I have really been pondering the changes that I want to make this year. As a family we decided to choose one word to focus on this year. Someone told me that this is what she does and honestly I LOVED the idea. So it is a new tradition that we are implementing. There were so many words to choose from, but in the end we decided to choose the word CONSISTENT for our family goal this year. I know, it might not be the best choice for a year with so many NEW experiences, but we are excited for the challenge. Our goal is to be consistent in all that we do. If we make a commitment, we follow through, if we set a goal, we finish it.. etc...
So I decided that for MY personal goals this year I would choose 14 things to be more consistent with in my life.
1. Keep my kitchen clean and straightened
This is a place in my home that causes me anxiety. If it is dirty and sloppy, I am stressed out and super antsy. If it is clean I enjoy being in it which helps greatly with the second goal that I have made. My goal is to clean up as I go, and make sure the kitchen is cleaned up completely from the day before I go to bed. This will help me wake up with one less thing to do in the morning.
2. Make dinner at least 4 times a week
I am not a cook. I do not enjoy it, I can barely even stand it. I am someone who wants my food and wants it now. Especially when I am tired. Which if you read my pregnancy post, is ALL the time. So I have made this a personal goal to meal plan every week and cook AT LEAST 4 meals a week. I am hoping that this will force me to enjoy cooking, and eat healthier. Plus my husband really appreciates it when I cook at home so this one is for you Conner!
3. Keep Laundry manageable
We live in an apartment complex where we have no washer and dryers or even hookups. So it is REALLY easy to put off laundry because you don't want to pay, or in my case, lug all the baskets to the laundry room. Pathetic I know. If you have lived somewhere without a washer and dryer you feel my pain. While it is unrealistic to say that I will do a load every day, I can say that every week I will do our laundry. Since there is only two of us (for now) We have just enough laundry at the end of the week to fill up two loads with clothes and one load of towels, sheets, and rags. So this is what I will be doing every week at the end. NO MATTER WHAT. If my weekend is busy, then I better do it early because there is nothing worse than paying a huge amount to spend your entire afternoon in a laundry room with 5+ loads of laundry because you finally ran out of clean underwear. Seriously it sucks.
4. Complete my Book of Mormon Chart & Scripture Topic Journal
I have chosen a scripture reading chart here. It is a 90 day Book of Mormon Chart. If I am CONSISTENT then I will have the Book of Mormon completed by March 31st!! More info on the Book of Mormon here. I also have a goal of filling my scripture topic journal by the end of this year. My journal has 52 topics that I chose, so I will be studying one topic a week and recording my thoughts and feelings. These topics can be studied from anywhere; general conference talks, sunday school lessons, personal scripture study, and preach my gospel. You name it I am going to be studying it and adding it to this journal. Hooray for gospel study!!
5. Show my Husband love everyday
Okay so this one was a gimme, but I honestly want to remember this on days that I want to punch him, which are not very often, but do come. I want to serve him daily and show him that he is my number one priority. I want him to know how I feel about him. So I will CONSISTENTLY be showing him the entire year, every single day!
6. Attend Church EVERY Sunday
Okay so this one is also a gimme. I need some easy victories okay?! But seriously, this is something I want to make a point of doing this year. Especially with a little one joining us soon, I know how easy it would be to just stay at home the first couple of weeks after he arrives. (If I am in the hospital, I will obviously not be able to go, but this is the only exception I am making!) I am promising myself right now, that even if I am sick, exhausted, or on vacation I will at least go to church for sacrament meeting. Not just the sacrament, but the whole meeting! (Usually by that point I just stay the whole time even if I don't feel so great.) I am pounding it into my head right now so that I have no excuses later. Church is very important to me and if I miss taking the sacrament my whole week is off. So I will attend church 52 times this year. Bring it on!!
7. Mop floors every week
This one is pretty self explanatory. I have wood floors so if I stay on top of it weekly at least it shouldn't be too long of a task.
8. Visit teach every month
Okay so right now I don't have a visiting teaching assignment, let alone a calling at all, but I am planning to do it once assigned.. if that ever happens. We have been in our new ward for a couple months and they keep promising a calling, so I am preparing to be consistent in one now so that when it comes along I am ready!
9. Have the missionaries over for dinner at LEAST once a month
We have had both the sisters and elders over at least once a month each. It has honestly been such a blessing! Being new in the ward they have really helped us feel welcome and get to know people in our ward. They are really fun and Conner loves swapping mission stories with them. Everytime they are over there is a special spirit in our home. This is a thing I would like to continue to do, so they will be coming over at least once a month to suffer through my poorly cooked meals. Yay for them!
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| Conner and his best friend Josh serving in Brazil! Yay for missionaries! |
Both Conner and I have siblings serving full-time missions in Central America right now. Conner served a mission for two years in Sao Paolo, Brazil when he was 19. What he learned and experienced continue to bless our lives every single day. Plus he learned Portugese which is SUPER cool. To learn more about missionaries and what they do, just ask me, or go here!
10. Write in my journal at least once a week.(Blog counts!!!)
I am terrible at being consistent with this. Most of my journal entries are an attempt to cover from the last time I wrote up until the present. I am done playing catch up. I am committing to write in either my journal or blog at least once a week. This is me attempting to fulfill my personal family history.
11. Have some kind of date night every week
Whether this is just a movie at home or a nice dinner out, I want to have at least two hours of uninterrupted date time a week. Sometimes I feel like we are on one continuous date all the time since we don't have kids, but developing this habit now will help us be consistent with it once we have children.
12. Attend the temple every single month, if not more
The temple is a place I really love!! I cannot express how I feel while I am there. There is no other place on earth where I feel closer to God. Here is a video about temples. Here is a more detailed video. I want to be consistent in my temple attendance. We now live less than 30 minutes from the Redlands Temple and I want to go every month with Conner. I love the spirit there and it helps me feel refreshed and renewed. I want to go as much as possible.
13. Pay off debt & be debt free
Okay this one is a big one. Conner and I have been working on really cracking down on our debt. We have both promised ourselves that we would like to become completely debt free this year. This will require a lot of discipline and consistently saying NO when I want to get something that we don't really need. We are going to be making a lot of personal sacrifices to achieve this goal. I am ready for it and can't wait to finally say that we are debt free!!!
14. Try to be more like Christ.
Becoming more like Christ is a change in behavior and the way we think. I want to face this year with the consistent thought; "How would Christ handle this situation?" or "What would Christ's reaction be?" The more I try to line my thoughts and actions with him, the closer I will feel to him and the better I will feel everyday!
So 2014 BRING IT ON!! I am excited to be consistent this year and to see how much our little family can grow in a year! I will be posting all year long about how my goals are going and such. Happy new year from Conner and I! Make it a great year or not, the choice is yours!
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