Every year I make a list of goals for the year and then at the end of the year I come back and review those goals to see how I did. I haven’t read over my 2016 goals list in a hot minute so I have a feeling I did pretty sucky with completing the list during the year. I know I have a plethora of excuses as to why I didn’t get ’em done and I’m pretty sure the craziness of 2016 will also change the way I make my goals for 2017. Here’s a review of my goals for 2016 and how I did with each:
Continue to devote the first 30 min of nap time to spending time with God…work on pouring into my Bible during this time.: I did AWESOME with this up until Zach’s medical stuff hit and then I struggled with it. It was hard to pour into God’s Word even when it’s a time when I should have been pouring into it the most. My prayer life still grew, but my study struggled for a bit. I am back on track and working on reading through the entire Bible (no set timeline on that though!)
Devote 30 min a week to our marriage by watching Marriage 365 webinars.Also go on monthly dates and focus on being intimate often (give Zach love according tohislove language): We didn’t always set aside that time, again especially towards the end of the year, but we have focused on US so much more this year than ever before and I feel like we have small hills and valleys but that the valleys are much much shallower and shorter lasting than they’ve ever been in our marriage. Tough stuff we have faced together has really helped us both to put things in perspective and realize so much of the stuff we bicker over is SMALL STUFF. We don’t take each other for granted anymore and really are in such a great spot together. And I’ve def upped my intimacy game (which FINALLY being done with all that baby weight helps with that confidence!)
Have our 6 month living expenses in savings and then invest: max out roth IRA’s for each of us and invest additional funds to save for kids futures as well as paying off our home early.: We have our 6 month living expenses saved! PRAISE THE LORD for this and for us jumping on the Dave Train when we did and for us being so committed to it. With all of Zach’s medical stuff and potential concerns for the future, I’m so so thankful for the peace of mind that having that savings brings for us. We did not end up being able to max out the roths like we had planned to do (hello back surgery and massive medical bills) but we are on fire to max ’em out in early 2017!
Be a good listener, ask questions, engage in conversations!: This is one of those that I’m continually working on. Not only did Zach and I have a tougher year, but many people I love did as well and I tried to really be there for them in the ways they needed me to be. I enjoy being there for others and always strive to grow in this area.
Convince Zach to let me take Kye on a solo trip similar to Britt’s with me last year…soak up that time with him as all-too-soon he won’t wanna spend quality time with his mama!:#BOOM done!
Have a conclusion to wreck situation, decide best path to use whatever funds may result from the outcome of it. : THIS ANNOYS ME TO DEATH. STILL don’t have this resolved. It’s ridiculous. Zach was at a STOP LIGHT and a guy RAMMED in the back of his car in 2014 and yet the insurance company is STILL not making things right with us! UGH. It’s out of our hands though and we just have to wait and wait and wait.
Make time to spend with my friends and doing FUN things together!: I am so thankful for my AMAZING tribe of women! We not only have FUN but are there for each other through good and bad. Friends are such a blessing.
Be prayerful in deciding the path for completing our family and make whatever arrangements need to be made towards whatever path we decide together.For us to both have open hearts and be understanding of what the other feels is best for our family.:It’s been so amazing to see how God has lead us to adoption to complete our family!
Encourage Zach in taking proper care of his back: physical therapy, exercises, epidurals etc: Well….he ended up needing back surgery but he did do a great job taking care of himself post-surgery and takes extremely good care of his back now. He is very mindful and cautious!
Call my dad more often, continue to make efforts to visit with them!: I am SO HAPPY with where my relationship is with my dad and with Audrey right now. I love that they talk to the kids more often and that we all talk to each other on a more regular basis. It makes my heart so unbelievably happy and their visit last summer was one of my absolute favorite memories of the entire year.
Read the devo and bible with the girls daily at lunch time and encourage Zach to lead family bible study in the evenings : Zach and Kye did good working through Bible Studies together but the site I used for the free weekly studies quit having them so I’m needing to find something for them to do together. Kye does a lot on his own (Bible Reading and devo) and then I read with both Britt and Kye at night before bed but I do need to do better with reading during lunch!
Spend smart, go over on budget less and save more: It was a rougher year financially. Zach had a tougher year with work (not surprising…I mean he was out for a good bit due to back surgery and then missed a good bit in all the medical issues later in the year). We also had to spend more due to those same reasons. BUT we ended the year back where we needed to be (with the emergency fund full!) and feel good about 2017.
Show appreciation to everyone in my life from my kids to Zach to friends to family, I’m blessed because of them!: I think I did better with this? If not, then it wasn’t for lack of trying! I try to make sure Zach, friends, kids, etc all know how much I appreciate them and hope they feel appreciated!
Have a realistic exercise routine.Aim for at least 2-3 times a week!: Team Fitness 2016 was legit up in here. I got the most physically fit I’ve probably ever been over summer. I even busted out tank tops which is crazy for me b/c I’ve always hated my arms! I was literally working out 5-7 nights a week. I did fall off that bandwagon (and hopped on the emotional eating one) but Zach and I are both committed to getting back on that routine now that we are out of the “worry” stage of all of this medical stuff and have a game plan!
Help ensure that Kye’s educational needs are met both inside and outside of school, help him as he pursues interests and figures out what things he enjoys outside of school: Kye is an interesting kid. He likes sports but doesn’t LOVE them. We did tennis and golf for a good while for him but when they kinda tapered out (colder weather for tennis and the golf guy just kinda stopped doing them) he never said he missed it or wanted to do it. He doesn’t have that passion (which we especially notice now that Britt is in gymnastics and LOVES IT). He’s doing great academically and we continue to encourage him to explore his interests outside of the classroom as well.
Reach out to a mentor and seek out those who I may be able to mentor as well: Eh. This one didn’t really work out. I did reach out and ask someone to be my mentor and she agreed but then she never really did anything with that or about it so I guess it was a no-go. I LOVED being in a bible study with Casey and Keeli and hope to get that back up and going too.
House goals: new porch railings, paint white trim inside, pressure wash white trim (or repaint it) outside, make plans for outdoor kitchen, make plans for finishing last room upstairs, make plans for renovations to master bedroom/bathroom, trim on kitchen cabinets or change lighting, decide when to replace carpet throughout, plant area by corner of house, refinish kitchen table. : Well we didn’t tackle it all (again, valid excuses!) but the big ones got knocked out: outdoor kitchen and the storage room off the playroom. We got the rooms all transferred for the new baby and got the kitchen lighting situation panned out as well as trim around the cabinets.
Continue to blog regularly and have posts scheduled in advance.Goal is to be more “caught up” to real life and post at least 5 times a week!: I did awesome with my amount of posts. I did get behind again from being “in real time” but I’m SO CLOSE to being there which will be a first in my blogging career 🙂
Read for 15-20 min before going to sleep, alternating between “pleasure” books and “self-help” books: I started off doing well with this but it fizzled out.
Get a good wrinkle prevention cream and use it religiously!Continue to find new ways in applying makeup for my aging face ;): I tried a new makeup (It Cosmetics) and didn’t like it at all. I’m def always open to trying new things! I did go and get a solid skin plan for my face and it will hopefully help prevent/manage wrinkles
Go through kids stuff in storage with a fine tooth comb and sell as much as possible at kids sales to start saving funds for future!: I’ve been selling kids sale stuff like CRAZY! I do want to get stuff down from the attic before our big garage sale in the spring.
Organize and de-clutter my desk area…have it be a more calming, inviting environment for me: Ugh. I feel like this just may be super unrealistic. It’s always a disaster!!!!!
Raise my children through the filter of Christ.Aim to encourage them in all areas in doing Gods will.Especially in discipline, bring them to the WORD and do not scold! We REALLY turned a big corner with Britt this year and feel like this is why!
Continue to make my foot a priority and have preventative care for it while also pushing it further in activity/shoe choices: Rocked out with this! I have to ice it every night but am in a lot of variety of shoes (no heals of course) that I didn’t think would ever be possible!
Get completely caught up on ALL blog books: Didn’t happen.
Continue to keep the house “picked up” at all times.Do a better job in deep cleaning.Do a better job at inviting people over on a whim. : I’m just not an “on the whim” person and I go through stages of LOVING hosting and LOVING doing things with others and then stages where I just wanna be a hermit with my core family and that’s it. I do think the house is more picked up than before and cleaner too (and I’m doing a declutter challenge that should help!)
Invest in “me time.”Continue to take one night a week to myself!: I did great with this! Loved my girl time, me time! And I know it helped Zach too b/c I wasn’t as bitter about him doing things b/c I was!
Have more playdates for Tess!Enjoy the days before she begins school and use the time when she is in school to really take care of appointments I need to have handled (eye dr, esthetician, etc): Didn’t do a lot of playdates but we did play with Carter a lot and that counts!
Help encourage Zach with work and all the changes that have taken place: It’s crazy to me that in early 2016 work related drama/stress was the biggest thing in our plates. Now all of that seems so minor in comparison to what we’re dealing with. I’m thankful we trusted GOD in this situation. We continue to trust HIM to guide our paths and know that Zach does his very best with work and that eventually his time will come!
Step out in faith more, trust God and trust the path he may put on my heart in certain circumstances.Don’t hesitate when it comes to his will in my life.: My personal motto is “step out in faith” and I’m living it!
Continue to use Dave Ramsey’s plan for financial freedom for our family, especially with kids and doing their weekly chores for income: Did great with this!!!
Be thoughtful.Especially with Zach.He’s so thoughtful for me and I want to do better at doing little things to remind him how much I love him!: This is one that would be a “Zach question” but I think he’ll agree that I have done better and more?
Give back more to our community, be involved with Soup Kitchen, take kids to nursing home, find other ways to help people: We did a lot more of this but it’s def a larger focus I want in 2017
Clean out my closet and purge stuff I’m not going to wear anymore (being goal weight comes first, obviously!): Still working on this (I’ve purged and purged and purged some more) but I’m loving adding in new pieces that FIT!
Continue to invest in our church family.Seek out families to form stronger bonds with and be more active in church activities especially now that Tess is more flexible. We also did a lot better at this. We’ve been at our church for almost 10 years and really feel like we’re making deeper connections and stronger bonds with our church family. Not only was it a tough year for our family, it was a very tough one for our church family. Times of struggle can divide you or unite you and we are trying to stick with the uniting idea 😉
Pray together with Zach before bed each night: This is something Zach initiates so this is a goal he’d have to say if he met or not.
Get under my pre-pregnancy weight.Focus on eating healthy 6 days a week (one day a week of a cheat day).Have confidence!: I’m averaging (even with the emotional eating) 2 lbs under pre-pregnancy weight with all three kids. I’d like to be lower…but I’m not stressing over it right now either.
Use my tongue to speak in kindness, respond in kindness, speak uplifting words to others. : I think I did well with this too? One compliment I take the most pride in is when people say I’m an encourager 🙂
Continue to utilize blog Facebook page but also pin all posts on Pinterest and post more often on other forms of social media (Twitter and IG).: I have been learning a LOT about blogging and have lots of goals related to it for 2017! I did great with growing FB but have a lot more work to do!
Focus on having another AMAZING holiday season with my family: YES. SO thankful it was AMAZING!
Get in the habit of making my bed daily (or at least pulling up the covers!): Hahaha. Oh the things we think we’ll actually achieve 😉
Discipline Tess consistently.Easier said than done!: Doing better with this…it’s easier now that Britt is so much easier and that Tess is older where she clearly understands.
Finally get my tabs on the blog completed and updated: Good goal for 2017 😉
Invest in new friendships, work on fostering those that have potential to be more than just acquaintances.Especially focusing on couples that Zach and I could both befriend.: We made some new couple friends! And we have kinda a list of a few couples who we are hoping to have over and get to know better soon. I also think on a personal level that the hard times I experienced opened my eyes to some of my friendships. Ones I thought were worth pouring into that maybe aren’t as filled with potential as I’d thought. And some that I now realize are worth making more of a priority!
Balance my plate: keeping it full but notoverlyfull: It’s like how they say never pray for patience…never make it a goal not to have an overly filled plate 😉 My anxiety went through the roof on multiple occasions this year. Not in my control, but it did cause me to go into that hermit like state for a good bit because I literally had no room on my plate for anything outside of what I was directly dealing with.
Feel 100% comfortable with my conceal and carry gun and get in a good routine of carrying it safely (try not to shoot any dude that looks at me in a creepy way): UGH. We keep saying we need to take a course and we keep not taking one.
“Unplug” more often.Work on really being present in the moment with the kids as well as with Zach!: Doing good here!!!
Have a home Zach wants to come home to each night.Greet him with a kiss and remind him how appreciative I am of how hard he works for our family.: Also doing a lot better here!
Plan an A-MAZING trip for our 10th wedding anniversary!: I wouldn’t have chosen Mexico originally BUT I’m super excited about the resort where we’re going! We had originally hoped to return to our honeymoon destination in Maldives but honestly flying for 19 hours just doesn’t sound that fun haha so I’m thankful for a closer flight (and free flight with our points) and we put the money we had saved into staying at a FANCY room which will be so, so romantic! It’ll be a super relaxing time together and a chance to celebrate 10 wonderful years!
I didn’t do as bad as I had thought I’d do 🙂 It’s always fun (and motivating!) to look back over the year and see areas of growth as well as those that need further work in the coming year. You can look back at all of my year end reviews here:
Hey Y'all, I'm Emily! I'm a stay at home mom and consider parenting to be my passion. Disney is my happiest place and I love making memories as a family together. I'm a big believer in transparency and share all of my real-life moments as a mother of four.
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