Goals Update 11/21/2011

Every Monday I want to try to get on here quickly to post an update on my goals progress.  If you're keeping track of your goals, I encourage you to do the same, whether it be in your blog, on Facebook as a note, or on regular old pen and paper. 

You can view my original goals blog post here:  http://usnchic.blogspot.com/2011/10/goals.html

Daily
-One hour of reading and/or learning activities with Lulu. We've only been doing bed time stories lately.  We've been pretty busy.
-Fill out E-Ray's task chart so he can earn his allowance.  Started this today.
-Limit kids' electronics time to 2 hours per day.  This includes TV, video games and computers. Still need to cut back.
-No more than one "sugary" snack per day.  (candy, fruit snacks, cookies, etc.)  Doing ok with this.
-Eat fruit AND veggies every day.  Meh...


Weekly
-Stick to weekly cleaning and maintenance schedule.  I have the cleaning schedule written out, I haven't started following it yet.
-Work out at least three times per week.  Fail.
-Eat out no more than once per week.  We don't do good with this when the Hubs is home.


Monthly
- Check out local nature trails with the family when the hubs is home, or with friends when he isn't, at least once a month depending on the weather.  Done for November
- Go to church at least once per month.  Done for November
- Go to one new place per month.  Done for November
- Buy birthday cards for the month and first week of the next month at the beginning of each month and address and stamp them immediately.  Done for November


Short Term
- Run in a charity race.
- Organize E-Ray's rock and coin collections.
- Start collecting the state quarters with E-Ray.  Done!  Bought a little folder thing at the craft store to organize them.
- Have E-Ray send out the post cards that have been sitting in our house for months to his friends.
- Get Lulu potty trained.  Work in progress
- Update meal plan. Well, I did the first week and Hubs didn't like 2 of the recipes, so I need to re-work it.
- Create a daily/monthly activity schedule
- Clean out closets, cabinets, and toy boxes.  Sell and donate unwanted items before the holidays.  I cleaned them out, now i just need to donate them.
- Frame the USS Nicholas Pirates front page newspaper and hang it.  Framed, just need to hang.
- Finish Christmas shopping by Dec. 10
- Send out Christmas cards by Dec. 10
- Frame or scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.  I bought the scrapbooking materials and frames, now I just need to create the scrapbook pages and hang them.  With every new season, I will create a new one and put the old one into his sports scrapbook.
- Get Lulu's portraits done.  
     I bought a Picture People Groupon, so this should be done soon.
- Dry clean wedding dress.   
     Yes, our wedding was 6 years ago and I still have not gotten my wedding gown dry cleaned.  This is why I must set goals for myself.  I am the ultimate procrastinator!

Long Term
- Get out of debt.
- Continue working on mine and my husband's genealogy. This is a lifetime of work. It is so fascinating and worth every second spent on it. I hope that my children and their children will someday take an interest in where they came from.
- Learn to speak German and Italian with my husband and visit the places where our ancestors came from (Germany, Switzerland, Italy).
- Scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.
- Go back to school next year and earn my bachelor's degree with at least a 3.5 GPA.
- Learn how to use my sewing machine and actually make something with it.


Short/Long Term Goals Completed Since October 25, 2011: 3

Well, it looks like I really need to start working on my daily tasks.  I'm not doing so hot on those.  I am, however, making quite a bit of progress on my short term goals.  Monthly goals are complete!  YAY!

My friends Rose and Jaime are participating in this goals "challenge" as well.  Check out their progress and encourage them to complete their goals.

Jaime: http://seeyouaboutthedecks.blogspot.com/
Rose: http://clanbrunn.blogspot.com/

Celebrate Something

What is it about religion and politics that brings out the ignorance in people, especially around the holidays?  An acquaintance of mine posted a rant on Facebook regarding some of her friends posting that President Obama put up Holiday trees in the White House.  She is offended that they are being referred to as holiday trees rather than Christmas trees and is placing the blame on the President.  I haven't seen any of the posts she is referring to; however, I think it is unfair to blame the President for what other people describe the trees in his house as.  Regardless, we live in a "politically correct" age, and holiday tree would be the PC term.  I'm not a history buff, but I'm pretty sure part of the reason our country was founded was so that our people could practice freedom of religion.  America is a melting pot; not everyone shares the same beliefs.  Why do people have such a difficult time accepting the fact that not everyone is going to share their beliefs?  I don't care what you believe so long as you don't use your "beliefs" as an excuse to be ignorant of others. 

So, my response to her post was, “The wonderful thing about our country is that we have freedom of religion.  Not everyone is forced to believe the same thing.”  To which she responded, "Then why celebrate it?  It is CHRIST birthday.  It wouldn't even be a holiday if it wasn't for him!!!"  I'm not quite sure how to answer that.  To many people, yes, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ, but the holiday has evolved into so much more than that.  It's a time to send cards to friends and family that you may not always be in touch with.  It's a time to make your child's dreams come true.  It's a time to reflect on the past year and all that was accomplished.  It's a time to eat cookies and enjoy a break from our every day lives.  And, apparently, it's also a time for people to judge others based on what they may or may not believe, which is unfortunate.  

I truly hope that everyone reading this has a wonderful holiday season, regardless of what you may be celebrating.  We all deserve a break from the norm to celebrate what is important to us.  ♥

Holiday Cards

One thing I look forward to every holiday season is creating our family holiday card.  I love photo gifts, and photo Christmas cards are so fun and personal.  Even before I used Snapfish.com for photo prints, I used them for creating my holiday cards.  Here are all of the cards I have created through the years:

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Goals Update 11/21/2011

Every Monday I want to try to get on here quickly to post an update on my goals progress.  If you're keeping track of your goals, I encourage you to do the same, whether it be in your blog, on Facebook as a note, or on regular old pen and paper. 

You can view my original goals blog post here:  http://usnchic.blogspot.com/2011/10/goals.html

Daily
-One hour of reading and/or learning activities with Lulu. We've only been doing bed time stories lately.  We've been pretty busy.
-Fill out E-Ray's task chart so he can earn his allowance.  I will start a new one next week!
-Limit kids' electronics time to 2 hours per day.  This includes TV, video games and computers. E-Ray's been playing too many video games lately.  Still need to cut back.
-No more than one "sugary" snack per day.  (candy, fruit snacks, cookies, etc.)  Doing ok with this.
-Eat fruit AND veggies every day.  Doing good with fruit.  Need to incorporate more veggies.


Weekly
-Stick to weekly cleaning and maintenance schedule.  I have the cleaning schedule written out, I haven't started following it yet.
-Work out at least three times per week.  Fail.
-Eat out no more than once per week.  Did well last week.


Monthly
- Check out local nature trails with the family when the hubs is home, or with friends when he isn't, at least once a month depending on the weather.  Done for November
- Go to church at least once per month.  Done for November
- Go to one new place per month.  Done for November
- Buy birthday cards for the month and first week of the next month at the beginning of each month and address and stamp them immediately.  I did this today.


Short Term
- Run in a charity race.
- Organize E-Ray's rock and coin collections.
- Start collecting the state quarters with E-Ray.  Started!  Bought a little folder thing at the craft store to organize them.
- Have E-Ray send out the post cards that have been sitting in our house for months to his friends.
- Get Lulu potty trained.
- Update meal plan. I started this last week.  I re-organized my entire recipe binder, incorporating all of the new recipes I recently printed out and getting rid of ones I never make.  I also completed one week of meal planning.  I still want to incorporate three more weeks.
- Create a daily/monthly activity schedule
- Clean out closets, cabinets, and toy boxes.  Sell and donate unwanted items before the holidays.  I cleaned them out, now i just need to donate them.
- Frame the USS Nicholas Pirates front page newspaper and hang it.  Framed, just need to hang.
- Finish Christmas shopping by Dec. 3
- Send out Christmas cards by Dec. 10
- Frame or scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.  I bought the scrapbooking materials and frames, now I just need to create the scrapbook pages and hang them.  With every new season, I will create a new one and put the old one into his sports scrapbook.
- Get Lulu's portraits done.  
     I bought a Picture People Groupon, so this should be done soon.
- Dry clean wedding dress.   
     Yes, our wedding was 6 years ago and I still have not gotten my wedding gown dry cleaned.  This is why I must set goals for myself.  I am the ultimate procrastinator!

Long Term
- Get out of debt.
- Continue working on mine and my husband's genealogy. This is a lifetime of work. It is so fascinating and worth every second spent on it. I hope that my children and their children will someday take an interest in where they came from.
- Learn to speak German and Italian with my husband and visit the places where our ancestors came from (Germany, Switzerland, Italy).
- Scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.
- Go back to school next year and earn my bachelor's degree with at least a 3.5 GPA.
- Learn how to use my sewing machine and actually make something with it.


Short/Long Term Goals Completed Since October 25, 2011: 3

Well, it looks like I really need to start working on my daily tasks.  I'm not doing so hot on those.  I am, however, making quite a bit of progress on my short term goals.  Monthly goals are complete!  YAY!

My friends Rose and Jaime are participating in this goals "challenge" as well.  Check out their progress and encourage them to complete their goals.

Jaime: http://seeyouaboutthedecks.blogspot.com/
Rose: http://clanbrunn.blogspot.com/

Goals Update 11/14/2011

Every Monday I want to try to get on here quickly to post an update on my goals progress.  If you're keeping track of your goals, I encourage you to do the same, whether it be in your blog, on Facebook as a note, or on regular old pen and paper. 


You can view my original goals blog post here:  http://usnchic.blogspot.com/2011/10/goals.html


I'm changing up the format to make it easier to track recurring goals.


Daily
-One hour of reading and/or learning activities with Lulu.
-Fill out E-Ray's task chart so he can earn his allowance.
-Limit kids' electronics time to 2 hours per day.  This includes TV, video games and computers.
-No more than one "sugary" snack per day.  (candy, fruit snacks, cookies, etc.)
-Eat fruit AND veggies every day.


Weekly
-Stick to weekly cleaning and maintenance schedule.
-Work out at least three times per week.
-Eat out no more than once per week.


Monthly
- Check out local nature trails with the family when the hubs is home, or with friends when he isn't, at least once a month depending on the weather.  Done for November
- Go to church at least once per month.  Done for November
- Go to one new place per month.  Done for November
- Buy birthday cards for the month and first week of the next month at the beginning of each month and address and stamp them immediately.


Short Term
- Run in a charity race.
- Organize E-Ray's rock and coin collections.
- Start collecting the state quarters with E-Ray.
- Have E-Ray send out the post cards that have been sitting in our house for months to his friends.
- Get Lulu potty trained.
- Update meal plan.
- Create a daily/monthly activity schedule
- Clean out closets, cabinets, and toy boxes.  Sell and donate unwanted items before the holidays.
- Frame the USS Nicholas Pirates front page newspaper and hang it.
- Finish Christmas shopping by Dec. 3
- Send out Christmas cards by Dec. 10
- Frame or scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.
- Get Lulu's portraits done.  
     I bought a Picture People Groupon, so this should be done soon.
- Dry clean wedding dress.  
     Yes, our wedding was 6 years ago and I still have not gotten my wedding gown dry cleaned.  This is why I must set goals for myself.  I am the ultimate procrastinator!
 
Long Term
- Get out of debt.
- Continue working on mine and my husband's genealogy. This is a lifetime of work. It is so fascinating and worth every second spent on it. I hope that my children and their children will someday take an interest in where they came from.
- Learn to speak German and Italian with my husband and visit the places where our ancestors came from (Germany, Switzerland, Italy).
- Scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.
- Go back to school next year and earn my bachelor's degree with at least a 3.5 GPA.
- Learn how to use my sewing machine and actually make something with it.


Short/Long Term Goals Completed Since October 25, 2011: 3

Goals Update 11/7/2011

Every Monday I want to try to get on here quickly to post an update on my goals progress.  If you're keeping track of your goals, I encourage you to do the same, whether it be in your blog, on Facebook as a note, or on regular old pen and paper. 

You can view my original goals blog post here:  http://usnchic.blogspot.com/2011/10/goals.html

Short Term
1. Come up with (and stick to) a cleaning and maintenance schedule for the house.
Cleaning schedule is done.  I still need to come up with a maintenance schedule.

2. Come up with (and stick to) a workout routine that includes running.
I have been working out, however I don't have a set workout schedule.

3. Start running in charity races, half marathons, etc.

4. Check out local nature trails with the family when the hubs is home, or with friends when he isn't, at least once a month depending on the weather.
This weekend we walked some of the trails at First Landing State Park.  It was so fun!


5. Organize E-Ray's rock and coin collections.
I bought two little boxes for organizing E-Ray's coin and rock collections.  I have not organized them yet, but it's a step in the right direction.


6. Have E-Ray send out the post cards that have been sitting in our house for months to his friends.

7. Set aside at least one hour a day for reading/learning time for Lulu.
We are starting on flashcards today.

8. Get Lulu completely potty trained during the day.
Work in progress.


9. Limit electronics time for the WHOLE family. Not entirely sure what that limit should be. Suggestions?
We haven't been watching much TV.  I haven't set and stuck to an exact limit yet, but we've definitely cut back.

10.Send a card or letter to my closest friends and relatives on their birthdays rather than just wishing them a Happy Birthday on Facebook or sending them a text message.
Well, I think both the ones I've sent so far have gone out late, so now I just need to work on my timing.  :)


11. Eat out no more than once per week. (We've been eating SO much fast food ever since E-Ray started football. It's just too convenient.)
We failed miserably at this this past week.  I was craving fried cheese curds, so we met the Hubs for lunch at A&W on Tuesday, Friday we attended a hail and farewell at a bar/restaurant, and Saturday we had fast food for lunch and ordered in for dinner.  FAIL FAIL FAIL!


12.Eat healthier and provide healthier meals and snacks for the kids. No more junk! Fresh fruit and veggies in the house at all times.
Still working on this.

13.Try going to church. (This will probably shock most of my friends. I will elaborate in a later post.)
We went to a Unitarian Universalist church on Sunday and we enjoyed it.  We will be returning.  So, I guess I can cross this one off my list!

14. Update my meal plan and try some crock pot recipes.
Thanks to Pinterest, I have printed out a ridiculous amount of new recipes to try.  It's amazing how many recipe blogs there are out there.  Now, I just need to organize all of these new recipes and try some out.


15. Come up with a daily and monthly activity schedule.

16. Get back to the daily goal/task/chore chart with E-Ray. We stopped doing it around the time football started. 

17. Go to one new place (park, museum, etc.) per month.
Well, we knocked off two of my goals with this one......hiking at the park and going to church.


18. Make a coupon binder.

Long Term
1. GET OUT OF DEBT!!

2. Continue working on mine and my husband's genealogy. This is a lifetime of work. It is so fascinating and worth every second spent on it. I hope that my children and their children will someday take an interest in where they came from.

3. Learn to speak German and Italian with my husband and visit the places where our ancestors came from (Germany, Switzerland, Italy).

4. Scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.

5. Go back to school next year and earn my bachelor's degree with at least a 3.5 GPA. (Hopefully my acceptance letter to Virginia Wesleyan will arrive in the mail soon!)
I received my acceptance letter on Friday!!!

6. Learn how to use my sewing machine and actually make something with it.




Goals Completed Since October 25, 2011: 2