An Elephant Never Forgets: 2018 Goals

Oh, Judah.  How I miss that cue ball head!

Every day is a gift.   Not just a gift to be opened and enjoyed.  But a gift to do something with.  Every Sunday is a nice crisp brown paper package tied with a bow.  The start of a fresh week.  Every January is a huge honkin' box sitting pretty right in my living room.  What should I do with it, I wonder.

I have found that the best way to do something worthwhile with my day (my week) (my year) (my life) is to make goals.   Not really resolutions, as they seem be lost pretty quickly after having been named.  But for me- goal setting at the beginning of the year is like list-making at the beginning of the week.  (I do that too.)  That written-out plan helps to ground myself in what needs to be done and shows me how best to use my time and resources.

I saw a lot of good happening in the beginning of the year last year, when I was working hard with my goals.  I know those are worthwhile. Many of this years' goals will be reincarnations of last years' because, unfortunately, though they were valuable, they were not lasting.

In order to avoid the Forget-Goals-By-July problem (as you read in my last post), I am printing this list out and putting it on my fridge this year so that I will be reminded of it often.  And since meals come three times a day, I'll be reminded often. ;-)   I am also putting a chart to check off some of the weekly goals.  I love a good check-off.

Here are my goals for this anno domini 2018:

~ Financial ~ 

I'm going all Dave Ramsey this year to make these goals attainable.  It will require tremendous focus and discipline- these are very lofty goals.

• save to pay for a new window in Dining Room (replacing the one that is currently broken in half and being held together by duct tape.)
• pay off Rebecca medical bills and start on Adele' medical bills.
• pay off van
• pay for cow to be butchered
• pay off credit card BEFORE tax return
• begin Andrew dental work fund.  VERY IMPORTANT.
• pay half of tractor loan

Review/Revise Budget at the start of every month.  

~ Hopestead ~

• repaint living room
• try growing spaghetti squash (they are GOOD!)
• add at least one nut tree/bush
• add grapes
• make new strawberry patch using any plants I can find still growing in the old one.
• re-do girls room, staying within budget

~ Personal ~

• read scripture at least 3 times a week.  (Log in book journal books as they are completed until whole Bible has been read.)
• pray often for the Parsig family this year 
• schedule computer time
• lose at least 10 pounds by July (I'd like to say 20 but let's be real, shall we?)
• exercise at least 3 times a week through winter. (I'd like to do this all year but hot summers and busy canning seasons always shut me down.  I want to be sure I can check this off next January- so I am giving myself grace.  I can certainly continue after winter.)
• read more books than last year.  Continue to log them in book journal. (At least 22 books.)
• Read aloud at least 12 for-pleasure chapter books to children. 
• read at least one Lord of the Rings book with Corynn
• Make a Heritage photo album of all of the old photos we keep accumulating and/or are making copies of.  Nothing fancy- just put them in an album instead of in old books.  ;-)
• Less than 10 cups of soda the whole year.  (Only in emergency cases of extreme migraine/sleep exhaustion.  Again- grace.)
• Make Judah baby album
• Do enough yarn projects this year to empty at least one basket of yarn.
• Make handmade gifts for my parents and parents' in law for Christmas next year.

Also- I am not sure how to make this a measurable goal- but one change I would like to make this year is my volume.  I've noticed I yell a lot more than I want to lately...sometimes out of sheer necessity to be heard in the chaos that is this house (and yeah, that should change too.  If you ever find out THAT secret, let me know)  and sometimes, I admit, simply out of frustration.  If you have to yell to discipline your children- you're doing it wrong.  Or so I have always believed.  (soapbox)  And I am speaking to myself here.

I want to be conscientious of that and speak more kindly and calmly and quietly, even when frustrated.  That would be the most 'resolutiony' of the goals- but one I really am going to work on this year.

My hopes for this year seem to be many, but really they can all be boiled down to 'Choose Wisely'.

We are always making choices.    Sometimes, vegging with a movie on Friday night and Saturday night (with bowl of ice cream in hand) is easier for me than reading books aloud to my children.    Eating drive-thru would be so much faster than coming home and making supper.  Eating sugar goes down my throat a lot easier than spinach. Letting Morning Time with Mama slip past me but still managing to eek out a few minutes (or more) behind the computer seems a bit hypocritical....but I've done it more than I'd like to admit.  Buying something that is good but that I don't need feels better than paying down bills with those few extra bucks.

Sometimes there is an obvious 'should' and an obvious 'shouldn't'.  Sometimes both options are good ones.  But there is always one that has a bit more wisdom in it.

 I'm going to try to choose WISELY.