GOALS: DECEMBER AND JANUARY

We've made it to 2017!  I always love a new year and a new start.  I've chosen a word to lead me through the year and have set some related goals and intentions for the year.

I am also going to continue sharing my monthly goals here because I find that sharing my successes and failures really motivates me.  I don't like to admit defeat (or laziness).

Here's a look back at my December goals:

1. Decide on a word to be my One Little Word for 2017.  Done!  My word for the year is NURTURE.  I wrote my first post on my 2017 word here.

2. Restart core-training exercises.  Progress.  I started the month strong with almost daily exercises and ended pretty poorly, but haven't completely stopped.  The big thing that I notice when I'm going strong is that I have much improved posture and am much more aware when I sit or stand hunched over.

3. Organize the basement desk area.  Done.  The desktop is cleaned off, which was my main goal.  I didn't clean out all of the drawers, but I went through a couple of them.  I got rid of some stuff as I went and made the desktop usable.  I don't have a lot of space in the house that feels like it is truly "mine."  I think I'm going to claim this desk space and strive to use it on a regular basis.  

4. Walk a minimum of 300,000 steps.  Yep!  Woot.  As expected, it was a bit of a challenge with sick kids, my own bout of flu, cold weather and lazy holiday days.  But, I got it done and I'm proud of myself for doing so.

5. Advent success.  Done.  I defined success as completing my advent devotional, making sure our Elf on the Shelf found a new home each night and spending lots of time reading and talking about the holiday with the kids.

Also: In one of my "currently" posts in November, I mentioned that I was trying to use our cloth diapers more consistently.  My goal was to make it to the end of the month without spending money on disposable diapers.  Happily, I made it through both November and December without buying any.

And now onto this year!  My January goals are as follows:

1. Finish four books.  This would get me off to a great start for my reading goal for the year.

2. Walk a minimum of 300,000 steps.  Again.  

3.  Do a major toy / kid stuff purge and sort.  I did this last April and it was wonderful.  I felt the benefits for many months.  I don't really think that there's that much to purge (although I may be surprised), but I think we could definitely benefit from sorting and storing some things away for a few months.

Also, Maggie is on the verge of crawling.  It is becoming something of a necessity to move all of the "little pieces" into areas where neither she nor the boys can reach them.  I think I will use the upper shelf in Sam's closet to store all the toys with tiny pieces and tell the boys they can only play with them with adult supervision and only at the table or in the basement.

4.  Finalize a "January through March Family Bucket List" and make progress on crossing things off the list.  This is something we've done in the past, but haven't done consistently.  I started a document with some ideas, but need to talk through them with Brian and see what he has to add.

The photo above is from a year ago.  It's amazing to me how the boys look both "so little" and also just like themselves.