Goals for 2013, March Update

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”-Karen Lamb

March turned out to be a little flat for me in accomplishing my goals. I am sticking to most of the changes I have made which is progress. But other areas I have fallen behind in. Such as getting post done up ahead of time. 🙂

This past month I participated in the Early To Rise Challenge and I have to say it has really changed me. I now am getting up early each day, well earlier than I was. I am getting my exercising out-of-the-way each weekday right after getting up. So there is progress there. I am not loosing much weight though which is a little discouraging with the regular exercising. 🙁

Our garden is making progress and my kids are helping out with the gardening stuff. I also have them helping with the cleaning challenge for this month too. I finished up the decluttering in the bathroom and I am taking the month of April off from decluttering to do the cleaning challenge. All in all I am slowly making progress in most areas which is better than standing still or going backwards. 🙂

Here’s the progress I am making,

Seeking God

Bible Reading with the Kids each day (we are using the Bible on CD and it is working out great)
Prayer time each day ( I usually pray in the morning since I started getting up early)
Ministering to other by praying, encouraging notes, phone calls

Family

Be more aware of my husbands needs, do special things for him
Take time with each child every week or at least each month (spent time with my daughter crafting and my son is now loving our read aloud time)
Teach kids to be productive and contribute by helping in the kitchen, yard, garden, chores ( we started our garden and the kids are helping with the 30 Day House Cleaning Challenge)
Homeschooling for my daughter grade 10th to 11th (only a few more weeks left before summer for us)
Homeschooling for my son grade 1st to 2nd (only a few more weeks left before summer)

Home Management

Organize and declutter the whole house, do one room/area a month and maintain rooms already accomplished ( I have made progress with the kitchen, living room and bathroom )
Set a cleaning schedule up and stick with it ( I have been sticking to my cleaning schedule and it has made a big difference in getting all the cleaning jobs done.)
Meal plan and prep, plan menu for 5 weeks at a time and do regular quick freezer cooking sessions, try new recipes regularly ( Made a plan for March but I need to get my plan made for April)
Make a plan with my husband about any home improvements we need to tackle this year and schedule (we will be working on the garden covers and sealing the deck  for the month of April)
Continue my coupon shopping, bulk buying, freezer cooking and couponing to keep our household and grocery bill down (I need to get better organized with my coupons but I have been keeping our food purchases within budget)

Financial

Get Budget plan set for the year and re-evaluate each month (Done for March)
Rebuild saving for medical expenses (Making good progress on this goal)
Give regularly
Start saving towards a rental purchase (this is going to take quite a while but each year we will be closer)
Contribute and Invest on a regular basis (each month we have been contributing)

Personal

Read 12 books this year (I have read 4 books so far this year)
Do a craft project a month (Here’s the project I did for March with my daughter)
Lose 40 pounds (making very little progress in weight loss but I am exercising 5 times a week now)
Expand my knowledge base in the areas of blogging, graphics and business
Take more photographs and work on improving my skills ( I grabbed a few free ebooks to help me improve my skills this past month)

Blogging

Make a blogging schedule ( I have been sticking to the schedule fairly well)
Set blogging times for each day with limits (working on this)
Plan blog posts one month in advance (I am really behind on this goal)
Schedule post one week in advance (I am back to only one day in advance)
Write 6 to 12 guest post to submit

Did you make goals for this year? How are you progressing on them?

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