2013 Goals

2012 was a great year.  I learned a lot, my kids learned a lot, and my hubby and I had a breakthrough in our marriage that has literally changed our lives.  I wouldn't change last year for anything, but I sure do want to make this year better.

I didn't really make a list of goals for 2012.  Sure, I had a list in my head, but that didn't go so well for me.  I made a list of 28 projects that I wanted to finish in 2012.  I checked off eight.  Eight?!?  Not even one third of the list.  How pathetic is that?  This year is going to be better.  Things are going to be different.  I am setting some goals.  There are going to be deadlines.  I am putting this list out into cyber space and people are going to be able to judge me.  That is a huge motivator for me. 

I hate to fail publicly.

Failing privately is okay.  No one knows but me.  I can always burn my list in the wood stove and no one will even have to know it existed.  But, if I put it on this blog some random person might see it.  That random person might meet me.  They could possibly ask me if I did what I said I was going to do.  I could be publicly humiliated for my lack of commitment.  Oh, the horror!  See what I mean?  It could be devastating.

Goals for 2013

Personal:

• Read through the Bible.  (Not an online version or on my phone.  A real Bible that I can hold in my hands and make notes in and feel and smell and...  you get the idea)
• Lose 75 pounds.  (A little less than 1.5  pounds a week.  I can do it.  I had Lap Band Surgery for Heaven's sake.  How much more help do I need?)
• Read 48 Books.  (Self-improvement books.  I could read a mystery novel every day with no problem.  I want to make a point to read things that are a bit more substantial.)
• Learn to knit.  (Just for fun.  I crochet like crazy.  Knitting looks harder.  I want to do it.)

Marriage:

• One date a month.  (Just us, no kids.  Even if it is just to run out to the grocery store and get lunch.)
• Four overnight trips.  (No kids, just a little time and money to waste on ourselves.  These kids are going to be grown up soon and I don't want to look around and think. "Who are you, and what am I going to do with you the rest of our lives?")
• Intentionally show appreciation for the sacrifices that he makes by working away form home in a difficult job to take care of our family.  (I want him to know that I notice.  Exactly how I am going to accomplish that is probably best left undescribed in this particular venue.)

Kids/School:

• Finish the current Bible Study this school year and pick out a new one for next year.
• One field trip or interesting adventure per month.
• Get in Marshall's head and figure out how to help him motivate himself to accomplish the goals he has for himself.  (Apparently public failure is not his main motivation.)

Family:

• Visit or have a craft day with my mom once a week.  (She lives alone.  She is probably lonely.  I need to be more intentional about spending time with her.  And anyway, she is my best friend and a lot of fun to be around!)
• Go out to my dad's once a week and spend time with him.  (His health is not so good, and I want to make sure he knows we care about him.)
• See or talk to my Gram once a month.  (She is 96 years old.  Need I say more?)
• Write two notes or send cards once a month.  (Snail Mail.  I like getting mail.  Everyone else must too.)
• Host family get togethers once a month.  (Birthdays, holidays, no reason.  Just make sure I feed everyone once a month.)

Financial:

• $500 a week income for me.  (A teaching job with an online school would be fantastic, but if that is not God's plan for me then I am sure He and I can work something out.)
• End 2013 with no debt except the mortgage. ( It is just a little bit on the credit cards right now, but ending the year with no debt would mean not charging anything for Christmas this year.)
• $20,000 in Savings.  (That is a lofty goal.  Easily doable when I start having an income, but nearly impossible without it.)
• Track spending monthly and lower amount each month.(When I started keeping track of how much money I really spend, I was appalled.  I thought I was frugal.  Not so much!)

Holidays:

• Make one Christmas gift every month.  (Or multiples of one gift.  I want to be done with all of the high pressure crafting before Thanksgiving.)
• Lower Christmas budget by $500.  (I love Christmas and I strive to make it special for everyone, but we spend a lot of money accomplishing that goal.  I want to slow things down and spread things out this year.)
• One project a month that contributes to a more organized Christmas.  (Things like organizing the decorations and deciding on a gift list early on will make things easier and help me have the kind of Christmas I want.
• Finish Christmas prep by Thanksgiving.  (All of the above goals will help me finish up by Thanksgiving.  I just want to spend the month of December decorating my house and making some special cookies and doing all of the fun things we like to do.  I don't want to have to worry that it isn't all going to get done.)
• Celebrate something every month.  (There is some sort of Holiday or birthday every month that I want to recognize in a significant way.  Even if it is something as simple as having apple food for every meal on Johnny Appleseed Day, I want to make sure that we are creating memories.)

Homemaking:

• Plan meals weekly or monthly and try one new recipe every week.  (I never make new foods.  The only new recipes I try are for deserts.  I want to be more adventurous this year.  And I want to be more intentional about what we are eating.  I would like to make more food from scratch and use the vintage cookbooks that I have been collecting.  And then there is Pinterest, too!)
• Grow a garden.  (We got a good start on making our raised bed last year but it fizzled out short of actually planting anything.)
• Redo 3 rooms.  (Abby's room is first on the list because that will be her birthday present this month.  She wants horses, not the flowers and fashion that I envisioned.)
• Make a yearly cleaning plan or follow one online.  (My daily plan is working out very well.  Now I need to figure out the big stuff.)

Blogging:

• Five posts a week.
• Six new income streams.
• Learn or research something new about blogging every week.
• Get a new computer.
• Get a SLR camera.
• Make and stick to a blogging schedule.  (In short, I want to be a real blogger, not just a blogger wannabe!)

I just know that 2013 is going to be my best year ever.  Life is so good.  God is so good.  I can't wait to see how things turn out. 
 
What are you going to do to make 2013 your best year ever?

Happy New Year and New Recipe

We celebrated a Fun, Frugal and Fabulous New Year's Eve last night. 

Cards and Food! 

A very nice time with my mom, my oldest son and his girlfriend.  We had homemade pizza and some appetizers.  Pretty much our typical New Year's Eve menu. 

But .... as I was running through the grocery store to pick up the last minute ingredients I remembered a post that I had read here on Make It and Love It about Brownie Covered Oreos.  So I grabbed a package of store brand Oreos and a brownie mix.  A grand total of $4.00, (which could have been much cheaper if I had some couponed brownie mixes in my pantry ... shame on me!). 

When I got home I took some time to peruse the beautiful tutorial here at Picky Palate. 

Looked simple enough! 

I was a bit nervous because my muffin tin looks a little vintage rather shiny and non stick like the one that she used, so I sprayed the heck out of it with some cooking spray.  I dipped those bad boy oreos in the brownie mix and plopped them into the muffin pan.  The only problem that I ran into was that then mix I grabbed was an 8X8 pan size.  It was enough to cover two dozen cookies, but the last few were a little skimpy.  Next time I will get the family size brownie mix. 

I shoved them into the oven and baked 'em at 350 for 13 minutes.  Ran a knife around the edge of each one as soon as they came out of the oven.  Perfection.  They popped out of there just like a non stick miracle.

The recipe called for white chocolate drizzled on top, but for some reason my thoughts turned to powdered sugar .....  Which led me to a stencil snowflake. 

Of course, I had to root around and find a stencil.  I discovered one with the "Perfect Brownie" pan we got for Christmas last year, but you could easily punch one from cardstock or cut one out with a Cricut or some such device.

A couple of minutes later I had the cutest, yummiest cookies of the holiday season. 

None of them survived the evening.