New Year's Resolutions & January's Goals

It's that time of year again, time to make those dreaded New Year's resolutions. I made a little progress last year, but life happened as always so as usual there's still room for improvement. I'll take most of these goals and break them down further in weekly or monthly categories, but here's an overall look.

Spiritual
1. Read through the Bible in one year - I have tried a lot of one year Bibles and they just haven't worked for me. With the chronological Bible, I generally sink somewhere in the midst of Job. It's just to cold and dreary in January for Job. Last year I tried the One Year Bible thinking that more variety might help. Each day had a passage from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. It was just too scattered a format for me. This year, I've decided on a new approach, simply reading through the Bible from beginning to end a little bit each day. I have the free ESV version on my Kindle, and I found a canonical plan that schedules daily readings for a year. Then I made a Word document listing the readings to be done each month that I can fold to show one month at a time and keep in the pocket of my Kindle case.

2. More consistent quiet time - I like to have quiet time first thing in the morning before the kids are up. Unfortunately, I am not always up before the kids; so while I work on consistently getting up earlier, my short term resolution for January is no television or internet until I've had some quiet time even if it's just five minutes to read the day's chapter for goal 1.

Home Management
1. Continue decluttering and organizing following the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge- My kitchen is in fairly good shape already, so I'll probably spend more time in January putting together items for the spring consignment sale.

2. Better implementation of schedule and chores - For January, I need to make some adjustments to our daily schedule to make it more doable, redo the kids chore charts, and work on getting them to complete their chores without reminders. (Although I am resigned to the latter possibly taking all year.)

3. Menu Planning - I made a menu for January during the last week of December and made breakfast and lunch menus for the kids and I. Now I can focus on implementing and finding new recipes for next month.

Financial

Better expense tracking, budgeting, and savings - My goal for January is simply to track spending while focusing on cutting the food bill by better utilizing what we already have. For budgeting, I'll put together a form for next month. For savings, I'll work on doing a better job at coupons.

Health

Lose 15-20 pounds - I made myself an eating plan that I'll be trying to stick with. I'm cutting back coffee to 1 cup in the morning and cutting out soft drinks in favor of water (aiming for 4 cups a day to start). For exercising, I'm going to start at 3 times a week for January and hopefully increase that next month.

Fun / Hobbies
1. Get back to more regular blogging

2. Complete the afghan laying in squares in my bedroom.

3. 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

Self-Education
1. Improve my Latin and Spanish. - Set aside 30 minutes 5 times a week to work on Latin for this month. Come up with plan for Spanish besides teaching DD.

2. Read more Great Books.

3. Read all the way through Bauer's The History of the Ancient World with notes.

Parenting

1. Bring back no TV game nights.

2. Do more cooking with the girls and spend more time with boys.