Goals 2011

Randmon picture of a cute boy brushing his teeth!

I know I can be a bit wordy :) Sorry. You can either bare with me...or not!

So I found my reading list from last year that I had misplaced during the move. It was neatly tucked within the pages of a book I ended up deciding not to read. I noticed it just before taking the book, along with many others, to sell. I read 18 books last year. For me, that's pretty good. But then I realized that I read a huge chunk of them at the beginning of the year.....when Micaiah was still taking 4 2-hour naps a day. By the spring he was only taking 3 naps a day, and then over the summer he was down to 2 2-hour naps, but there was still plenty of time to read. I noticed, however, that my reading amount took a ginormous nosedive around October. That was about when we shortened Micaiah's morning nap to an hour and then he still took a 2 hour afternoon nap. And...he was beginning to become more mobile. :) Now his morning nap is down to just 45 minutes, and he takes a 2-2.5 hour afternoon nap, but when he's awake I can no longer just lay him on a blanket with some toys and sit up on the couch and relax and read. He is walking....and even starting to pick up some speed....all over the place! With that in mind, and knowing I'm going to have a newborn alongside of Micaiah this year, perhaps my reading list for 2011 is a little ambitious. Oh well, at least I have a goal. I'll just roll over to 2012 whatever I don't finish!

A few other random goals I have for the year:

*Try making homemade bread again. (I finally found success with a homemade whole wheat recipe, but have been turned off of the smell of it since I found out I was pregnant. I need a honey wheat or white/wheat recipe I like)

*Learn to sew some simple things like pillow covers, curtains, or a straight lined bag

*Try making homemade dishwasher detergent (I tried a recipe in the past, and it didn't clean our dishes. I have a new one to try out, but I'll wait until we have our own place)

*Do some container gardening (I had full intentions of doing a bed garden last year, but we ended up moving, so that became a wash. Since we're living in someone else's house for now, containers are going to be the way for me to go this year!)

*Complete reading through my chronological Bible

*Make exercise a priority and do it consistently

*Get a workable budget set up for us and begin to utilize cash only for a few of our categories of spending

*Start a “nutritional goals” notebook or file where I can tuck healthy substitutes/alternatives recipes, goals, & articles that I've found and continue to find to help me continue to slowly & steadily make changes to our over-processed, unwhole foods diet :)

Recipes to Try:
This is a neverending list! But off the top of my head, I’d love to try some new recipes in the crockpot and make it work for me. I've never been very successful with cooking meat in it, but I am determined to figure out some yummy things to use it for! I also want to try scones, chocolate pudding zucchini muffins, homemade yogurt, and homemade pigs in a blanket.

It feels good to have some goals set in place for the year. Not that I'll do them all or do them all well, but as the saying goes "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it everytime." I want to at least have something to aim at. For me personally, it helps me to live more intentionally and purposefully.

Anything you're wanting to do in 2011?