You probably thought I forgot, am I right? Each year I like to start the year off with a list of goals for myself for that year. What’s the point of making goals if you don’t check yourself to see how to did at meeting them??? So at the end of each year I like to go back through the list and see how I did. Here’s my review of 2010:
You can read my original list of goals for 2010 here!
1. become more involved with church and my church family: I am much, much more involved than I ever have been that’s for sure. We’ve always been devoted to attending services but now I honestly feel like it’s my lifestyle. I WANT to be at church Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday nights. Wednesdays have actual become my favorite time to be at church and I’m proud of myself for getting more involved and reaching out to members of the church. Hopefully it’ll only continue to get better and better!
2. go on a date with Zach once a week or minimum of twice a month: You parents get it. This was a tough goal…and I’m about 90 percent sure we failed. But at the beginning of 2010 I didn’t know that we’d have SO much on our plates. I think this will be much more doable in 2011, especially since I have an awesome free babysitter living down the street 🙂
3. continue blogging: Duh, I rocked this one. Most months I blogged every weekday. I know I’m starting off the year badly since I’m so behind but I’ve made it a top priority to get caught up then stay that way! I have come to really, really enjoy blogging so this was an easy one to do!
4. continue working on having a forgiving heart, especially when people don’t ask for it: I owned this one too! I have learned to just let things go. Life’s not worth being mad at people and most of the time the things that make us so mad aren’t intentional. I’ve also learned to be more patient with people, especially those that don’t have a relationship with the Lord. And even those that do! We are ALL at different points in our walk and it’s important to try to put yourself in the other persons shoes ya know?
5. learn to be content and patient with plans for the future: Seeing as we up and sold our house and built a new one in 2010 I don’t think we were too content do you? I am still a work in progress on this one. I’m sitting in a brand new house and I’m DYING to go out and buy brand new things to fill it with but guess what? We’re the most broke we’ve been in a loooong time (thanks back surgery!) and simply can’t afford it. It’s a good test for me because I need it. I need to learn that sometimes it’s okay to wait for things. And I’ll for sure be content in this house as it’s the forever home so there isn’t any other option 🙂
6. have a better understanding about Heaven and what it’s really all about: I wrote a blog entry on this which you can read here. I need to finish the book (Heaven by Randy Alcorn
) and I recommend it to EVERYONE. It was helpful for me and I do have a much better understanding about Heaven. Especially with Uncle Spear and Tripp passing away in 2010, I really focused on this goal and wanted to learn. I feel so much more peace in my heart now about death and am not nearly as afraid of it as I used to be. Again though, it’s one of those work in progress type goals 🙂
7. be more consistent about attending all church services: Covered that in #1 didn’t I? When Zach was gone almost every week in Oct, Nov, and parts of Dec I was tested with this. It’s TOUGH to take a toddler to church by yourself. Especially a potty training one. I could have found so many excuses to not go but guess what? I never missed. Not once. And I’m PROUD of that!!! I want Kye to grow up in the church and the only way he’ll do that is if he sees that it’s Mommy’s and Daddy’s top priority ya know?
8. keep to our financial budget and save more money: Is this a joke? We gutted every. single. account. Savings? Gone. Retirement? Goodbye! (well I’m half kidding…it’s not gone but we had to dip into it which I didn’t like doing) Taxes? Oh yeah we’re gonna owe ya come April! I HATE feeling like this. I hate nagging my husband about work b/c I’m terrified that we won’t be able to pay the bills. And the bills keep coming. Gah, they will SLAM you with medical bills! I AM proud though because most people take out extra money when they build a house and we didn’t. We may have had to go broke building it, but we stuck to the exact amount we wanted to for the loan amount. Every upgrade or out of pocket cost we paid literally out of pocket. That’s a pretty big accomplishment and we’ll be SO glad we did it when we can pay our house off quicker 🙂 It’s just scary right now though!
9. travel but find a balance with traveling and being home: We were in town a lot more weekends in 2010 than we were in 2009 and with our depleting bank accounts we’ll probably be home even more in 2011. I am dying for a vacation right now but it was a good goal and we achieved it. We wrote down every trip we wanted to take that year then spread them out to where we weren’t gone more than 2 weekends a month. Which is good for us 🙂 I hope we can do something similar in 2011 as well!
10. have family dinners at minimum 4 times a week: I did cook a LOT but I can’t promise that I stuck to the 4 times a week thing. We try to hang out with people a lot during the week since we travel so much on weekends so many nights we aren’t even home but when we are I love family dinners together don’t you?
11. look the hottest I can for Brandon’s wedding: Um wow. Brandon’s wedding feels like a MILLION years ago! I did look pretty smokin’ though didn’t I?
12. be an example to Kye for how he should live his life: Another work in progress type but I do feel like Zach and I are good examples. Sure, we need to not argue in front of him as often as we do but overall we’re good. I’m the most proud when I see Kye fold his hands to initiate prayer, you know you’re doing something right when you see that 🙂
13. potty train Kye: I don’t think I realized that this would be as big of a deal as it was, but I accomplished it! Or should I say Kye accomplished it since he honestly pretty much potty trained himself.
14. don’t feel pressured to have another baby just because everyone else is doing it: Well I’m not pregnant so I did good on that one 🙂 It’s HILARIOUS to me how many people keep bugging us about the baby thing. I was in the middle of moving boxes and loading up and Mr. Rusty asked if I was pregnant. Thank the LORD I wasn’t! How would anything gotten accomplished if I had been? Zach couldn’t lift b/c his back (not even Kye) and I wouldn’t be able to lift anything either!
15. finish The Love Dare: Ummm where is that book again? That straight up didn’t come close to happening which is sad. Both God and Zach deserve more of my time and devotion ya know it? I kept up with the blogging goal but not the “read a book that helps my marriage” one. Pathetic!
16. Do not let Kye witness Zach and I disagree or bicker, learn to do those things in private: Needs work. No one is perfect and we aren’t either! Sure we aren’t as bad as those couples you see in the middle of Walmart screaming at each other with their kids sitting in the buggy, but we’re far from perfect or where I personally think the Lord wants us to be on this.
17. STICK to Weight Watchers: hahahahaha. I’m 3 lb over where I want/need to be and I’m actually going to do Slim Fast again for right now. Weight Watchers works…but it’s also more work than I have time for at this point. But I believe in the system, that’s for sure, and I do believe that it’s something I should be doing. Someday I’ll get back on track 🙂
18. show others that I am a daughter of the Lord more: I think any of you (all three? maybe five?) that have followed this blog since the beginning or know me personally can tell I’m focused on this goal and I’m always working to do better with it.
19. learn how to style my hair in different ways: YAY for me!!! I can now wear it: straight like normal, curly like I do at the beach, in a pony tail, and clipped up with little pins. I know this is a lame excuse for a list of ways I can style my hair but trust me, it’s a HUGE list for me!
20. brush Kye’s teeth at least twice a day: You know you write things down like this and you think they seem easy and simple to do, but they aren’t. It’s tough to remember to brush your kids teeth in the morning! I’m good at night but I need to get into a better routine with the morning.
21. get rid of all my old clothes, either through Ebay or consignment: I did good on that one. I have a bunch of stuff at a local consignment shop now and I had a big garage sale and I donated a bunch to Goodwill
22. get all my pants hemmed to correct length: Man I did so awesome on these goals didn’t I? I took ALL my pants and capris and had them altered to the correct lengths and I feel very Stacy and Clinton approved now, thank you 🙂
23. go on walks with Kye at least 5 times a week: Totally doable and I totally failed. I did great up until we started potty training then I couldn’t take him because he had to tee-tee too often and now I’m just out of habit (it’s cold dangit!) but I know I’ll get back in the habit soon enough!
24. be the kind of wife and mother I want my son to marry someday: Lately I feel like I’m slacking on the mommy side of things because he’s not back to his hardcore scheduled life yet but once workers stop randomly coming over we’ll get back on track 🙂
25. take good care of Mom and be the best friend I can be to her: Check! Check! I feel that both Zach and I went above the call of duty helping Mom in every way possible during this past year 🙂
26. start eating healthier as a family: With all the Sneaky Chef stuff I think I am doing better with this and we even switched to organic milk 🙂 The more I learn about the crap that’s in our food the more important I think healthy eating is and the more hardcore I want to become about it.
27. go on family bike rides: Didn’t happen. Probably won’t ever be a regular thing. I’m honestly not a fan of bike riding!
28. complete two blog books: Also, sadly, didn’t happen. I HAVE to start doing them in order to be able to have these memories in a physical format, but being broke doesn’t help matters so it may be awhile before I get caught up on that.
29. start bible study time with Kye/as a family: We did great at this prior to the whole living together situation. I am confident that we’ll get back to it as well 🙂
30. start saving for retirement: Seeing as I just mentioned earlier that we had to significantly dip into retirement for the house we mega failed here. It’s SO important too. Grr it stresses me out thinking about that!
31. stay on track with all dr appointments for myself and Zach: When’s the last time we went to the dentist for a cleaning??? I did do great at this as far as many things go though. I went to the dermatologist. I checked into my nose situation. I just kinda fell short on the dental front! Need to make an appointment for sure!
32. read more of the Bible: fail. fail. fail. Shame on me.
33. learn how to really use my camera, not just auto settings: I’m currently taking a photography workshop class thing so hopefully it’ll help..it didn’t happen in 2010 but close enough right?
34. make improvements to our home that will add comfort and value: It’s funny to me that at this time last year I was thinking we’d be living in that house for several more years and had a goal to make changes to that home. We improved it by selling it right? 🙂
35. continue to keep the house picked up and do it more regularly: When your house is on the market you have no choice – it’s gotta be clean. I did great with it but struggled when we were building and Mom was living with us. With the new house is has to be a priority!
36. help others more: I do not have a naturally servant heart but I did better in 2010 and will continue to do better in 2011. I think I stepped up my game big time in this area over the past year and I’m proud of that as it took a conscious effort on my part!
37. be nicer to Zach and stop taking out my frustrations on him: Again, did awesome up until the house building process then I sucked. I feel guilt over it and want to do better now. Life’s a lot less stressful so I have zero excuses right?
38. keep friends a priority but make family time most important: This for sure happened. And with us not having any spare change right now I think it’ll continue to happen. I do miss friends though and do want to see people more often!
39. entertain more at our home: Kinda stops happening when there are boxes everywhere ya know it? But it’s a good goal for 2011!
40. be happy, be healthy, HAVE FUN: Wow. Sad to say that at the end of 2010 I don’t feel like I achieved these things. I need to look at it as a whole and then I can see that majority of the year I was happy, stayed on decent track to being healthy, and did have fun. I’m telling you when stress takes over I get in this little negative bubble and can’t get out of it and that’s what happened to me by the end of the year for sure!
2010 was filled with many, many blessings. Lots of great trips, Zach’s best year with Aflac to date, Mom moving to Valdosta, Building a new house, the list goes on and on and on. I think I did a great job on SO many of the things on this list, but so many of the ones I did great on don’t really matter. Yay – I got some pants hemmed. But I didn’t read my Bible, take time out for my husband, or manage our finances. And guess what? All of those things are VITAL. I had been looking forward to going over this list because I knew I had accomplished so many of the things on it. Instead of having a feeling of pride for myself though I feel disappointed. I focused on the wrong goals to work on and accomplish didn’t I? I’m thankful for the fresh start that a New Year brings and ready to get to work on my list for this year – and my plans to knock of the BIG items on it 🙂
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