

I will try to update goals and projects a few times during the year. Probably at Easter first.