new year, new goals - here's to 2015!

i am the type of person that loves a good bullet-ed list. so as i am running through some ideas, i'm just going to make a list. just like i would if i were writing this down on paper all for myself. here are some of the goals i'd like to work towards for the upcoming year.  i like to have a list to look back on and cross things off. i really, really hope that i can actually cross many of these off my list this upcoming year!  i will try to check in a couple of months from now and see the progress i've made.  keep your fingers crossed for me!!

• 50 dates - going to really focus on dating my husband!

• getting into a better exercise routine - with help from TIU

• get back to better eating habits - using the 21 day fix as a guide.  eating lean, clean and green!

• follow a cleaning schedule?

• spend more time exploring as a family, lots of adventures

• baby brink 2.0 (hopefully)

• finish our list of house projects

• put our house on the market?

• buy a new house? more of a "forever home"

• get back in the habit of going to grace? or attempting the online worship option? maybe visit the grace fishers campus?

• decide what to do with the last 3 years worth of photos. photo books?

• plan something fun for our 7th wedding anniversary

• plan something fun for the anniversary of our first date... 10 years ago in 2015!

here were the goals i set for 2014. let's see where i ended up... looks like i could use an extra dose of motivation this year to really make things happen!!

Try going back to Grace.  I miss that place so much.

Wipe the dust off the sewing machine?

Train for and complete the mini marathon - I'm tired just thinking about it....and I cannot wait at the same time!  

Maybe find a later summer/fall race to sign up for? The Monumental half in October?

Get in shape.  2013 was good to me as far as exercising goes. I was NEVER one to like exercise. Hated it. And in 2013 I've been in my best shape yet. And I want to do even.better.

Think about expanding our family...already? Time has flown...

Sell our house and Buy/Build a new house?! AH!

SAVE MONEY. Spend less.

Clean.This.House.  Get rid of things we don't need.  We are basically hoarders. Not really... but sometimes it really feels like it!!

Put.The.Phone.Down. Need I say more?

Make family year books. And continue with (at least) yearly videos for Jackson.

Make an effort to DO SOMETHING with my photos AND videos. We all know I take photos every day of our lives but where do they end up?  Other than taking up all the room on my computer and external hard drive...

Keep up this blog.  Writing feels good. The documentation feels good. And I'd love to Make some friends and connect with others this way.  I like this "me" time! 

Make good and healthy food choices for me and for my family.

Budget, budget, budget.  there is no reason that we shouldn't be more aware of our spending.

Date my husband.  We both could use more time together. It makes us better for each other and better for our boy.

Stay positive.

just because some of those things aren't crossed off, doesn't mean that they didn't happen. they just didn't happen to the extent that i wanted them to. so. this year. is going to be the best year yet. i just have to MAKE it happen. i'm looking forward to the challenge and all of the rewards that will come along with the hard work.

happy new year my friends!!

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goals for june

i've never really made a list of goals for a month before but i've seen them around and thought it might be a good idea to get some of my ideas down "on paper."  summer is crazy busy for everyone so this may help hold me accountable for the thing we really need or want to do this month.  and can we even believe that it is june already?! seriously.  i still cannot wrap my mind around that.

so here are some things i'd like to do in june:

•  spend as much time outside as possible.  enjoy popsicles with my buddy. go for walks in the evening. we had a long and hard winter and now that the weather is cooperative and enjoyable, we need to stay outdoors as much as we possibly can!

• swim.  if it is in grandpa brink's pool or hot tub, with friends or even try out the pool at aunt carrie's house... we need to get in the water.  preferably warm water ;)  time to get a little bit of practice in before we head to south haven in july!

• get a new workout plan.  i've had a love/hate relationship with running lately and i am thinking i'm leaning towards the hate side these days. and it makes me sad. i think training for the mini and then having the slightest disappointment has possibly left me feeling burnt out. so. last week todd and i started working out in the evening together.  using some cross fit style workouts and busting out the trusty trx.  that thing is no joke. maybe we'll have a good relationship this summer. although i am honestly so very tempted by the 21 day fix.  anyone heard anything about it? i like the idea so much and i like to have a plan.  a calender to look at every day so there is no guessing in what is next. i'd love to hear your thoughts!!

• with that said, i now have 6 weeks until our vacation in south haven. time to get swim suit ready.  i was running quite a bit before our trip last year and was feeling pretty confident.  i want to feel even better this year so i really want to buckle down and make it happen.  since having a baby, i'm totally a one-piece swimsuit mom... but what i wouldn't give to rock a post-baby bikini. (not a typical bikini but i am in love with this one!)  i am feeling super motivated and need to run.with.it.

• on a similar note with the exercising (especially in line with the idea of the 21 day fix...) i want to attempt to eat cleaner.  why is this idea so daunting to me?! the summer is the perfect time to give it a go. with all of the grilling, fresh veggies and fruits. i really have no excuse and i bet this is a change that would show me more results than i'm used to!

• go to the fisher's library and actually sign up for a library card.  what have we been waiting for?  as much as jackson loves to read, i'm really not sure why we haven't done this yet.  i think he would love making visits to the library and i know i'd love to have new books for us to read together.  sounds like a win-win situation to me.  time to make it happen.

• go to the farmers markets in the area.  we did this so many saturday mornings last year and i am pretty excited to do that again.  with our schedules already packed for the next month, it may be a little tricky but again something we will not regret.  so many yummy foods and just good time walking around.  we will just have to make the time! i love farmers markets!

 what are your goals or even bucket list items for june or the entire summer?  are there things i should make sure to incorporate into our summer list?!  the summer will be over quickly and we don't want to miss a second of it.  please share, i'd love to hear what your favorite things are to do each summer.  and summers are much more fun now that we have a kid... am i right mom friends?!

...i really should plan out my blog posts ahead of time. i have all of these thoughts swimming in my head and now that i'm putting the words into this post, i feel like i'm forgetting something. oh well. there may just have to be updates later. bear with me! ...

happy monday!!!

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ready to make 2014 awesome...ps...happy new year's eve!!

After finding this blogger and looking back on her goals for 2013, it has inspired me to actually put in some time and thought on what I'd like to accomplish this year and hopefully writing these things down will help to hold me accountable. We'll see!

Below I've listed the areas that I'd like to focus on and I'm going to "list" my goals out in a crazy little jumbled mess. That's usually how my thoughts work so as I put my thoughts "on to paper" it may look like a mess. But that's life my friends!

Home

Family

Health/Fitness

Personal

Spiritual

Try going back to Grace.  I miss that place so much.

Wipe the dust off the sewing machine?

Train for and complete the mini marathon - I'm tired just thinking about it....and I cannot wait at the same time! 

Maybe find a later summer/fall race to sign up for? The Monumental half in October?

Get in shape.  2013 was good to me as far as exercising goes. I was NEVER one to like exercise. Hated it. And in 2013 I've been in my best shape yet. And I want to do even.better.

Think about expanding our family...already? Time has flown...

Sell our house and Buy/Build a new house?! AH!

SAVE MONEY. Spend less.

Clean.This.House.  Get rid of things we don't need.  We are basically hoarders. Not really... but sometimes it really feels like it!!

Put.The.Phone.Down. Need I say more?

Make family year books. And continue with (at least) yearly videos for Jackson.

Make an effort to DO SOMETHING with my photos AND videos. We all know I take photos every day of our lives but where do they end up?  Other than taking up all the room on my computer and external hard drive...

Keep up this blog.  Writing feels good. The documentation feels good. And I'd love to Make some friends and connect with others this way.  I like this "me" time!

Make good and healthy food choices for me and for my family.

Budget, budget, budget.  there is no reason that we shouldn't be more aware of our spending.

Date my husband.  We both could use more time together. It makes us better for each other and better for our boy.

Stay positive.

And...

This is probably the worst "list" of goals for 2014 that you've ever read. However, this is how my mind works and if I think about it, I'm writing it down.  I'm really feeling motivated so I'm really, really, really going to do my best to make stuff happen in 2014. 

What is your biggest goal for 2014?  I'd love to hear about it and I would love to help encourage you to make great things happen this coming year!  The blog community can be pretty great (from what I hear...) so let's be friends.  

And just for fun... a look back at 2013 that I shared via Instagram.  Because it is the best place ever.  This will make me smile. Forever.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Love, Me.

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starting fresh.

After feeling a surge of motivation and inspiration and change... all wonderful feelings for me... it has really helped me to give myself a huge reality check.  I am feeling so positive and motivated in so many aspects.  I've said it before in my previous post and I will say it again. I have to keep up the momentum and keep the positivity going.  I will keep it going.

I'm working on setting some goals for the new year and saving money is one of them. I've started making a list (because I really do love lists!) of all of the typical expenses we have every month.  I feel like we just spend so much more money that we "need" to.  I know we need to save more. I know we need to just honestly be more mindful when and how we spend our money.  So as of January 1, it's on.

photo by me

Partially inspired by life itself and the changes that I feel happening and partially inspired by friends and other friends and partially inspired by blogs.  My friends are amazing and the blog world is an amazing place.  I am surrounded by such rich resources!! And for that, I am so very thankful.

All of that said, Todd and I will need to sit down and really take a look at where our money is going.  What are some things that we spend money on that we could actually go without? The gym? Ugh. Probably.  It makes  me a little sad and a little excited.  The thought of putting that extra money towards a new house is the best part.  And expanding our family some day? That makes me smile too.  Every little bit will help.  That is the motivation that will help me to reevaluate our money priorities.  We are lucky and blessed in our lives and we are not hurting for anything. I need to keep that in mind when we start to pull those purse strings a little tighter.  We are doing it all for great reasons and all of it will be worth it later.  Hopefully in 2014.

Now that I'm really looking into where our money is spent, it leads me to budgeting. I really love using a system like Mint to track your transactions. What I need to really work on and maybe could use a little help with is setting spending limits for certain things.  Do we really need the cable package that we have...do we really need to spend that much money on groceries..we should probably set a menu and shop from a list... we might want to cancel that gym membership...stop going out to dinner as often as we do...is paying for little extra's worth it at the end of the day? Lots of questions are racing through my brain today!!

I apologize for the mess of jumbled thoughts. I am trying to get all of the thoughts and anxieties that are running through my mind into words. When I say anxieties, I mean that in the best way.  Change can make me anxious but I'm also so very excited.  So like I said, it is kind of a jumbled mess of words and emotions.  I just need to write the down. I think it will help me put my words into actions. 

So. Here are some of the places online that I've come across that bring some pretty good money-saving ideas to the table:

• This Blog.  They are amazing and very inspiring!  And I would love to somehow incorporate this idea into our savings plan for 2014.
• I haven't yet read all of these posts but I'm looking forward to having them for reference!
• Mint.  Seriously. We've used this before and if we start using it again, I think it will really, really help us!

I need your help, any tips for saving money?  Any more inspirational stories that will help me to stay focused on our goals?  "No Spend January" could be very interesting but I know it will all be worth it.  I know we can do it.

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