New Year's Goals Updated

Well, I've decided that I must use my blog to help me keep some form of accountability, so for as long as I am still doing well with achieving my goals, I will try to update the progress here on my blog. If we start to get to the middle of the month and you see know progress update, please HOLD me ACCOUNTABLE! Thank you.

Now for the update.

1. Lose 20 pounds by March -- Well 20 pounds in two months was a bit high, but I have lost five pounds so far and will continue to work on this one. I've started exercising more, but have struggled with keeping the food diary.

2. Spend more time in Prayer and Bible Study -- I have been much more consistent on Bible Study, and we have a set family time where everyone does their devotions, so this has helped me establish this time every day.

3. Read two books a month -- Well, in the month of January I read Created to be His Helpmeet by Debi Pearl and For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn. Both of these books are wonderful for working on your marriage.

4. Monthly Food Menu -- January I had a menu, I have yet to sit down an get my menu made for February -- I can see a huge difference too. January we had good well rounded meals. This week we have had rice, sandwiches, quessadillas, all quick small meals. I need to get this done by this weekend so my hubby doesn't starve :)

5. Spend individual time with each of my kids -- this one is much harder than I though it would be. It is almost impossible to spend fifteen minutes with any one child without being interrupted by the others, so this one has adjusted to just spending an hour playing/reading/exercising with all of my kids together (they actually seem to like this better anyways. Maybe I should also just adjust this to about 30 minutes/week with each kid individually).

Well, that sums up my goals.

The kids goals that have been accomplished:

January 21 -- Lydia accepted Christ as her Savior (I'll post about this at a later date).
Kara has been reading at least one book a day
Andy -- well, let's just say he is a work in progress
Ezekiel -- He is now walking. He is also beginning to learn to say please.

Some other Random Things:We've been working on some projects around the house, and one of our projects (cost us only $2) was to build a mitten/hat rack for the kids winter wear. I was tired of having hats, gloves, and mittens mingled with the laundry and scattered around the house, so we found an old piece of trim in the basement, cut some dowels down to size, and created our own mitten tree.