Mama’s 2010 Personal Goals

Like everyone else, I’ve set many New Year’s Resolutions in the past. And honestly? I really don’t like to set resolutions – I don’t keep them very well. And who likes to feel like a failure by the third week in January?

Certainly not me.

I’ve taken a hard look at this past year. There were lots of things I was blessed to be a part of in 2009. But there were many things I wasn’t proud of and I’d like to do differently going forward.

Since I am apparently a girl that needs accountability, I thought I’d post them here.

1. Having a daily prayer/Bible time before my children get up. I have done an awful job of this I shamefully admit. It is often hard to hear what the Lord is telling you with three little people saying “Mama” all at the same time.

   Action step: I must have lights out by 10:00pm. This will be very hard for me. Which leads me to #2…

2. Wake up at 6:00 am every single day. Or even a little before then. I’ve proven to myself over and over that on the days I do not wake up before my children are my least productive days ever. I refuse to continue in this stubborn pattern.

   Action Step: Same – I must have lights out by 10:00pm. Yikes.

3. Planning and implementing a date night with my husband once a month. In the past 9+ months, my husband and I have been on 2 dates sans children. I still have a nursing baby, but thankfully she’s an early-to-sleep kind of girl.

   Action Step: Brainstorming not-so-pricey places we can have dinner. Also getting the actual date on the calendar and lining up a baby-sitter.

4. Exercise 3x/week. My brain says that 5x/week is a much better goal, but I just think that is too ambitious in this season of my life.

   Action Step: Line up a few exercise shows on the DVR. (I need some cheap exercise options!). I’ve heard tons about 30 Day Shred so I’ll check into that. That scares me just a hair, I must admit. I don’t think I’ll be able to exercise at the same time each day, so I need to schedule it into my calendar to ensure I’ve set aside enough time during the week.

5. Spending real heart time with my children every single day. Craft projects, reading aloud, playing outside, cooking, games.

   Action Plan: It is not enough that I give them fun things to do while I wash dishes, do laundry, etc. I need to purposefully sit down with them to do some of those fun things. And I’m going to do that at least once a day, even if I have 500 other things waiting on me.

6. Purposefully teach my children their chores/jobs. My little ones are 4 ¾, 2 ¾ and 8 months. My older two have specific jobs that they take care of every day. I want them to know how to do their chores really well without me having to re-invent the wheel every day.

   Action Plan: Create a very simplistic chore chart that uses stickers. Both of my kids love stickers, so they’ll respond well to that. For 2 weeks straight, I will be diligent in teaching them to do their chores. Then let them be independent…I hope.

7. Implementing a schedule for cleaning our house. I’ve tried several methods half-heartedly in the past. Now I’m paying the price in clutter and grime. Yuck.

   Action Step: I’m going to take a couple of hours in the next two days and look over the methods I’ve half-heartedly tried before: SHE, Motivated Moms, FlyLady. I’m going to determine which will fit our lives at this point in time. If you have a suggestion of another “plan” I’m all ears. Feel free to leave a link in the comment section!

8. Getting up-to-date with Quicken. I am a die-hard Quicken fan and have done a pitifully poor job of keeping track of our finances the past 4 months. The data is up-to-date, but I haven’t looked at a report in months. It does no good for Quicken to track our money if I am not looking at the reports of our monthly expenditures. Data is of little value without analyzing it, right?

   Action Step: I can keep up with downloading data and sorting it. I am going to schedule in time once per week to look at our expense reports. I need to know weekly where we stand in our grocery budget, dining out budget, etc.

Wow – when I read back over this list of goals I feel slightly overwhelmed! But I’ve given myself the multiple pep talks that I’ve needed and I’m ready to get started!

I can’t wait to see what 2010 brings!

I’m pleased to post this at Frugal Friday over at Life As Mom.  Head on over and start 2010 on a frugal foot!

I’m also pleased to post this at The Happy Housewife’s 2010 Goals Link-Up.  Stop by and get some Goal Inspiration!

Tagged as: 2010 Goals, Laundry Blessings