Any kind of fresh start or new beginning always makes me think about my goals. I absolutely love goal setting and seeing my dreams down on paper. It helps me make decisions and gives me a sense of purpose in the sense that I'm working towards something!
As I enter this new phase of life that consists of me being a stay-at-home mom, I've been thinking a lot about how I want to raise my children, care for my family, be a better member of my community and steward of the earth. I'll be sharing bits and pieces of these goals on the blog and how I'm making progress on them over time! Here's what I've got so far:
- Provide unstructured time for the kids.. a LOT of it! (This is actually one of the main reasons I decided to take the leap and be a stay-at-home mom.)
- Learn to love cooking. Eat more whole foods, eat a balanced diet, drink way more water, try new recipes, get in a good flow of meal planning/grocery shopping. Confession: I hate cooking. Evan has typically done most of the cooking - he enjoys it and he is WAY better at it! However, with me staying home it makes way more sense for me to make dinners and take on most of the grocery shopping. So yeah, I don't just want to suffer through it every day/every week, I want to find ways to really enjoy it!
- Swap my make-up and bath products for more "clean" products
- Swap my cleaning supplies for more "clean" products
- Simplify our "Stuff". Get rid of the crap. We have so much crap. So many toys and clothes and baby stuff we can hardly fit in our house! I want to PURGE and only keep what we really want/need. Along with this, I only want to buy things I really love, and want to make conscious decisions not to buy more than we need. Donate what we don't use and appreciate what we have.
- Be more earth friendly. While we are pretty darn good at recycling, I know there are so many areas we can be more earth friendly and reduce our footprint.
- Garden. Growing up, my next door neighbor was a psychiatrist and she told me that if everyone would garden she would be out of business. (20-years later, I still remember this!) I love the sentiment and totally believe gardening is good for the mind, body, and soul. If we ever move to a bigger house with more land, I imagine planting a HUGE garden. In the meantime, I at least want to plant our own herbs, vegetables, and some beautiful flowers in our own yard, and make gardening a regular activity during our summer days off.
- READ! While working, reading for pleasure got away from me. In the few shorts week I've been home I've already picked it up again and forgot how much I loved it (How is that even possible? Another huge sign I was stretched way too thin). I want to make bi-weekly trips to the library, start reading magazines again, and re-read the 9000 coffee table books I haven't touched in 5-years. Also, I want to read no less than 10-books a day to my kids. Along with that, it is pretty much eliminate screen time as much as possible.
- Pay off our House. If we don't end up moving, our goal is to pay off this house in the next three years. Personal finance is one of my absolute favorite topics and I'm pretty much obsessed with budgeting and financial planning. These goals are more important than ever now that we eliminated my income. Can't wait to share more on this topic!
- Blog because I love it! I never have had goals to be a top blogger or make an income from this blog, I do it because (now more than ever) it a fun, creative outlet for me to share what inspires me with an awesome community of people. Seriously I've made some great friends who live across the country and the world. I don't have a ton of close friends who are as passionate about decorating and DIYing as I am, so it is so great to have this community. Still, sometimes I look at the bloggers who for every single post work with professional photographers, graphic designers,copy writers, and stylists and think "oh my gosh what the heck am I doing? My blog is a joke!" Well, maybe to some it totally is but I still love it and want to keep doing it for the joy that brings me, even if I'm the smallest fish in the biggest pond.
- Don't forget to invest in and treat myself. Moms, career women, people in general... you know where I'm coming from! We easily can shift ourselves to being last on the list and put everything before ourselves. I want to remember that if I don't fill my own cup first, I won't have much else to give anyone else. (I crash on burn on this cycle far too often.)
All of this being said, I know life is about to get CRAZY with the addition of another little babe in October! While I have all these great goals, I know we'll just be in survival mode the next few months and therefore, I'm not putting any pressure on myself to strive or accomplish ANYTHING during that time other than being a caring, kind, patient mom and take care of my family. (And even then, my bigger goal is to live each day with an abundance of grace!)
Anyway, can't wait to expand more on each of these topics and share my detailed goals under each category and our progress! Just may take some time ;)
