on goals and resolutions: january

So basically I've been working on this blog post for a week now, and I'm just struggling. Bare with me. Hopefully February's edition will come together a little better :) We'll just use the "winter break" excuse for January....

For the past few months I've been jotting down areas I'd like to make little changes and improvements in anticipation of the new year. I realize you can make a goal any time during the year, but I enjoy getting a running start with the new year. 

This year I've been putting my focus on manageable goals and what efforts I'm going to make to actually become better. All too often my goals for the new year are "exercise every day" "read a bunch of books". Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of reading or exercise, even if I know they are important. So I've gotten a little creative with how to integrate those things better to my life among other goals.

My other fault in years past has been writing up about twenty goals and trying to accomplish them all in January, I crash and burn quickly when overwhelmed, so I'm making monthly goals to simplify.

For January I wanted to work on reading. Originally I had the grand ambition of reading one book a month for the entire year. I realize that doesn't sound like a lot to many of you, but for me that was a pretty lofty aspiration. And while I do plan to read some books this year, my free spirit would probably rebel and not read anything this year if I chained myself to a goal like that. 

One form of reading I do enjoy is reading with my kids, and I've felt like Madeline could benefit from us taking it up a notch. So together we've set a goal to read 10 books a day. And also to work on one letter of the alphabet per week. She's shown a big interest in letters and reading lately so we're going to gently run with it.

In addition I've found a scripture verse that goes along with the theme for each month's goal. I've printed out a couple copies of the above scripture and have them in a couple spots in my house.

One other thing to note, I've made a rough outline for each month in 2015, but it's open to changes and tweaks, as long as they happen BEFORE that month ;) I don't know where I'll be at in October. Who knows what I'll want to be focussing on.

So far it's been great! Madeline has absolutely loved the extra one on one time we've spent reading the past few days, and I'll admit it's been good for me to know I need to work "reading time" into our daily schedule. Previously it was one of those items that repeatedly seemed to get bumped.

On a separate note, it should be noted that Jeremy goes back to school tomorrow and I can't decide if I'm excited for some routine or if I'm dreading it. This has been such a great break. I had a couple big ugly cries wishing we had family close. People to bake and play games with. But it was good to step back and enjoy time with the three people I love most.

Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas and New Year!