2017 New Year’s Resolutions

I know a lot of people aren’t resolution people.  Resolutions can be daunting, they can set you up for failure, and frankly, they can be scary.

I am not one of those people.  I love to challenge myself, I crave goals, I love list-making, and I live for checking things off of those lists.  I’m extremely self-motivated and I am a go-getter.  If I really, really want something, well, I don’t stop working until I get it.  It’s a blessing and a curse, but it’s something that I was born with, so I don’t see it changing any time soon.  Might as well make the best of it, right?

So with regard to resolutions, yes, I love making them and setting goals for myself to achieve.  I have quite a list below, but before I get into those, I want to share with you my word for 2017.  Last year was the first year that I chose a word for the year and I really loved it and stuck with it, so I’m hoping to do the same again this year.

I have been thinking about this for a while now.  I had my word picked out and ready to go a couple of months ago, but my mind kept drifting toward another word instead.  I decided that since I couldn’t stop thinking about the new word, then that must be where my heart actually is, so I decided to go with it instead.  My word for 2017 is GROW.

I want to grow in my relationships – with God, with Brian, with my babies, with my parents, my brothers, my grandmothers and other extended family members, my friends, my co-workers.  I want to reestablish deep and meaningful connections and spend more time with the people who make life worth living.

I want to grow as a person – my patience, my spontaneity, my relationship with myself, and I want to try to overcome and outgrow some of the things that I struggle with daily. 

I want to grow as a blogger – grow my relationships with other bloggers, grow my following, grow my traffic.  Now that I have found what I love to do, I want to continue to nurture this little hobby of mine and turn it into something amazing! 

Now for the resolutions/goals/whatever you want to call them…

Personal/Relationships

Start Reading a Daily Devotional.  I’m a spiritual person and feel like I have a great relationship with God.  I go to church and I pray daily, often talking to God multiple times per day, but I’ve never been a big bible reader.  I recently bought the daily devotional Jesus Calling, and I want to begin each and every day with an excerpt.  I think that starting the day this way might help me start each day off on a positive note, which will hopefully urge me to be more mindful of the things that are important each day – being positive, being thankful, and being kind to others.  I often find myself preaching about these things to our kids and thinking that I don’t always practice those things often enough myself.  How can I expect my kids to behave that way if I don’t set a good example for them?

Be positive, worry less, complain less.  These were all on my list for last year, and while I do think that I was more mindful of them, I still failed to make any major steps toward making this change.  I’m hoping my daily devotional will help me to start each day in a positive frame of mind.

Work harder to cherish Brian.  Let’s be honest, in this season of life, our relationship often takes a back seat because of the many needs of our two littles.  I want to work harder to bring our relationship back to the forefront now that Jacob and Olivia are becoming more independent.

Read The Five Love Languages with Brian.  Before we got married, we took a class at church, and it was highly recommended that we read this book together.  I put it in my Amazon wish list and just never bought it.  I’ve thought about it often since then, but my brother finally lit a fire under me a couple of weeks ago when he and my sister-in-law were discussing their positive experience with it.  Have any of you read it with your spouses?

Monthly Date Nights with Brian.  This was a complete success last year so we’re going for round two!

Monthly date nights with my girlfriends.  I used to have weekly date nights with my girlfriends, but then we all went from having zero babies amongst us to having ten!  And that’s not including many of my other girlfriends who have moved away or weren’t regulars at our weekly girls’ nights.  If we want to include them, then we all have at least 17 kids in our group.  Craziness!  But anyhoo, this goal is obviously dependent upon the other girls and their availability, but I’d like to start seeing them more often again.  And once a month is way more realistic than once a week these days…

Home

Clean out everything.  This was a success last year, so I plan on doing another round for this year as well!  Closets, cabinets, bedrooms, dressers, bookshelves, drawers… I’m coming for you!

Organize coat closet.  This thing has been a disaster for years.  It was one of the few spaces that didn’t get touched last year during the great purge of 2016, so this is my year to not only clean it out, but to turn it into a functional space.

Organize laundry room.  This is the other room that wasn’t touched during last year’s purge, so I want to make it functional again.

Sell old stuff.  We have loads and loads of the kids’ old clothes to sell, some of which we’ve been holding onto for years.  I’ve been wanting to sell them, but haven’t made the time, so I’m hoping to finally accomplish this in 2017 and free up some closet space.  Baby clothes, anyone?

Continue making the bed every day that we’re home.  I rocked this in 2016 and I plan on continuing it for this year.  A room with a made bed is a happy room.  ;o)

Clean out computer files.  This was something on my list for 2016 that was a major fail.  I hope to finally tackle it this year.

Cut Long-Term To Do List down by 1/4.  There are many items on this list and they are all off-the-wall things like “create a will” and “clean out outdoor storage room”… things that aren’t on my typical daily and weekly to do lists.  I’d like to check off at least 25% of these things this year.  That is a pretty lofty goal, but I think it’s doable.

Health

Improve water intake.  I drink a lot of water, but I’m bad about not meeting my quota on the weekends and during the chilly months and I can always tell when I haven’t gotten enough.  I’m going to try to stick with it all the time.

Tone up.  This will probably be on my list every year because it’s so important.  I don’t really ever set super specific goals for myself when it comes to working out, but I do know that there’s always room for improvement!

Vitamins.  Finding a daily vitamin was on my list last year and I never did, so I’m currently on the hunt again.  If you have one that you swear by, let me know!

Find a new doctor for my chronic back problems.  I don’t mention it very often here on the blog, but I have had some chronic issues with my SI joints for the last five years.  I’ve seen numerous local doctors and pursued many different treatments and nothing has worked.  There is a treatment called “prolotherapy” that sounds like it could be right for me, but there is no one locally who does it which means that it would require many visits to Atlanta.  (Hence the reason I’ve been putting it off for so long.)  I’m sick and tired of the pain, though, so it’s something that I’m ready to pursue.  On a side note, if anyone happens to be reading this, and you have had experience with prolotherapy (positive or negative) please shoot me an email!

I also have one that I'm keeping to myself for personal reasons. I'm putting it on here as a reminder to hold myself accountable since this is the list that I will be referring to throughout the year.  Although, I may eventually discuss it on the blog because I would love some opinions from you ladies!

Kids

Get Olivia completely potty-trained.  Well folks, we are already pretty much there!  I’m happy to say that she is fully potty-trained during the day, so now we just have to work on nap time and bed time. 

Get Olivia accustomed to her new toddler bed.  We switched Olivia over from a crib to a toddler bed this past weekend, and although naptime went well that day, bedtime was a complete disaster.  We have a lot of work to do.

Get rid of Olivia’s paci.  She only gets it at naptime and bedtime, but that girl loves her paci.  If she’s anything like her brother, this is going to be a nightmare.  But it’s long overdue.  Don’t judge.

Give Jacob some responsibilities around the house.  Right now, both kids have it pretty easy, but I’d like to implement some kind of chore chart, mostly for Jacob since he’s going to be six this year.  Obviously it won’t be anything complicated since he’s so young, but I think a little bit of discipline will be good for him.

Blog

I set some pretty specific goals for the blog for this year, and since there are so many, I’m not going to elaborate on any of them.  Instead, I’m just putting them out there in list form to hold myself accountable.

1.    Buy domain

2.    Revamp or rebrand website

3.    Revamp media kit

4.    New email signature

5.    Host or co-host a weekly link-up

6.    Host a giveaway

7.    Connect with new bloggers (I already have a list of a few who I want to connect with!)

8.    Possibly sponsor a fellow blogger for more exposure (still on the fence about this one, though)

9.    Post more recipes because I always love doing them, yet I rarely do

10. Update old posts (watermark pictures, create Pinterest worthy images)

11. Change Instagram account to a business account

12. Instagram – increase following to 5k

13. Pinterest – increase following to 2k

14. Facebook – increase following to 300 (I am struggling with FB, y’all)

15. Twitter – increase following to 1k (and actually start using it… I just don’t like it)

16. Utilize BlogHer and Social Fabric… groups that I’ve been a member of for months and have never done anything with them.

17. Join Amazon Associates… because I heart Amazon so freaking much!

Whew!  Well there ya go… 17 bloggy things for 2017!  And I didn’t even plan that!  And boy, do I feel really vulnerable putting all of this out there for everyone to see!  I am pretty much always an open book, though, so I don’t think anyone should be surprised.

Now to get down to business!  It's time to watch me GROW, y’all!

If you want to see goals from prior years check out the posts below!

2016 Goals

*Linking up with Our Pretty Little Girls for Tuesday Talk.