Goals for 2016

Last week we held a family meeting to discuss the goals we had all set last January. Most of us got at least half of our goals accomplished, and my husband was especially pleased to have hit his biggest goal. I did well on mine too, although much of the progress came late in the year… as in, December. But who’s counting?

Among other things, I hope my family can stay OUT of hospitals this year. We had 4 significant medical events requiring an E.R. visit or hospital stay (only one of them involving actual illness) last year, but I suppose that’s par for the course when you have several active children (including a preemie).

Mostly, I hope my life settles down to a more normal routine. Last year was all about trying to get my preemie to gain weight.  He’s still not stellar at it despite eating all the solid foods he wants, with butter and/or peanut butter on everything! My business, social life and personal goals all took a huge backseat while I adjusted to life with a fragile baby, but now he’s growing into a thriving toddler and is doing great.

After giving it some thought and talking with my family, these are the goals I’ve set for 2016, along with a few to-dos to give myself accountability (I’ll update and cross them off as I get them done). Last year’s focus was definitely on family and home, and this year’s goals mostly revolve around that theme was well.

2016 Goals

Biz & Financial:

* Send newsletter weekly – I was terrible about emailing my subscribers last year. No more.
* Write a blog post at least 3/week – plan more posts on paper, less freestylin’

Personal/Spiritual:

* Continue my good daily habits: Bible reading /French practice / walking
* Memorize a Bible verse each month
* Do a digital declutter once a month – I was nearly at the limit of my free Google storage space so I began this last week. It was awesome to delete hundreds of junk pics, videos and files, making it easier to actually find what I need.
* Continue monthly budget redo (I use EveryDollar, the free version. I love it.)

New habit: moisturize cuticles and feet nightly – I know, not exactly earth-shattering, but the simplest habits can make your life better, and ragged cuticles are so not chic. (Kicking low maintenance to the curb this year. Maybe I’ll go nuts and get an actual manicure.)

Family & Home:

* Take an epic vacation – New York or bust!
* Take one kid off alone each week
* Hug each kid at least once a day – I’ve found that I don’t hug the older kids as much as I used to, especially the boys. I want to change that.
* Continue good “phone hygiene” – no phone after supper, observe screen sabbath Saturdays.
* Address problems with the kids sooner than later – I have a high tolerance for bad kid behavior and need to work on nipping things in the bud when they’re still small problems and not entrenched habits.
* Keep a cleaner house – my house was definitely neglected some (normal with a new baby, methinks) this year. The “daily” stuff got done, but the weekly/monthly tasks were often overlooked. I created a weekly schedule for that stuff and will stick to it
* Spring: once yard sale season begins, begin yard-sailing (sale-ing? saling?) in earnest Friday mornings to snag deals

To Dos:

– Upgrade CarrieWillard.com
– Sell a neglected recipe website (interested? leave a comment below), delete files from hosting
– Hire someone to design an attractive newsletter template
– Watch all the aweber how-to videos – I’ve used aweber to manage my subscriber list for eons, love them, but they’ve made a lot of changes to their interface and I need to get up to speed.
– Buy a new living room rug, sofa and breakfast table for the kitchen (this is the year of the House Upgrade)
– Buy a badminton or volleyball set for the backyard
– Buy Josiah a tot swing (speaking of yard sales, these are legion), install outside
– Buy Sadie and Ruby a new bike – they’ve outgrown their old ones
– Get my teeth cleaned. It just didn’t happen last year. Gross.

Shameless plug: I got an email from a fellow blogging friend who said this about my book on habits:

I like your conversational, storytelling style. There’s a good balance between research and personal anecdote- a very easy read. You got me thinking again about habits, just in time for the new year.

Thanks Leanne!