Last year, my word of the year was focus.  It didn’t wind up being what I thought it would be!  I thought I would really hone in on and focus on work and homeschooling and my 2016 goals…and I did to a small extent, but it actually turned out that I’ve spent more time focusing on my health last spring and summer and my family’s health this fall.  It’s been a long year of illness after illness (SIBO 3x and chronic pain issues for me, my husband’s pneumonia and knee injury and asthma issues for two of my daughters in addition to a ridiculous amount of colds, stomach bugs, etc.).  It’s been a year that really opened my eyes and made me more empathetic with those struggling with health issues.  They really drain you and make it difficult to do much more than survive.  As hard as I try to feed my family well, use supplements and oils, exercise, and get enough sleep, this year has shown me that even when I do all the “right things”, life isn’t really in my control!  (It seems I should’ve really known that by now, but it’s easy to forget when things are humming along nicely.)

Anyway, because I really did just live in survival mode, I didn’t accomplish many of my goals from 2016.  I decided to keep most of them the same, so here’s a look at my goals for 2017.

Spiritual

1)  Read my Bible, journal, and pray every morning.

This is a habit I’m still working on.  It’s been hit or miss…especially the past three months.  Since I spend 30 minutes in the car most mornings now, I plan to use that time to listen to the Word.  I got an audiobook Bible version when I had my free Audible trial.

 

 

Financial:

2)  Pay off our home mortgage as quickly as possible.

Several years ago, we took a Crown Financial study through our church.  Both my husband and I really felt led to get our mortgage paid off as quickly as possible.  We paid off our first house last year, and then we decided to sell it and move into a foreclosure we found a good deal on.  We owe just a little bit, and it should be paid off by August if everything continues as planned.

3)  Replace our 14-year-old Buick Rendevous.

We still have our old car, and it hit 200,000 miles this year.  We’ve started seriously looking, but we want to save up just a bit more in case we find a nice used Honda Odyssey.  They cost more than we were planning to spend, but our mechanic and several other friends swear by them.  Since we have a tendency to drive our cars for a long time, it seems like a good choice.  We’ll see what we find, I guess.

4)  Continue to donate all proceeds from God’s Little Explorers to the orphanage we are supporting.

In the past three-and-a-half years, we’ve been able to raise over $70,000 with your help!  They still need some finances for the building and furnishings, so we continue to donate 100% of the proceeds to that project.

5)  Fully fund my IRA

If there is one thing I wish I would’ve known in my early twenties, it would’ve been about the power of compound interest.  Unfortunately, we didn’t open up our IRAs until later in our 20’s, so we missed out on a little bit of that…but we’ve been putting in money here and there.  This year I want to contribute the max limit for my Roth IRA, so I finally automated it (which I should’ve done years ago).  Maybe one of you can learn from my failings!!

 

Health and Fitness

6)  Complete Metabolic Prime and run a marathon (?!!)

I’ve previously completed one round of Metabolic Prime and love it.  I want to rebuild the strength I lost over the past few months of illnesses, so I’m starting a new round.  (You can be part of the actual Metabolic Prime Transformation Challenge starting January 9th put on by the publishers.  Learn more here.)

I also have this crazy aspiration to run a marathon.  I have a milestone birthday this year and my husband wants to run one, too (we’ll see what the doctor says about that and his knee).  I plan to use Primal Endurance as my base plan for training.  We’ll see how my pain issues go, but even if I just alternate jogging and walking, I think that would be a pretty cool accomplishment for this older-ish mom.  🙂

7)  Average 10,000 steps per day.

I’ve really slacked on this over three months.  Before all of our illnesses, I was averaging about 8000 steps per day.  After the last three months, it’s down to 6000!  Anyway, I have a Fitbit that I love and got as a birthday present several years ago, and I will use that to keep track of my steps.  The first few days of the year have gone well….

 

Marriage

8)  At least two date nights per month.

This is super important to me because there have been so many marriages falling apart around us.  We want to keep communication open and prioritize our relationship, and date nights are a big part of that for us.

9)  Go on two overnight getaways together.

We celebrated 16 years of marriage last June, and we had hoped to go on a cruise to celebrate…but due to some budget constraints, that still hasn’t happened.  Instead we are taking a short trip or two while continue to save up (after the car is replaced and the house is paid off)!  I already have the weekend trips planned, so they should actually happen this year!

Parenting

10)  Be more intentional about quality time

I’m trying to read aloud more, play more games, and have focused “talk time” at dinner with the girls.

This year marks a transition for us as our oldest daughter has been attending a private school since last January.  I’m currently homeschooling the younger two, so we get lots of time together…but I have to be more intentional about carving out time with the middle schooler.  Our drive time to school has turned into a pretty good bonding time, but I’m also trying to squeeze in time to make memories and have fun together, too.  Since she has Fridays off, my goal is to make those days quality time days!

Personal:

11)  Simplify.

We moved in over a year and a half ago, but it still feels really unsettled.  My goal for the year is to declutter, simplify (again), and decorate.  I plan to tackle according to categories (like in The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up).

 

Blogging:

12)  Simplify.

I’m not quite sure what this means for blogging yet.  I don’t have a big goal or anything.  I just know I need to let some things go and figure out what I can actually do well, because I feel pretty scattered.  Still fleshing this goal out…

 

Do you have any goals for the new year?  Feel free to share!  I love to hear other people’s goals!