2026 Goals

 3 days in to 2026 already!

My goals for the year, very similar to last year, a little hopeful to cross things off the list once and for all in 2026 :)

Marriage Goals:

- Date nights 1x a month.

- Do The Husband Project. 

- Finish reading Cherish together.

- Dance lessons.

Mothering Goals:

- Complete the Parenting from Surviving to Thriving workbook together. So close, only 2 more chapters to go!

- Continue "Monday Momming" prayer check-ins with Liz. 

- Mom and kid date nights

Faith Goals:

- Read through my Intentional Word Bible. 

- Family Service Projects

- Do several mini devotions thru my Bible app.

Fitness/Health Goals:

- Weight between 135-140#

- 5k fun run with Doug

- Get (and keep) cholesterol and kidney numbers within normal limits (I feel so old even typing that)

Personal Goals:

- Use the harp lessons from my 40th bday. 

- German lessons

- Find some time to play the piano

- Read more of my book pile

Home Goals: 

- Save $1k/month towards a mortgage

- Make some sort of progress towards moving

Travel Goals: 

- Go visit Joel

- Girls' roadtrip to go visit Brigetta

- Family cruise (signed up for it in February!! 🥳 excited to cross 2 more countries off my list!)

- Midwest road trip this summer

And again, hard to quantify, but this year more that anything I want more of Jesus - less of me. More of love and peace and patience and kindness - and less of short temper and selfishness. More hugs and cuddles with my kiddos, more smiles and hand holds and hugs for my husband. More of what matters and letting the things that don't - go. Here's to 2026!

Reflections on 2025

Yes, I know I checked out of blogging. 

Maybe I mentioned before, but this blogspot hosting site is actually really annoying to use. Everything is hard about it from start to finish: logging in, uploading pics- it always does it in the wrong order, and... I guess that's it, but those things make it time consuming when I really don't feel I have that much extra spare time to give.

I think this blog served its purpose in self-reflecting thru a hard time, and has been fun here and there, but mostly now feels like another chore. Hence, not being on here hardly ever.

That said, I do like setting goals and then reflecting on them later- so here I am. 

And here we go.

All year I kept this piece of paper in a desk drawer and I could look at it and see where I was at, that was helpful to see it consistently and be reminded, but there were A LOT of 'no's or just didn't get to it yets... 

Marriage Goals:

- Complete the Love & Respect workbook with Doug. I want to get back into doing this, it should be so easy to do this on the weekday when I work, when I really don't feel like doing much more when I come home after work. - nope, it's been sitting there all year 

- Date nights 1x a month. - probably 8 out of 12 months we had a date night!

- Do The Husband Project. - not yet

- Pray consistently for Doug and our marriage. - always going thru Power of a Praying Wife book of prayers, but still needs that consistency 

- Finish reading Cherish together. - nope

Mothering Goals:

- Complete the Parenting from Surviving to Thriving workbook together. 4 more chapters to go! - CLOSE, we did a few, and have just 2 lessons left

- Continue "Monday Momming" prayer check-ins with Liz. - yes! Liz and I have emailed every Monday and traded prayer requests, altho my prayer life could use some more time and fervor all around

- Be better with menu-planning/grocery shopping to save time & money - did good in the first half of the year, getting tired of making food day in and out every day!!

- Figure out a way to eek out more one-on-one time with each kiddo - hard to quantify. Definitely more time with Lucy as we have a couple days alone, August always gets alone time with me at bedtime to read, but the girls share it. 

Faith Goals:

- Finish BSF. - Finished last year's study, and going strong, AND LOVING this years' study

- Read through my Intentional Word Bible. (I got 1/12th through in 2024.) - No, only made it to 2/12ths 

- Family Service Projects - nope, Doug and I couldn't agree on what to do, so we did nothing instead

- Do several mini devotions thru my Bible app, ones I've got saved are: - I did the Grit & Grace one (super good!) and also Overwhelmed by my Blessings

Work Goals:

- Finish off my 100 pack of index cards with writing 2 flashcards per shift: 1 drug and 1 disease/condition to study up on. - nope again

- Look into getting involved with the new Nurses Union. - looked into it and no one got back with me??!

Personal Goals:

- Use the harp lessons from my 40th bday. - nope

- Sign up for German lessons - I did get a language app, Mondly, from my friend, but haven't used it much

- Gratitude lists - started, not consistent

- Find a way to bring in some extra income - made a little extra, but not really enough to do anything with

- Read more of my book pile:

(and maybe re-read a few of my favorite child-raising ones too as we are in a difficult season right now! But that stack is shrinking, so I've made some progress last year!) - I read Prayer in the Night, Mama Bear Apologetics, and many others not on that list. But I didn't finish the others in that pile. 

I did read all these:

Fitness Goals: 

- At least 2 Keto Challenges. - I did 2 weeks in February, and 1 week in July

- Maintain weight and BMI under 24. - close, but this wasn't a great year for weight. I did lots of strength training. Finished Ashley's Firm 30 program and her 10 min plan, I've been doing workouts with Nourish Move Love. It has just been hard to lose weight/even stay at a weight these days. Maybe it's the perimenopause? Maybe it's the carbs? I did find my testosterone is low. I don't know, but it has been disheartening. I just keep on keeping on.

There have been other 'health things' that got added in 2025 without being on the horizon back in 2024- the biggest is getting a grain mill and grinding our own flour and making a lot of the bread we eat. This too has been a learning curve, and we for sure have not switched completely. But we have definitely been getting more of the nutrients from the whole grains back into the food and I'm sure that is a good thing. This podcast inspired that decision. 

- Complete a 5k or Fun Run of some sort - nope

- Heal up my diastasis recti, I thought I'd healed it in PT, but seems to be cracking open again - I've been doing a lot of core in the above programs, so I think there has been some progress, but hard to tell without an official PT measuring. 

Not resolutions, but hopes: 

- More photos in our photo travel map (aka more trips... we are going to Florida in March, and plan to go to Pennsylvania, and up to the U.P. this summer. So that'd only be one "new photo" place, but still looking forward to them anyway.) - Yes! we added photos/checked off: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware & even squeezed in New Jersey

- Rental property/ and/or Move. - no surprise here, but yeah, no. We remain in our home and mostly priced out/ interest rates too prohibitive for moving. 

2025 was I would say overall a good year. A hard year. The kids are a blessing, but a definite strain on both me personally and our marriage. This year I have been intentional on having more "me" time. And while I feel selfish needing that, I think and hope it can make me more refreshed and ready to give back. Although in some ways, the more I have, the more I want. So that is tricky. But this year I both played tennis in the spring, and did country line dance lessons in the fall, and of course, my monthly book club nights out. Another thing I did was over the summer fly down to see my friend in Missouri, we road-tripped to Oklahoma and climbed a mountain we had climbed together 20 years ago. It was really hard. But so wonderful to have that time together and to see how strong we still were all these years later. 

It's really frustrating as these years go by my kids seem messier, not less, and some bad behavior patterns don't seem to be lessening. I know "it takes a childhood to train a child" but the progress of certain things, especially the annoying bad behavior ones, just seem extra draining. It has been hard to respond with patience and grace a lot of the time and I know I am the model and the barometer for the home, so that feels like a lot of pressure. 

Anyway, I don't know the HOW but I do want there to be a change of heart (mine!!) over the next year. 

2025 Goals

 Bring on 2025!!

I love the inspiration a new year brings. Although, this year I still have a lot of carryovers. Nothing like a good check-list to get me motivated.

Marriage Goals:

- Complete the Love & Respect workbook with Doug. I want to get back into doing this, it should be so easy to do this on the weekday when I work, when I really don't feel like doing much more when I come home after work.

- Date nights 1x a month.

- Do The Husband Project. 

- Pray consistently for Doug and our marriage. 

- Finish reading Cherish together.

Mothering Goals:

- Complete the Parenting from Surviving to Thriving workbook together. 4 more chapters to go!

- Continue "Monday Momming" prayer check-ins with Liz. 

- Be better with menu-planning/grocery shopping to save time & money

- Figure out a way to eek out more one-on-one time with each kiddo

Faith Goals:

- Finish BSF. 

- Read through my Intentional Word Bible. (I got 1/12th through in 2024.)

- Family Service Projects

- Do several mini devotions thru my Bible app, ones I've got saved are: 

Work Goals:

- Finish off my 100 pack of index cards with writing 2 flashcards per shift: 1 drug and 1 disease/condition to study up on. 

- Look into getting involved with the new Nurses Union.

Personal Goals:

- Use the harp lessons from my 40th bday. 

- Sign up for German lessons

- Gratitude lists

- Find a way to bring in some extra income

- Read more of my book pile:

(and maybe re-read a few of my favorite child-raising ones too as we are in a difficult season right now! But that stack is shrinking, so I've made some progress last year!)

Fitness Goals: 

- At least 2 Keto Challenges.

- Maintain weight and BMI under 24.

- Complete a 5k or Fun Run of some sort

- Heal up my diastasis recti, I thought I'd healed it in PT, but seems to be cracking open again

Not resolutions, but hopes: 

- More photos in our photo travel map (aka more trips... we are going to Florida in March, and plan to go to Pennsylvania, and up to the U.P. this summer. So that'd only be one "new photo" place, but still looking forward to them anyway.)

- Rental property/ and/or Move.

I look forward to all 2025 holds, I pray I can grow deeper in my relationship with the Lord, and also grow more in love and caring and (ungriping) service to my husband and family.

Reflections on 2024 Goals

Oh wow, another year behind and all the potential of the new year ahead. 

Taking a look back on the goals I set in January:

*    *    *    *    *

Marriage Goals:

- Complete the Love & Respect workbook with Doug. - Yikes, only read 16 out of 52. 

- Date nights 1x a month (and weekly "date nights/connection time" at home also. - Date nights done in February, May, August, September, and October. Room for improvement!

- Attend a marriage conference. - Yes! Our church hosted a really great marriage conference based on this Cherish book, we also went to another one-night marriage conference hosted by the Christian radio station. 

- Do The Husband Project. - No, but I still want to.

- Pray consistently for Doug and our marriage. - I've been praying thru the Power of a Praying Wife book of prayers, I really love this little book. It covers all the basics. I read thru 1.5 times and plan to just keep praying through it again and again. Of course, there can never been enough prayer and always room for more.

Mothering Goals:

- Complete the Parenting from Surviving to Thriving workbook together. - We made progress! We're up to 8 out of 12 lessons done now.

- Continue "Monday Momming" prayer check-ins with Liz. - Yes! Liz and I have been faithfully emailing on Mondays, sharing our prayer requests, and praying for each other during the week.

- * remember people matter more than a clean house!!! * - Uggg, this one is really hard to "check off", it's been a hard year of trying to prioritize people through the piles of toys and crafts and laundry and dishes... so this definitely needs to be still continued to be on my heart.

Faith Goals:

- Finish BSF. - Finished John and now 3 months into the Revelation study.

- Use the "snooze button" time to read my Bible instead. - Total fail. Not only didn't do this, but also so many times of snoozing in instead of getting started with my day.

Work Goals:

- Write 2 flashcards per shift: 1 drug and 1 disease/condition to study up on. - Ok, I started off good on this. Until halfway thru the year the hospital went through a really huge charting change and it took a lot more time to get used to. I have mixed feelings on if I want to continue this goal or not. I for sure can use the refreshers of all the different medicines and so many conditions, but I have also started to use those few minutes here and there during my shift to read through some of my parenting books, and have made some progress with them, so that has also seemed a good use of time also.

Personal Goals:

- Use the harp lessons from my 40th bday. - Fail. 

- Read (some?) of my book pile: 

- I read from my pile (and those added to it):

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist

The Silver Chair (with August)

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

The Magician's Nephew (with August)

For the Love of Discipline (loved it)

Habits for Godly Women

Don't Make me Count to Three! (loved it)

The Last Battle (with August)

Why Doesn't God Stop Evil?

Love & Logic (and took a 8wk parenting course)

Little House in the Big Woods (with August)

Women, Food and Hormones

Habits of the Household (loved!!)

And I read for bookclub:

The Saints of Swallow Hill

The Women

Just for the Summer (loved it)

The Tattoist of Auswitz

Maybe Next Time

The Unhoneymooners

For a Lifetime

should've been 12, but 1 missed the first 2 trying a new business venture and was too busy, 1 didn't come from the library, and 1 about 7 husbands I didn't want to read.

Fitness Goals: 

- Complete the 10 minute plan. - Finished it. Not my favorite, but some good workouts.

- Complete the Firm 30 series.   - Finished it. And going thru it again now. In it, I found some workout moves that I've never seen before. And I feel really strong doing it.

- I'll add myself to the millions of people who want to lose 10 lbs as a resolution! I've slowly and steadily gained weight since quitting breastfeeding last spring. My body is actually at what I would say the weight it likes to be at, but I like to be about 5-10 lbs lighter. Even that little makes a difference in the looseness of the pants, the effort to run up a flight of stairs, the difference in my face in photos, etc. Just obviously hard to do, especially when one already exercises and eats pretty healthfully, and is now over 40... 😩 - Lost 4-5lbs over the year as a whole, looking back at my January weight. It really helped that I read this great book over the summer, really made me think and get motivated to make some changes. And I'm reading thru this one now too. It's really good, and I'm wanting to do more keto challenges in 2025 as well. 

Not resolutions, but hopes: 

- More photos in our photo travel map. - We went to Nevada/Utah/California over winter break and did some National Parks. We did a family vacation in the Dells in Wisconsin and went up to Minnesota to spend some time with my cousins there too. Then we had a wedding and some time in Chicago. So we got 5 new pictures for our travel map!

- We'd love to get a 2nd rental property, we'll see what happens with the economy this year. - Nope. Didn't even really look with interest rates at 6-7%. 

- We're also looking to move, although I'm not going to move unless it's "the one". I do need to pray that Doug and I will be in unity about a decision- we ended up having some good conversations from what happened with the house we lost out on, but it was hard. We need to have a team approach going forward. - We offered on a house for ourselves, but got outbid, so that was that.  But we didn't fight too much about it, so that was a pro!

- Doug has been wanting to do something volunteer wise with the kids, so we've been thinking about what we could do while still having little ones. - Mostly no, our church has something called "secret service" where pop-up volunteer opportunities arise, with not a big time investment usually, so Doug did one with August once setting up chairs and tables, and I did one with him decorating for Christmas. But room for more.

*    *    *    *    *

It's been a hard year, good overall, room for personal improvement. Lots of joys, lots of hard things, some painful loss, and worry, and stress. But also witnessing God's goodness and faithfulness too.

2024 Goals

 New Year, new goals!!!

I love setting goals. This year I wrote them on a piece of paper with kind of a checklist aspect. I am VERY motivated by checking things off. And I plan to keep this in sight this year, instead of just forgetting about the goals until the end of the year.... 😖

Marriage Goals:

- Complete the Love & Respect workbook with Doug. Read 15 of 52 chapters so far. 

- Date nights 1x a month (and weekly "date nights/connection time" at home also.

- Attend a marriage conference. 

- Do The Husband Project. 

- Pray consistently for Doug and our marriage. 

Mothering Goals:

- Complete the Parenting from Surviving to Thriving workbook together. Did 2 of 12 lessons so far. 

- Continue "Monday Momming" prayer check-ins with Liz. 

- * remember people matter more than a clean house!!! * 

(these motherhood thoughts get me every time!)

Faith Goals:

- Finish BSF. 

- Use the "snooze button" time to read my Bible instead. 

Work Goals:

- Write 2 flashcards per shift: 1 drug and 1 disease/condition to study up on. 

Personal Goals:

- Use the harp lessons from my 40th bday. 

- Read (some?) of my book pile: 

(I also plan to keep a list of books I read, so I can remember that too.)

Fitness Goals: 

- Complete the 10 minute plan.

- Complete the Firm 30 series.   

- I'll add myself to the millions of people who want to lose 10 lbs as a resolution! I've slowly and steadily gained weight since quitting breastfeeding last spring. My body is actually at what I would say the weight it likes to be at, but I like to be about 5-10 lbs lighter. Even that little makes a difference in the looseness of the pants, the effort to run up a flight of stairs, the difference in my face in photos, etc. Just obviously hard to do, especially when one already exercises and eats pretty healthfully, and is now over 40... 😩

Not resolutions, but hopes: 

- More photos in our photo travel map (flights already booked for a mid-winter break trip!)

- We'd love to get a 2nd rental property, we'll see what happens with the economy this year. 

- We're also looking to move, although I'm not going to move unless it's "the one". I do need to pray that Doug and I will be in unity about a decision- we ended up having some good conversations from what happened with the house we lost out on, but it was hard. We need to have a team approach going forward. 

- Doug has been wanting to do something volunteer wise with the kids, so we've been thinking about what we could do while still having little ones. 

Excited for this new year!!

Reflections on 2023 Goals

 Goals for 2023:

- Complete the Love & Respect workbook with Doug, there are 52 chapters so should be able to do 1/wk (I have seriously had this book back from Andrew days, never did it, and think it could only benefit us) - We did about 15 chapters.

- Complete a Parenting from Surviving to Thriving workbook together, 12 chapters, so 1/month - We completed 2 chapters. This workbook was pretty intense with each chapter being about an hour of reading/questions/reflections on our own childhoods and it was a good reference, but took a lot of time and thought. 

- Date nights 12x a year, finish our dance lessons CD together, and attend a marriage conference - We probably had about 6 date nights. We were doing good with our date trades with another couple friend until some issues came up, so we need to get back to hiring babysitters. We did some of the dance CD lessons, did not finish. And did not attend a marriage conference. We DID go on one short getaway cruise alone together for our anniversary, so that was great. 

- Purchase a new rental property - Nope. The still high Seller's market, 8% interest rates, etc were just not in our favor again this year. But our rental property is still going well, so we are thankful for that. 

- Use my harp lessons gift certificate Doug got me when I turned 40 - No, still need to!

- Make a school decision for our son, keep him in school or move to a hybrid/homeschool option - Yes. We made a decision to do the hybrid/homeschool option this year. I think we are mostly pleased with the decision? Some of the pros and cons are exactly the same thing. Pro= he's at home more; Con= he's at home more (lol)  = more work, more fighting, less time to spread between 3 kids. I do feel he is learning well. He obviously likes being home more having more time to play and more flexibility. The teaching him to read has been really hard. Next month we are going to hire a weekly tutor to hopefully help jumpstart his reading  a little better. It will be a whole new world when he can read. When we ask him if he likes this school option better, he says no, but always like something "I miss the playground" (the hybrid school meets in a church with no playground), or he misses his old friends. We have noticed that last year he would very very frequently ask strangers if they believed in God (his old school's motto was "share Christ's story with love") and we've noticed that settling down, which is a shame. I think the Wednesday chapel the old school used to have can be livestreamed, so I've been thinking about having him watch that weekly so he can still have that Godly aspect of school. The hybrid school is mostly ran by Christians, but since it is state funded, it is a neutral school. So we definitely miss that Christian aspect. But overall we do think it is working well for our family, so we plan to continue on next year for him as well as for our new kindergartener. 

- Complete the 10 minute plan (I did her 12 week postnatal plan pretty much on repeat all of 2022 so I'm ready to move to the next level) - I'm 1/3 done! I still ended up repeating the postnatal plan almost most of the year. I had some Diastasis Recti, even 2 years post pregnancy, and I was so afraid of moving on to her new program and maybe making it worse. So over the summer I did about 10 weeks of Physical Therapy to get that closed. When I finally got it good enough to "graduate" I started the new plan. I'm in phase 2 now, and I do like it, altho it's actually not as challenging as the prenatal one believe it or not. But she says phase 2 and phase 3 will progress, so maybe. I've already bought her Firm30 series to try after I finish this one. 

- Read through the pile of books that has been on my nightstand for years now

- Another year, another no. BUT I feel like I have to stop being so hard on myself about this one. Every year I read at least 10 books for book club. And I've read 3 of the Narnia books with August. And I know I've bought/been gifted prob 4 or 5 other books that I'm trying to work my way through. I was thinking about it, a fiction book I can just slam through in about 3 late nights on the couch, but these non-fiction, life changing books, just need so much thought and reflection, they are a slow go. 

Books (parenting) I did love this year:

30 short chapters, and helpful. I keep it in the bathroom for quick moments of "alone time" lol. Definitely worth the continual re-read. 

Only halfway through this one, but LOVING it. 

This was one I was surprised I liked so much, but it might be my favorite mothering book I've read. 

- Complete this prayer journal (I like it's weekly and not daily, seems more attainable) - I made several weeks in, I liked it, just couldn't make it a habit I guess. 

- Transition the girls into sharing a room (after 15+ months, we need the baby out of our room!) - Yes! Once we finally made the switch everything went fine. This was one of those things that I just was so anxious about forever, but when we finally just made a decision and did it, it was a lot smoother than I'd imagined. There was a little difficulty because I still nursed her at night, but she was starting to finally slow down at that point anyway, and was done nursing altogether a few months later. 

The room before:

Jeanie got a new bed, I found it by the road in our neighborhood. I knew it was a Grandma's house and she'd only used it for watching her granddaughter for sleepovers. I painted it white for my girl. 

Lucy's side got decorated for her. 

The girls' growth pictures, bookcase, and little collections. 

A room for 2 little girls:

- Get Jeanie potty trained - Yes! She's been most of the second half of the year accident free and that has been great. She goes without even telling me, or needing help, so that's been great. 

- Think about a job/career switch - Thought about it. Deciding to stay in my spot. I think I'd like to go to Mother/Baby, but would have to work midnights. I can't even fathom that logistically now, but maybe could revisit this when all the kids are in school, even the hybrid school, but we are about 3-4 years away from that anyway. But who knows, if we lose our parent babysitters at some point, we might have to make some sort of changes before then anyway. 

- Find some way to streamline cooking/cleaning/laundry??? - I know what works best is to have a list of 10 meals and just always have the ingredients to make them. I've had a big tupperware of fresh veggies that people grab from for lunches/snacks. But I do get annoyed that it's 99% me peeling/cutting/chopping those biweekly. Doug is a great help with grocery shopping tho. The second half of the year we have hired someone to come clean once a month. So at least once a month I have washed floors. Which is a lot more frequent than I could say before that. We got a cordless stick vacuum that I love and even August can use it to zip around and clean up after meals. And we got a very expensive new vacuum for the carpets, which even though it does a good job, unfortunately I hate it and wish we wouldn't have gotten it. It is so heavy and so loud I wear the kids ear protectors, and it has a dual motor so it's powerful, but that makes the vacuum part thick so it can't go into small spots like my last one. And I hate I'm stuck with this thing for like 10 years till it dies. Laundry, meh, no way to streamline that I've found, but sometimes I get the girls to help me. They love to put the stuff from the washer to the dryer and then can pull things out one at a time for me to fold. They love to match socks. But 5 people means laundry several times a week. 

2023 has been a really great year overall. We are blessed with healthy, happy, lively children. We were able to take a trip to Louisiana and Mississippi mid- February, a road trip to Vermont and New Hampshire and Niagara Falls over the  summer, we went up to Bois Blanc Island Labor Day weekend, and we did our kid-free Bahamas cruise. We enjoyed a 2 week long visit this summer with my brother and his family, spending lots of time together. We celebrated the birth of my sister's baby after YEARS of praying and waiting and hoping and praying some more. We've weathered some concerns with our parents' health, my mom's new knee early winter and Doug's dad's cancer scare. We are THANKFUL for all God's goodness in 2023 and hope and pray and continue to follow Him into 2024. 

2023

 Oh my gosh, I went to review my goals from last year and there weren't any! Geez.

So anyway, another year behind us and a fresh new year on the horizon. 

Goals for 2023:

- Complete the Love & Respect workbook with Doug, there are 52 chapters so should be able to do 1/wk (I have seriously had this book back from Andrew days, never did it, and think it could only benefit us)

- Complete a Parenting from Surviving to Thriving workbook together, 12 chapters, so 1/month

- Date nights 12x a year, finish our dance lessons CD together, and attend a marriage conference

- Purchase a new rental property

- Use my harp lessons gift certificate Doug got me when I turned 40

- Make a school decision for our son, keep him in school or move to a hybrid/homeschool option

- Complete the 10 minute plan (I did her 12 week postnatal plan pretty much on repeat all of 2022 so I'm ready to move to the next level)

- Read through the pile of books that has been on my nightstand for years now

- Complete this prayer journal (I like it's weekly and not daily, seems more attainable)

- Transition the girls into sharing a room (after 15+ months, we need the baby out of our room!)

- Get Jeanie potty trained

- Think about a job/career switch

- Find some way to streamline cooking/cleaning/laundry???

Pretty much my overall goal is to draw nearer to the Lord. Grow closer to Doug and strengthen our marriage. And be more intentional, loving, and purposeful in my relationships with my children. (and then expanding that to other family and friends.) It feels like such a busy season of life, but when will it not be? I want to be more at peace with the craziness and not let it swirl me away into chaos, and I want to find joy in the everyday drudgery of feed/clean/laundry/repeat. I heard this song the other day and I just was crying thinking about it, yes!! one day I won't be able to take any chances or spend that time, so the time is now. Looking forward to a new year, new growth, and new surprises along the way.

Reflections on 2020 Goals

If 2020 were a word, I'm pretty sure it could be summed up in one: "Covid". Well at least as I'm looking back on my 2020 goals:

- Read 2 books, then discuss and apply.  You & Me Forever and  Tactics Yes! We both read them, had some discussions here and there, but probably could have had a more thorough chapter by chapter discussion and lengthier application talks. 

- Lower my cholesterol into normal/good range! I did have a 3 month post-January recheck and my levels were lower, but still above normal. I will have another physical with blood work later this month, and recheck again. 

- Dance lessons. Um, yes? We bought the lessons! We did one so far, it was actually really fun, we just need to plan more "home dates" and do them. 

- Buy our second rental property and get it rented. Sheesh, again no. Last year we had an accepted offer, but then backed out after the inspection came back with tons of expensive repair to do. 

- See a financial adviser. Nope.

- Do a 5k together. Nope. Also, thanks to Covid, all 5ks this year were virtual. Lame. 

- Walk the Mackinac Bridge. No, this was also cancelled this year due to Covid, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do this thanks to my work schedule. If I don't work the actual holiday I'm required to work the day before or after so that would give no time for traveling up there :(

- Talk with our neighbors about building. We did chat with our neighbors about building, but also my desire to stay in this neighborhood has increased and there is no land available. We actually wrote several letters like "we like your house should you be thinking of selling!" and put them in mailboxes in our neighborhood, but no bites yet. 

- Learn to play a piano song. Nope. It seems like my free time is always during the kid's quiet times or after bedtimes, so I can't be plunking around on the piano :(

- Read through this stack of books:

I read Surrender to Love, and Retire Inspired, but the rest of those need to be read still. I did read 12 additional "fun" books, one a month for book club that I seem to have no problem whizzing through, but these "self-help" and application books take so much longer as I try to absorb the information and take notes. 

- Travel. Thanks to Covid, my host-brother in Germany ended up postponing his wedding to August 2021, so no international trips for us. But we did do some stateside traveling. Jeanie and I went to Colorado to visit my brother and his family in February; we did a weekend trip to South Branch, Michigan in June; and a long weekend in the UP in July. Glacier National Park, Montana in end of August; and Sedona, Arizona in October. And a couple times up North to see my Grandpa as well. 

2020 went differently than many of us planned, but it was a wonderful year of learning to be flexible, letting go, and trusting the Lord!

2020 Goals

This year, for the first time, Doug and I actually sat down and made some mostly joint goals for 2020.

- Read 2 books, then discuss and apply. The books are You & Me Forever which we got as a wedding gift 5 years ago, finally started reading this last fall, and realizing there is a lot to think about and could be pretty life changing if we allow ourselves to be changed. Doug feels the same about Tactics and so we will do the same with that one.

Doug has some weight loss goals, and unfortunately I got bad news from my new primary care doctor that I have "borderline high" cholesterol :( I was pretty surprised to see that, and disappointed as I already do exercise, not smoke, and eat pretty healthfully including lots of beans and fiber. But obviously that needs to come down. Heart disease is the #1 killer of women and I want to do all I can to be healthy and fit for myself and my family's sake.

- Lower my cholesterol into normal/good range! So I plan to exercise more faithfully, eat less cheese and icecream?, add salmon weekly and vegetarian dinners 2 nights a week. And then ask my doctor for a re-check in 3-4 months?

- Dance lessons. Saw a video on facebook and it looked so fun, so we're going to do that together.

- Buy our second rental property and get it rented. We are ready on the bank end, now just waiting for something decent to come on the market!

- See a financial adviser. This one is more what I want to do than Doug necessarily. We are saving into our Roths, 401k, 403b, 529s for the kids, and the rental property plan. I just want someone, with expertise, to look over our plans and see if we need any tweaks. It haunts me that just a little something done not right now could cost us literally thousands of dollars over the years before our retirement. I've also started reading Retire Inspired, after getting it as a gift from my sister years ago, and it's helping me get more motivated. As he says in his book, the only one who will plan for my retirement is me!

- Do a 5k together.

- Walk the Mackinac Bridge.

- Talk with our neighbors about building. I cannot shake this desire to build our own home. But both my parents and best friend are building, and it is SO expensive. We found out our neighbors build theirs and kept it to about $100 a square foot, (national average is $175), but they said they did a lot themselves. So we would like to sit down with them and see how they did that and if it would be feasible for us. I think having some real numbers would help us see if we could afford it, without being too house poor. We will have our house paid off in a couple months, so in some ways it seems crazy to go from banking all this extra cash to having a medium/large mortgage for 30 years, but on the other hand would love to have a little more land/ little more space/ stay in our neighborhood. So we are at least going to start sort of pursuing it until we come to a hard 'no'.

- Learn to play a piano song. Last Christmas my dad gave me sheet music for a song I liked and I don't think I played the piano all year. After seeing Mannheim Steamroller last month I was feeling nostalgic and missing being connected to music. I used to play piano and clarinet, although neither well, but enjoyed it and could be better with some practice.

- Read through this stack of books:

My game plan is to take a book to work and on my pump breaks I will alternate working on my BSF Bible study homework one pump break, and read on the second pump break. That way I'll get in an hour a week. And it will be a better use of time than just scrolling the internet on my phone.

- Travel. We also have plans for a trip to Germany for my old host brother's wedding in September. While in Europe I hope to see at least one more country, talking with Doug about where to go and what to do. Would love to do Greece, but not sure if we have enough time to do it justice and/or if it would be too hard logistically with the kids. We shall see.

Looking forward to 2020!