2018 New Year's Goals + New Link-Up Announcement

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While January is not one of my favorite months, I do love the clean slate that it brings… the holiday décor comes down, the house gets scrubbed, and it’s the start of a new year which brings the chance to start fresh.  I’m a very goal-oriented person and I’m highly self-motivated, so I always jump at the chance to make a list of ways to improve myself and the lives of others around me. 

Before I get into the goals for the year, I want to talk about the word I chose to be my theme for the year.  In 2016 it was LESS, in 2017 it was GROW, and for 2018 I have chosen JOY.  Our year last year was a bit of a bummer, so I am hoping to experience as much joy as I can this year.  Instead of dwelling on the negatives in life, I’m going to actively try to find the positive in every single situation and do little things every day that make me happy.  I want 2018 to be a year filled with love, laughter, and happiness, and I want it to be a year filled with all the best things that life has to offer.  It’s all about making memories for my little family in 2018!

Now for the goals…

Personal

Add quiet time to my morning routine.  Now that I’m a stay at home mom, I have way more time at home and this year I’m hoping to establish some quiet time either first thing when I wake up or first thing when I get home from dropping the kids off at school.  I want to use this time to read my daily devotional, pray for those on my prayer list, write in my gratitude journal, and write in my One Line a Day books for the kids.  I'll probably also use this time to look at my planner and look at the day ahead so I know what to expect.  This will help set a good tone for each day!  

Be positive, worry less, complain less.  These were all on my list for last year, and this year I’m determined to make it a priority.

“Fill someone’s bucket” every day.  At the beginning of this school year, Jacob came home discussing how everyone has an invisible bucket and as fellow human beings, it is our job to fill each person’s bucket instead of emptying them.  We do this by being kind to others, helping others, and nurturing others instead of being mean, insulting, or hurting others.  I’m hoping to achieve this by randomly complimenting someone, sending a friend a quick text of encouragement, mailing a little note to let someone know I’m thinking of them, and other small things like that.  All it takes is a few simple words or a kind action to completely turn someone’s day around.

SLOW DOWN and just be.  Aside from watching TV with B in the evenings, I never do this.  Ever.  This year I want to spend more time snuggled on the couch with my babies, I want to stop what I’m doing and read a book, and I want to drive slower and take in all the sights instead of rushing around constantly.

Figure out how to make money from home.  Just the other day I was telling Brian how I feel like I am pretty good at a lot of things, but I just can’t figure out the ONE thing that I’m best at, which makes it hard to know which direction to take when trying to start a business and make money from home.  Do I open an Etsy shop with some kind of hand lettering or art?  Do I come up with a tangible product to sell?  Do I write a book?  Do I try to pursue making money just from blogging?  Or do I just scrap all of that and try to find a part-time job that can be done at home?  This is the year that I need to finally figure this out so I can continue to be a stay at home mom.

Let kindness be my king.  I’m constantly preaching to the kids about being kind to one another and others, but unless they see it in action, they will likely never learn.  While I always try to be kind, there is definitely room for improvement in this category for me personally.

Relationships

Work even harder to treasure my relationship with Brian.  Do sweet things for him for no reason, make sure he knows that he’s without a doubt the number one person in my life, read The Five Love Languages together so we can learn each other’s love language, continue to go on monthly date nights together and try to sneak in an overnight trip sometime if we can.  Things like that.

Treasure relationships with the people who I don’t see every day.  Since I ended up mostly focusing on myself last year, I want this year to be the year that I establish those deep and meaningful connections with all of the amazing people in my life, including the ones who I don’t see every day.  Margarita nights with my girlfriends, movie nights with my mom, lunches with my dad, lunch dates with old coworkers, text messages with my blogger friends… the list goes on! 

Make new friends.  As an adult it’s so hard to make friends.  Why is that?  And in addition to that, Brian and I are both very shy around people we don’t know well, and that makes it even harder.  This year I would love to make some new friends.  A new girlfriend who I can grab a cup of coffee with?  A new couple for B and I to double date with?  Bring it!

Home

Clean out everything, simplify, and get rid of clutter.  Now that I’m staying at home I have huge plans in 2018.  I am getting ready to clean out every single inch of this house… every room, every cabinet, every closet, every box, every drawer, every little nook and cranny including electronics like my computer… no space will go untouched.  I’m also going to purge like there’s no tomorrow and then I’m going to organize everything that remains to maximize functionality.

Sell old stuff.  After I get everything cleaned out I’m going to sell everything that I can and donate the rest.  Ladies, what’s the best way to sell old kids’ clothes online?  I have a TON so I need easy!

Be intentional with the things I buy.  Since I no longer have a job, money is tight so it’s time to stop buying frivolous things and concentrate only on stuff we need.  This is also a huge part of simplifying because we won’t be bringing more “stuff” to contribute to the clutter.

Cut long-term to do list down by 50%.  Now that I’m not working, I’m going to tackle that long-term to do list like it’s my JOB!

Health

Continue chugging water.  I want to make sure I get my daily intake like I’m supposed to.

Get in the best shape of my adult life.  Now that I have more time, I want to continue going to the gym at least 2-3 times per week to get my cardio in, and now that my chronic pain has lessened tremendously I want to work even harder at strength training and get in serious good shape. 

Eat less sugar.  I am not one to even attempt to try Whole 30, not that I don’t think I can do it, but because I just don’t really want to.  But I would like to adopt some of the Whole 30 meals and incorporate them into our lives to try to be a bit healthier.  Let’s face it, I love my Halo Top and my wine so I have no desire to give them up… even for just 30 days.

Kids

Work on kindness and doing things for others.  I want to get the kids involved with my goal to start doing random acts of kindness.

Continue to improve our manners.  Our kids usually do pretty well in the manners department, but both of them are shy around people who they don’t interact with every day, so I want to work on better communication skills and teach them to speak up when someone is talking to them.  Also, we are from (and live in) the south, and down here we say “ma’am” and “sir” when speaking to adults.  Jacob has this down pretty good, but Olivia?  Forget about it.  I also want to continue reminding them that simple phrases like “please” and “thank you” go a long way.

Make a chore chart and implement a new allowance system.  Jacob now has things that he’s responsible for around the house, but I want to make an actual chart to document his progress because I think it will better help him to see exactly what he needs to do.  I also want to start implementing a weekly allowance when he does the things that he’s supposed to do.

Teach them how to be responsible with money.  Since we are going to start providing allowance, I want to help the kids understand that money is needed to buy all of our necessities and that money comes from working hard.  I also want them to learn early on the importance of saving and also the importance of giving back, so I want to implement a system for their cash – spend, save, give.  Simple.

Do more fun things with them at home.  We are big on making memories in this family and we love going out and making memories.  We take the kids to try new restaurants, we travel with them, and we love to go exploring, but when we’re at home we really don’t do a whole lot besides play with toys and read books.  I would like to start doing some fun crafts, little projects, and find other ways to make memories at home.

Have a summer chock-full of memories.  This will be my first summer as a stay at home mom so I will be with both kids non-stop for almost three months.  I don’t know how long my stay at home mom situation will last, so I want to make this count.  I want to swim and go to the library and go to the movies and play on every single playground in town.  I want to go on play dates and I want to go get ice cream and I want to be lazy and watch cartoons with them on the couch.  I want the summer to be amazing.  And for your info, while the kids are out for the summer, I am going to decrease my blog posting to just three times a week most weeks (likely Mon, Wed, and Fri) so I can have lots of downtime with them.

Fun

Learn how to correctly apply eye shadow.  I’ve been applying eye shadow incorrectly my whole life, and yes, I know this.  This year I’d like to get some professional brushes and perfect my eye shadow routine.

Start dabbling in essential oils.  This, of course, all depends on money, but I would love to start oiling.  Nothing extreme, just a bit here and there to see how I like it.

Start a small herb garden.  I've kept my grandmother's old plant alive for several months now, so I think I'm going to try my hand at something a little more challenging... growing my own herbs!  I'm thinking rosemary, mint, and basil to start since I use to much of it!

HAVE FUN!  Because my word of the year is JOY!

Blog

This is a snooze for all of you non-bloggers, but I’m putting it out here to remember and hold myself accountable.

1.      Cut back to four posts/week most weeks and then during the summer cut back to three posts/week

2.      Post more about home organization and my journey to simplify

3.      Revamp or rebrand website

4.      Revamp media kit

5.      New email signature

6.      Host a giveaway for my three-year anniversary

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

8.      Instagram – change to a business account (still on the fence about this)

9.      Instagram – increase following to 10k (this is probably not realistic considering the way Instagram has been for everyone lately, but I really want the swipe-up feature)

10. Instagram – utilize Instagram Stories more (follow my decluttering journey here!)

11. Pinterest – increase following to 2k

12. Pinterest – pin content more frequently

13. Facebook – increase following to 300

14. Facebook – start utilizing it more and posting about stuff other than just blog posts.

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

16. Utilize BlogHer and Social Fabric

17. Collaborate with several brands I love.

18. HAVE FUN WITH IT ALL!

Whew, you still with me?  It seems like a lot, but I think most of it can be achieved… I always love a good challenge!

Here’s to meeting and exceeding all of our goals this year!

And here’s to JOY!

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

2016 Goals

2017 Goals

Finally, before I go, I am excited to announce the start of a new Wednesday link-up!  I have teamed up with several of the ladies from our old Tuesday Talk link-up to bring to you our new Welcome Wednesday link-up!  We hope that you will join us each Wednesday and link up your posts from the week!  

Your Hosts! 

Whitney at Polka-Dotty Place / Bloglovin / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter 

Stefanie at Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam & Dylan Too / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest / Facebook

Keri at Keri Lynn Synder / Faceobok / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest 

Mauri at The American Patriette /  Facebook /  Pinterest / Instagram

Sarah at Sarah E. Frazer / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest 

Lindsay at Lindsay's Sweet World /  Bloglovin / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter

*Linking up with Jessi's Design and Going the Distance for What's Hap-"Pinning" Wednesday.

An InLinkz Link-up

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