Hopes for 2020

Now that we enter a new year, it is time for some new goals! I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I want this year to look like and really I just want to "simply live" this year. We are hoping for a calm, simple year and there are a lot of areas that I want to work on and see improvements this year. Of course I won't accomplish much of what I am hoping for, but it is still nice to sit down and put goals to paper and see how the year turns out! 

Spiritually:

2019 Goals: Develop Family Devotions, focus on prayer time, spiritual fast in January.   

Family Devotions had moments of greatness but we didn't succeed as much as we had hoped.  I did make strides with prayer and Bible time and spent over 300 of the days in my Bible but since there are more than 300 days in a year, I still have lots of room for improvement!  We did do a spiritual fast last January and it was really good for us as we focused on the year ahead. This year I really want to focus on being the wife and mother that God would want me to be.  I've found some really encouraging podcasts already that I'm listening to while nursing that are helping to set my mind in the right place.  

2020 Goals: Spend devotional time specifically seeking a desire to grow as a wife and mother.  Spend every day this year in the word. 

 

Marriage:  

2019 Goal: Go on more dates 

This year was challenging!  Between pregnancy and Peter's crazy busy work schedule our marriage has taken a back seat to just surviving life. We didn't do a great job on going on dates last year which is a bummer because when we were able to consistently go out I felt like we communicated better. It is HARD to communicate well when we are so busy with kids and work so we have to do better this year! As the kids get older, we have even less time (or no time) to ourselves before we are exhausted so I want to start a time where the kids head up to their beds and read for awhile before their bedtime so that we can have a little time to ourselves to talk and connect everyday.  

2020 Goal:  Be honest communicators. Prioritize at least a little uninterrupted time each day to connect and some dates here and there!  

Family Life
2019 Goal: Be Present More  

Another failure. Pregnancy really took a toll this year and I was not expecting it to be as hard as it was!  I often found myself sick or exhausted and it was hard to give my kids the attention they deserved.  I am hoping to do way better this year at being present and having fun with my family.  

2020 goal:  Try again at being more present! 

Finances: 

2019 Goal: Complete Dave Ramsey Step #4  

This was an interesting year financially. We did in fact complete the goal with where we wanted our retirement contributions to be and that has been awesome.  We also funded 2 really big vacations (Hawaii and Disneyland) which is no easy task with a family as big as ours.  We had some setbacks in home maintenance with appliances breaking and saving an almost 200 year old tree in our yard! We also had a lot of medical bills between an ER visit for Sabrina and a new baby.  We've come out fine though and I am grateful for following the Dave Ramsey plan all these years to where we have the savings for when Murphy hit!  

2020 Goal: Finish replenishing our savings, continue with retirement savings and hopefully start to contribute more to our mortgage (Baby Step #6).  Save for 2 large vacations and 2 small vacations to take place this year!

Home: 

2019 Goals: at least start to replace our windows (our house as 39 windows, so this is a big one) and finish a lot of our smaller home projects that have been on the to do list for 5 years! 

As mentioned above, we went another year without new windows.  Oh well!  We did replace broken appliances and put a considerable amount of money into saving the tree (just don't remind Peter, he's not the tree hugger I am!)  

2020 Goal: This year I hope to allow the boys to do a little remodel of their bedroom and then we debate whether we want to start on windows or I have dreams of updating our 80's stairs into a more modern look.  

Personal Health:  

2019 Goals: Create Sustainable Habits

I definitely wouldn't say I built sustainable habits last year, but I did lose 10 pounds before getting pregnant and only gained right around 20 pounds over the course of the pregnancy.  Even though I tried a few times, I never got into a good workout routine and I worked out the least I have in years.  Even though gestational diabetes was very disappointing and miserable to keep in check, it created some really good habits that has made the weight fall off post partum! Even though I am already 7 pounds lower than pre-pregnancy weight, I am not going to focus on that this year because nourishing Ayla and keeping my milk supply up is the priority.  But I really missed working out and running last year so I'm hoping to find some balance this year.

2020 Goals:  Continue to keep carbs in check, for sure get back to strength training and run for enjoyment and stress relief this summer, not necessarily for rigorous exercise.  

Vacations:  

2019: We made some really great memories in Disneyland and Hawaii this past year and a short little baby moon to Bend over the summer. 

2020:  Vacations are super high priority to me and I need to have a calendar full of them to give me something to look forward to. Fortunately we have set the calendar for the year and will be taking Sabrina (we owed her a one on one vacation last year) to Hawaii! Malachi won March Madness last year and got to pick the big family vacation for this year, he asked for it to be full of mexican food so we will be doing a big southern road trip in the fall that will be full of yummy mexican food! We also have shorter trips planned at the beach and a summer and winter (fingers crossed for some snow) trip to Bend! 

This year my heart is feeling set on simplifying.  I want to focus on family and keeping stress down.  This probably means saying "no" more often and definitely reducing the amount of activities that our kids are involved in.  With a large family it does not take much for the calendar to be really full and while we went with it last year, I just don't think it is sustainable for the good of the family to keep that pace.  I want to rest in the simple and be content in whatever God has for us this year.  Philippians 4:19 "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."