2014 Goals

I cannot believe it is 2014! Last year's milestone was our family of 3 becoming a family of 4. Because of my horrendous morning sickness, I did not do goals for 2013 and therefore have nothing to recap. However, we did improve on one thing the past couple weeks: limiting Caden's TV time (Netflix, really). He is now only allowed to watch 1 thing before nap and 1 thing after, totaling 1-4 hours daily depending on what he chooses. That is a massive improvement from the shameful 6-8 hours he would spend, which was the result of my spending all day lying on the couch and puking in the toilet the first half of my pregnancy and trying to nap the second half. But no more excuses now.

The only goal I have for Caden this year is to engage him in educational activities: hands-on learning, ASL, more outdoor time and field trips, purposeful play, and educational books from the library.

Gabe is already further along than Caden was at that age, so the only area we need to work on is sleeping longer stretches at night. I need to go to bed earlier and try to get him back to sleep before resorting to nursing.

As for me, I have so many goals that it would be impossible to keep them, forcing me to narrow them down to the 3 most important (and detailed):

1. Have a healthy lifestyle for the whole family
• Cook dinner daily: plan meals, shop smart
• Exercise 3 times a week: once in the gym, once out running, once at home
• Play Just Dance on the Kinect and take the boys outside the other 3 days (Sunday is rest day)
• Support Justin's weight loss goals: prepare him snacks, cook dinner, encourage him to work out, stop late-night snacking
• Get everyone to bed earlier
2. Write
• Submit 6 manuscripts by the end of the year
• Write more articles on this blog
• Post weekly again on my Mormon Light blog
• Write by hand to improve my handwriting (it used to be really nice!)
• Read current children's books and magazines as research and inspiration
3. Stick to a budget
• Create a monthly budget
• Cook dinner daily and travel with snacks to limit eating out
• Plan more free family activities

What are your goals for the year?