Wednesday, January 3, 2018

2018 A New Year

I can't believe I am starting my 11th full year of blogging!!!  Wow!  It is crazy to me to think back on all those years and all those memories.  I have printed each year in a book using Blog2Print up through 2013 so far.  This makes me happy, happy, happy.  This blog is an outlet of sorts for me, but mainly is a place that I can share and organize my pictures.  I take a lot of pictures because pictures make memories last longer and that is important to me.  I am hoping that this year I will stay more caught up and be able to spend more time sharing my thoughts.

The first thing I usually do to start a year is write down my goals.  This year I did some personal goals and some family goals.

My personal goals are:

Read all the way through the Bible.  I have done this before, but it has been a couple of years.  Over the last several years I have realized how much I love to read and study the Bible.  I enjoy my Tuesday morning Ladies Bible Class SO much in large part due to the actual Bible study part of it.  I picked The One Year Chronological Bible reading plan from the Bible app.  I like to actually read it out of my bible instead of on the phone, but have found that this is a good way to track it.  I don't have to mark a print out.  I can just mark it on my phone.

Don't stress about the mess!  I want to not worry so much about having a clean kitchen at night.  It is okay if the dishes stay in the sink or on the counter until tomorrow.  I want to not put so much emphasis on my kids' messy rooms.  I need to let go!!!  Now, that doesn't mean they never have to clean their rooms.  However, fussing at them about it all the time is just not worth it.  Having them pick up once a week is enough!

Be in bed by 10:30 p.m. on weeknights.  I have turned into a night owl mostly because it is usually late when I finally feel like I get to relax and veg on some t.v.  So, I end up staying up way too late just watching t.v.  My body needs more sleep than I am getting.  I need better sleep so I can feel more rested and have more energy.  This is going to be a challenge for me!

Eat healthier & exercise 2-3 days per week.  I want to get a handle on my sugar intake.  I crave it.  Eating as clean as I can as often as I can really helps me feel better and my body just looks better.  It helps with bloating especially.  I don't want to restrict myself completely from sugar though.  Splurging on the weekends or at a special event is fine.  I don't want to beat myself up about that.  I want to eat simpler especially when eating out.  I need to eat smaller portions and drink more water.  I haven't had a coke in about 3 years I think.  I mainly drink tea (unsweet or sweet) and flavored carbonated water like La Croix.  I have been working out at PV for a while now and love Emily's classes.  I try to go Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  I would also like to implement my essential oils more.  I bought them awhile back and just haven't given them the opportunity to work!

Fix my back.  Since about April, I have been having back pain.  It shows itself mostly in the morning when I first wake up.  I don't know what is going on, but I need to get to the bottom of it!

No negative self talk.  I am bad about this.  When things get tough, I tend to beat myself up.  I focus too much on the things I am doing wrong or that are going wrong.  I need to count my blessings more.

Word for the year is PURPOSE.  It took me a while to think of the one that I wanted to focus on this year, but it finally hit me.  I want to be more purpose driven.  I want to know why I do things.  Asking myself what is the purpose is a way to do that.  I want to do things with purpose.

My family goals are:

No TV for 2 weeks experiment.  I think our family is focused too much on t.v. especially in the evenings.  I want to take 2 weeks off from t.v. and see what happens.  I want us to experience more togetherness, work on our relationships, lessen the bad influences that t.v. puts in front of us, and the kids to play with their toys more and use their imaginations more.  I really want to spend time tucking the kids into bed and not have the t.v. interfering with this.  I know that everyone will probably not like this idea (or maybe hate is a better word), but I think we need to do it.

Find an area where we can serve consistently as a family.  I want to do this to help us to look at the needs of others more and to help give us more appreciation for what we have.

Read through the Bible.  I want to encourage this with our kids.  I don't mind if they all have their own program that they do, but I really want us all to complete it this year.  How fantastic would that be!!!  I want the Word to get in our hearts!

I need to make myself do some posts that update our progress on these goals every once in a while.  I will try to do that. 

Looking forward to a great, exciting year!

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