2013 Goals: January Update

I'm taking a(nother) page from Money Saving Mom's book and revisiting my annual goals each month to survey my progress or lack thereof.

Here are my goals for this year with comments about my progress in January.

Christmas:

Follow along with Rudolph Day tasks each month to get Christmas tasks accomplished. {Did this in January.}

Save up money throughout the year to fund Christmas gifts.

Save up money throughout the year for traveling to Chicago for Christmas.

Knit 12 Days of Christmas figures. {Did a little bit of this.}

Knitting:

Knit 20-30 striped dish cloths for gift packs. {Ha ha, I've done one.}

Knit as far as I can through The Knit Stitch. {I'm pretty much on pace for this project.}

Parenting:

Work on Raising Happiness concepts: Put on my oxygen mask first, teach mindfulness, use turtle steps to reach a big goal, make a community for my children, teach emotional intelligence, improve my marriage to improve my parenting. {I'm definitely working bit by bit on these.}

Try not to move away from this area. {So far, so good.}

Continue to slowly train children in life skills a la The Parenting Breakthrough. {Working on these on a daily basis.}

Continue to homeschool. {Yep.}

Start a playgroup for Xander once a week. {Yes, but haven't sent out our first invite yet.}

Financial:

Pay off at least one debt. {We've made a couple of extra payments so far.}

Follow The Total Money Makeover and Money Saving Mom's Budget advice. {Yep.}

Marriage:

Use Gottman's five hours a week plan to become closer: 5 minutes in the morning finding out what my husband has planned for the day, 5 minutes a day cuddling or giving friendly touches, 15 minutes or so at the end of his work day decompressing and listening to each other (couch time!), and 2 hours once a week spending quality date time. {Really trying to do this each day/week.}

Go outside the house on a date once a month. {Not last month.}

Personal:

Run almost every day. If I can't, use the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred video. {On track.}

Try to do additional exercise, like strength training, Pilates, or just stretching every day.

Take care of my hygiene - don't leave myself for last. {Doing well on this.}

Give some type of service each Sunday. {Done a little bit of this.}

Attend church.

Cleaning:

Stay fully on top of laundry, meals, and training/being there for the kids, every day. {Done pretty well on this.}

Stick to routines that keep our floors reasonably clean, surfaces uncluttered, objects dusted, sheets changed, spills cleaned up, rooms tidied, and cars cleaned. {So-so.}

Try to keep cleaning tasks to less than two hours per day.