2016 Goals

In an effort to share my thoughts and memories of our family more, I am coming back to the blogging world! I was so good about it a few years ago and then life happened, we gained a few more kids, homeschool started and there was a lapse. So here is to BRINGING BLOGGING BACK for 2016 :)

Fitting as we start a new year to share our family's goals for the upcoming year. I am a big goal setter and I love to plan ahead. At the beginning of the year, it is a fresh start to get a game plan for how you want your year to look. Now if it goes according to plan, or better! is up to God! But I would much rather live a life by design rather than in default mode... so here is to planning ahead!!

I've shared some of our overall goals in the picture above but now I will go into a little more detail to show you what the plan is for each of these in case you too are planning ahead and want ideas.

Growing deeper in Christ- we have committed to praying together daily as a family, meeting with our discipleship groups once a week, and diving into more Scripture together. We also want to do book studies together and will start Shepherding a Child's heart in January to begin.

Say Yes more to kids- simply stated, I say NO ALOT! Its not good and I am making a conscious effort to stop. I have little reminders up on sticky notes in my home to remind me daily. Unless it is mandatory to say NO... I will choose to say Yes more.

Exercise- we did well with eating better in 2015 and now we need to add in exercise again. We go in spurts doing well, but again, life happens. JR and I have committed to doing morning workouts together 3 times a week, starting with P90x. Yall pray for me! Ha but seriously, we feel so much better when we do!

Invest in our marriage- we are doing a marriage retreat in January and planning to spend time away together for our 10 year anniversary in September. Life with 3 kids is chaos, and we need to connect more one on one. We will also do bi-monthly dates. Planning ahead now to make those happen!

Connect more with friends- in the busyness of life we typically crash every night instead of making an effort to connect more with friends. I want that to change. I love having relationships and it is worth investing time with people and so we will do that. At least once a month we will have a couple over for dinner. We are fortunate to have lots of friends in the area and I want to live life WITH people, not in a constant state of busyness where time passes by without connecting.

Have fun as a family monthly- We got Dollywood tickets for Christmas and I plan for either the kids and I to go once a month, or the whole family! During the winter months we will pick an indoor thing to do outside of the home together. Our kids are at fun ages and we want to invest the time to make memories together!

Blog more frequently- planning to do it once a week or so and share about life, marriage, homeschooling, raising kids, running a business, and whatever else comes up in the mean time. Check back often for more!

Dream bigger in business- I started with very small goals for R+F last year and this year I am setting off to dream BIGGER! More on that to come :)

one on one time with each child- very important to have individual time with each of our kids and so once a month Jr or I will take one out for a 1 on 1 date. Some of my favorite times with them are these and we want to make them happen more frequently! Again.. plan ahead!

plan 10 year anniversary trip- another way to invest in our marriage and celebrate what God has done in 10 years! We are planning now for a September get away!!

pray daily and give more generously- like our first goal to grow deeper in Christ, these two are very important things that we want to do more of as Christ followers. Love God and Love People. Thats all thats important!!

Less yelling and more kind words- having 3 kids is hard. someone is always yelling or getting upset. We want to be better encouragers to have self-control and share kindness. This starts with JR and I as parents.. they model our examples and currently its not pretty.  Just being real. Big big changes ahead! I have an idea to spur us on as a family in this endeavor and I will share that on the blog soon too!

Thank you for reading! I would love to hear your family's goals as well! Here's to a fantastic 2016!