February Goals

 My friend Regan is keeping me accountable with goals this year being so faithful to hers!

  I'm all about measurable goals...probably too much so.  I need to have something to measure at small increments to keep myself on track.  I am happy to say that January has seen some improvement with scheduling!  Since I got a late start though, I didn't have specific goals for January itself.  Now 2 days into February, here we go with the specific goals.  

-  Read  1 chapter of Proverbs each day

·      Start Beth Moore Bible Study.  I am very excited about this!  I have done Beth Moore studies before, but it has been a long time.  Our chaplain has been preaching through the book of James on Sundays, James is a great parallel study to Proverbs and it is one of my favorite books - all great reasons to start with this study. I've ordered the book and can download the audio sessions whenever I'm ready for them.  

Here's a description of the study:

James, Jesus' own brother, started out as a skeptic. See how one glimpse of the resurrected Savior turned an unbeliever into a disciple. Bible scholars compare James to the prophet Amos. In other ways, James more closely resembles the Book of Proverbs than any other New Testament book. Topics in this study include: joy, hardship, faith, reversal of fortunes for rich and poor, wisdom, gifts from above, single-mindedness, the dangers of the tongue, humility, and prayer. 

·     - Clean out closets out - why does this need to be done so often? My husband's closet is the one that needs to be tackled first!  Not sure if its nesting, but I have a strong desire to purge and organize all the girls' toys.  The bookshelves and bins are overflowing.  While I can certainly purge, I don't want to put too much effort into organizing rooms when I know we are about to put them in the same room.  Chad finds out March 1st if he has made the promotion list for Major (his first look).  If he does, we are going to try and move up the hill to a neighborhood almost identical to the one we lived in at Ft. Drum (except no nice privacy fences!).  The draftiness of this house and the lack of garage in the winter are my major motivations to move if we can.  Obviously an extra bedroom would be a huge bonus too. We can't get on the list until we know about the promotion though.  If a house doesn't become available pretty soon, we will just stay where we are for the remainder of our time at West Point.  Even though Memorial Day timeframe is the busiest moving season for any Army post, West Point is even more so because almost everything revolves around the cadet school calendar.  If a house isn't available during the big moving season, the likelihood that one would come open during the school year is pretty slim.  We wouldn't want to wait until the next year to move since there is no sense in moving with one year left!  So my desire for extreme organization is going to have to wait at least another month. 

·      Facebook less.  I'm sure I'm not the only person that struggles with this.  It really isn't that I care that much about what is going on on FB, its just habit to pick up my phone or computer.  This can derail my daily schedule very quickly.

·      8 blog posts - some posts are going to be pretty old, but I promise they will not all be me talking about goals or food. :)

·      - Dinner earlier   Another effort to maintain a better daily schedule.  I grew up eating dinner at 7 or 7:30 every night.  I have migrated closer to 6 or 6:30 since having kids, but I have found it works out much better for our family is dinner is on the table at 5:30 or 6:00.  It creates a more peaceful after dinner process, including reducing the urge to leave the dishes for later.  This requires some dinner prep at 4 or 4:30...which is the biggest struggle for me.

·      Better food prepping schedule.  I hate waking up to discover all the boiled eggs and almond bars are gone.  When we try not to eat a lot of carbs, not having breakfast prepared spells disaster most mornings.  I love to cook, but I hate getting my kitchen dirty in the mornings.  Setting up a day each week to boil eggs, make almond bars, flax seed muffins, egg muffins, etc... will help ensure breakfast is healthy, quick and clean. 

·      Scrapbook 15^th & 16^th   This semester Chad has several classes on the weekend.  I am going to hopefully use some of this time to get back in the scrap booking rhythm.  

- 3 Family Fun nights.  We had our first Family Fun night last night.  Addison chose to play Cranium and we had popcorn and cookies.  (I happened to be making cookies for Chad to take somewhere on Saturday.)  Addison about fell in the floor when I told her she could have both.  Evidence its not an everyday occurrence!  Cranium with a six and three year old is a little challenging, but it was fun!  Addison and I won! :) 

·      Date night – 21^st I can't even remember the last time Chad and I went out by ourselves. Not great I know.  I set this date later in the month to give myself time to find a babysitter that we like.