November Goals

I'm trying to go easy on myself this month, because it's baby month!

Personal:

• Clean the two bathrooms.  Because of my pregnancy pain and mobility issues, this hasn't happened as often as it should. But I'm hoping to get one really good deep clean of both of them in this month.
• Finish at least one set of plastic canvas letters (pictured in this post) for Christmas presents.  I'm up to the letter Q as of writing this.  Each letter takes 45-60 minutes, so it's quite the project.
• Finish reading two books.  This will meet my reading goal of 25 books for the year.

Parenting/Homeschooling:

• Have a baby! 
• Make "My name is" laminated traceable cards for the boys for school so they can learn to write their names.
• Finish making the lower case bottle cap letters. I've had the last 9 caps saved for a few weeks and just haven't sat down to do them.

I've also been working more on decluttering and organizing things around the house, finishing little projects, and basically wrapping up as much as I can before Elizabeth is born.  I want to keep doing that too...

October Goals Update

October has flown by!  I didn't make a lot of progress on some of these goals, but I also think part of my problem was that they weren't all very specific and trackable.

Parenting:

• Have patience with all of my children.  Work in progress, but the days I'm more aware of it, I usually do better.
• Figure out where to put clothes for baby Elizabeth.  I didn't do this yet, but the bin of 0-3 month clothes is organized and easily accessible, so at least I'll be able to pull them out of there.

Personal:

• Read three books for fun. I finished two and am in the middle of two more.
• Keep myself on self-imposed partial bed-rest.  I'm surviving.  I can accomplish a lot sitting down, and I'm working on being better about asking for help.  Just a few more weeks!
• Finish color-coding some of my organ music.  I have one section left, which will hopefully get done this week.

Food:

• Make a plan for freezer meals for after Elizabeth is born.  No plan, because our freezer is really full right now with bacon and applesauce.  
• Stay under budget!  We were doing well for the first half of the month.  The second half not so much.  We went over.

September Goals Update And October Goals

September Goals Update:
Parenting:

• Figure out a good order for homeschooling subjects.  I think I have a pretty good handle on the order for now.  I'm still debating spreading some subjects out to an afternoon session, so it may change again.
• Continue to teach Hannah to use a spoon.  She's still good with me feeding her, and she will occasionally pick the spoon up, but she has no clue how to use it.  We are really baby stepping with this.
• Make sure to spend some one on one time with Matthew.  We've gotten in some extra snuggles, but I still need to make more of an effort on this.

Personal:

• Read three books for fun.  I read two, and I would have finished a third, but I had to return it to the library. 
• Clear whatever doesn't sell on the garage sale sites out of our bedroom by the end of the month.  It's still there.

Food:

• Stay on budget!  Done!
• Decide what foods to compromise on and how to do it.  I'm trying to keep track of which meals from our standards take less time and effort to prep, and also just not making things like crackers, because they drive me batty.  Tortillas have actually gotten pretty easy to do now that I've made them a few times, so that's cool.
• Find a good homemade specialty coffee recipe.  I ended up getting good deals on bottled coffee, plus I got some other coffees for my birthday, so I haven't had the opportunity to test too many yet.  

October Goals:

Parenting:

• Have patience with all of my children.  This is an ongoing struggle for me, and it's something I've been trying to work on.
• Figure out where to put clothes for Elizabeth and get the first sizes out and ready to go. Baby month is next month! (assuming she comes more or less on time, of course)

Personal:

• Read three books for fun.
• Keep myself on my self-imposed partial bed rest plan and hope my pain gets better.  I've had really terrible sciatic nerve pain throughout this pregnancy, but it has flared up in the past couple of weeks to the point that I need to constantly take breaks to lie down or I can't move.  It makes life interesting, to say the least.
• Finish color-coding some of my organ music.  I have been making little highlighter marks in the upper corner of the page for each song so I know if it's good for preservice, postludes, communion, or weddings, so I can quickly find what I'm looking for. 

Food:

• Make a plan for freezer meals for after Elizabeth is born (part will come out of this month's budget and part from next month's budget).
• Stay under budget! This just needs to be a goal every month.

September Goals

With school starting this week, and a lot of other things popping up to take care of, I've had a goals list in my head, but not typed up.  And with how scatter-brained this pregnancy is making me, I should really get my goals written out before I forget them all...

Parenting:

• Figure out a good order for homeschooling subjects.  We've tried a couple different ways, and there are some subjects that are more of a "fun" time or "break" time than others, so I'm trying to alternate those with the more structured ones.
• Continue to teach Hannah to use a spoon.  Slow going with this one...
• Make sure to spend some one on one time with Matthew.  Between Jonah getting school time and Hannah making sure she as the youngest gets her own "mom time", Matthew sometimes gets left out.

Personal:

• Read three books for fun.  After all the reading I did this summer, three might be an ambitious number unless I really focus on setting aside time for it.
• Clear whatever doesn't sell on the garage sale sites out of our bedroom by the end of the month.  I can only trip over the pile for so long.

Food:

• Stay on budget!  The first half of the month is looking pretty good so far.
• Decide what foods to compromise on and how to do it.  I've been making things like tortillas and crackers from scratch the past few weeks, and I appreciate the cost savings and the health factor, but it takes time.  It makes messes.  It's not exactly fun, especially with everything else I have going on.  So I need to figure out what is going to stay part of the food routine and what is going to have to wait for now, especially with Elizabeth coming soon.
• Find a good homemade specialty coffee recipe.  I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to coffees and drinks, and I want to try several to see what's yummy and what's not so good.

August Goals Update

My goals were very school-oriented this month, and I managed to get everything ready in time to start!

Parenting:

• Start teaching Hannah how to eat with utensils. We've started, and she's willing to use them when I feed her, but she has no interest in picking them up herself.  
• Get rid of Hannah's pacifier. Done!
• Continue weekly library trips. We go every Thursday afternoon!

Homeschooling:

• Plan my first 3 Science Units. I planned my first unit, which will take us through September.  I haven't planned anything beyond that yet, but I do have other unit ideas and resources saved. It's just a matter of putting it into my weekly lesson plans.
• Order my math curriculum and plan the first two months.  I opted to use the free math resources through Wittenberg Academy, and I have the first month planned out.
• Plan A through D in Letter of the Week. Done! I'm excited to see which activities Jonah likes best.

Blogging:

• Post our specific homeschool curriculum. You can read about it here.
• Do at least 2 craft projects and post about them.  I only managed to do one Iron Craft project.

August Goals

I can't believe it's a new month already! I feel like this summer has just flown by, and we're already almost to school time.  Starting the I-don't-have-enough-ready-yet freak out...

Parenting:

• Start teaching Hannah how to eat with utensils. 
• Get rid of Hannah's pacifier (this was my goal in June and we still haven't done it).
• Continue weekly library trips. We've been doing this for a couple weeks now and everyone is enjoying it!

Homeschooling:

• Plan my first 3 Science Units.
• Order my math curriculum and plan the first two months.
• Plan A through D in Letter of the Week.

Blogging:

• Post our specific homeschool curriculum.
• Do at least 2 craft projects and post about them.  Each month there are two Iron Craft challenges, so I should manage this, but maybe I'll get ambitious and have more. We'll see.

I think that's probably enough, because with gearing up for homeschooling I'll be busy!

July Goals Update

I actually accomplished most of my goals for the month of July! Love it when that happens!

Parenting:

• Get back into daily reading time with the kids, at least 5 days a week. I didn't necessarily keep track of this, but I think we did okay. Not great, but okay. Part of our homeschooling schedule will include a weekly library trip, as well as daily reading time, so that will help too.
• Teach the kids another hymn verse.  We learned I Pray Thee, Dear Lord Jesus for another night-time prayer.

Organizing:

• Put away Hannah's too small clothes and check the next size up to see what we have for girl clothes, and make a list of what we need. Done!
• Check Jonah and Matthew's next-size-up clothes as well, and make a list of what we need. Done!

Personal:

• Finish reading Sugar, Salt, Fat, plus read 2 more books.  I didn't finish Sugar, Salt, Fat yet (I got on a fiction kick instead), but I did read 8 books this month!
• Make at least 2 craft projects.  I made a 4th of July door hanger with the kids, finished a few small projects which you can see in this post, and made an ornament and a flower embellishment for Iron Craft. 

Blog:

• Post at least one content post per week. Done!
• Find a consistent time each week to work on the blog. Not done, but I did carve out at least two afternoons during naptime most weeks to write and plan things.  Not consistent, but it worked, so I think that's good enough.

July Goals

Parenting:

• Get back into daily reading time with the kids, at least 5 days a week. I'm thinking after lunch before rest time is the best time for this.
• Teach the kids another hymn verse. We've taken a few months off from this, and I want to find a good all-season hymn to teach them. I'm thinking God's Word Is Our Great Heritage or On My Heart Imprint Thine Image.

Organizing:

• Put away Hannah's too small clothes and check the next size up to see what we have for girl clothes, and make a list of what we need.
• Check Jonah and Matthew's next-size-up clothes as well, and make a list of what we need.

Personal:

• Finish reading Sugar, Salt, Fat, plus read 2 more books.  I have a couple paperbacks that I've bought over the past few months, as well as one I received for free for a review (I should probably read that one first).
• Make at least 2 craft projects. I really need to start using up some of the random crafty items I've saved for specific projects, so I can condense and organize the categories that are left that I actually use more consistently. Does that make sense? I hope it does.

Blog:

• Post at least one content post per week. This means something besides What I'm Reading or Menu Plans. One project, one rambling thoughts post, one something.
• Find a consistent time each week to work on the blog.

June Goals Update

I made my June goals list mid-month, so I only had 15 days to get all these done! Here's how I did:

Parenting:

• Wean Hannah off of her evening bottle. Her last bottle was June 22.
• Switch Hannah to her actual crib (she has been sleeping in her own room now, but still in the pack and play), and get rid of the pacifier, both after convention. Crib yes, pacifier no.
• Teach Matthew to clean himself up after using the toilet. Work in progress...
• Purge more toys so all the Legos have a home in the boys' room. We picked some more toys to get rid of, and got them out of the boys' room, but they haven't made it out of the house yet. But all the Legos are in their bedroom, which is a big success!

Computer/Organizing:

• Catch up on scanning bills and documents, and shred papers. Not done.
• Get all pictures from my phone saved onto my computer, and those plus the Paris pictures saved to the external hard drive. Done and done. Plus, I realized I only had about a week left to use a code for a free photo book, so I took a couple hours and finished our Paris trip book on Shutterfly.  Bonus!

And finally, enjoy visiting Mankato next week and try to stay under budget for food/going out with friends.  I'm really looking forward to the trip, although I'm also ready to be done with traveling for the summer. 

We had a really fun trip, and we stayed under budget for food, not so much for gas with all the extra driving around town we did.  It was great to see some old friends, and I got to enjoy my favorite Caribou Coffee almost every day (spoiled!).

June Goals

Can I still make a goals list if June is halfway done?  I suppose so...

Parenting:

• Wean Hannah off of her evening bottle.
• Switch Hannah to her actual crib (she has been sleeping in her own room now, but still in the pack and play), and get rid of the pacifier, both after convention.
• Teach Matthew to clean himself up after using the toilet.
• Purge more toys so all the Legos have a home in the boys' room.

Computer/Organizing:

• Catch up on scanning bills and documents, and shred papers.
• Get all pictures from my phone saved onto my computer, and those plus the Paris pictures saved to the external hard drive.

And finally, enjoy visiting Mankato next week and try to stay under budget for food/going out with friends.  I'm really looking forward to the trip, although I'm also ready to be done with traveling for the summer.

May Goals Update

Obviously it is June now, and I am a bit behind on blogging.  Later today (this week?) I'll share a bit of what we've been doing over the past month, and why I've been so busy, but for now, here's an update on my May goals.

Parenting:

• Potty train Matthew. Done!
• Get Hannah used to her sippy cup and get rid of at least one of her three daily bottles, if not two. She is down to one bottle at night and loves her sippy cups.

Home:

• Work on my spring cleaning list (more below). Most of this got done because we moved, so we had to clean. I was caught up on scanning, and then fell behind again with this month's bills, so that's about the only thing not done.
• Move? We moved down the hall to a 3-bedroom apartment.

Personal:

• Read Sugar, Salt, Fat by Michael Moss and 1 book from my Kindle. Not done.
• Organize France pictures, upload them to external hard drive, and start working on Shutterfly book about the trip. Not done.

Spring Cleaning List (these are things I've noticed could use a little bit of extra cleaning in our apartment):

• Wipe down microwave shelf
• Clean out vacuum
• Wipe down blinds in boys' room
• Wipe down blinds in our room
• Wipe down outside of kitchen cupboards
• Wipe down top and knobs of oven
• Vacuum inside coffee table and couch cushions
• Wipe down light switches
• Mop kitchen floor (because it's a small area, I usually just spot mop with a rag, but I figure it's time for a good mopping)
• Catch up on scanning and shredding paper statements

May Goals

Even though the month is already half over (!), here are my goals for May. I've started working on a few of them already, but I have quite a bit to do over the next couple weeks!

Parenting:

• Potty train Matthew.
• Get Hannah used to her sippy cup and get rid of at least one of her three daily bottles, if not two.

Home:

• Work on my spring cleaning list (more below).
• Move? We may be getting into a 3-bedroom apartment in our building, either this month or next.

Personal:

• Read Sugar, Salt, Fat by Michael Moss and 1 book from my Kindle.
• Organize France pictures, upload them to external hard drive, and start working on Shutterfly book about the trip.

Spring Cleaning List (these are things I've noticed could use a little bit of extra cleaning in our apartment):

• Wipe down microwave shelf
• Clean out vacuum
• Wipe down blinds in boys' room
• Wipe down blinds in our room
• Wipe down outside of kitchen cupboards
• Wipe down top and knobs of oven
• Vacuum inside coffee table and couch cushions
• Wipe down light switches
• Mop kitchen floor (because it's a small area, I usually just spot mop with a rag, but I figure it's time for a good mopping)
• Catch up on scanning and shredding paper statements

April Goals And Blog Break Announcement

Last month was Catching Up Month here on the blog.  But. I still feel behind.  I have an even longer to do list than before. And I'm tired.  Lately I have been feeling like I have too much on my plate. Maybe it's because it's Lent, naturally a busier time of year for a pastor's family.  Maybe it's because I give myself too many projects.  Regardless, it's time for a break. 

So, after a few more posts this week, I'm taking the rest of April off from blogging.

I really love this blog, even though I don't have many followers that I know of.  It's fun for me to write here, to keep track of things, to share ideas and projects.  But right now, it's too much. So I'm stepping back.

With that out of the way, here are my goals for April:

Blog (later this week!):

• Post about Lego Organizing.
• Post about Matthew's Tow Truck Birthday Cake.

Home:

• Finish my photo projects now that my computer is (mostly) back on track.  This includes the 2013 family photo book and replacing pictures in frames in the living room.
• Go through Money Saving Mom's 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home series for some spring cleaning (1 project each day M-F for 4 weeks). 

Parenting:

• Attempt potty training (again) with Matthew.
• Work on transitioning Hannah out of her mid-day bottle into more table foods.

Beyond all that, if I get more done, I will consider it a blessing. I hope to get back to blogging in May, refreshed and ready to share all sorts of good things. 

March Goals Update

My goal for March was to catch up on a lot of stuff.  I did fairly well, although I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to.  What is a goals list if not a chance to aim high, though?

I was also planning to do a few things this past week, and then my computer screen died.  I had just saved everything to our external hard drive the day before, so it was not a data loss, but the fun of setting up a new computer (transferring files, setting up printers, downloading software, and so on and so on) takes awhile, and I'm not quite done with all that, so my picture projects got put on the back burner in favor of getting that set up.

Parenting:

• Teach Jonah and Matthew v.1 of "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" (Hymn 279). Done! They are ready to sing this in church in a couple weeks.
• Switch Hannah's clothes to 12-18 months. Done! I also organized the rest of the baby clothes so that it's easier to see what we have.

Food:

• Make another food off of my Intimidating Foods list. I thought about making tortillas, but we ended up having enough store-bought ones that I didn't.
• Decrease my sugar intake. I can track this through My Fitness Pal, so I'm going to figure out my average for the past few months and work on lowering it. I figured out my average, and tracked it with the data from My Fitness Pal and an excel sheet (up until my computer died). In the day-to-day, I was doing pretty well, but those days I splurged and had Starbucks or Ben & Jerry's really upped the average, so I just need to limit those and I should be fine.

 Personal:

• Continue to do yoga at least 6 times a week. I have been skipping Wednesdays because they're so busy because of Lent, and there was one week I skipped another day, but otherwise I've been keeping up with yoga.
• Read Insurgent by Veronica Roth and Notes from a Blue Bike by Tsh Oxenreider. If I get ambitious, also read Allegiant by Veronica Roth. I read both Veronica Roth books, and I'm about halfway done with Blue Bike. Not bad.
• Complete at least 2 blog posts that I had wanted to do earlier this year but ran out of time. I wrote about my word of the year, and I showed you my bookshelves.

Crafts/Home:

• Add Hannah and Micah to the birthday board.  She's 9 months and he's 6 months. Nope.
• Work on 2013 Family photo book through Shutterfly. I picked pictures and got as far as uploading them before my computer died. So I still have to finish making the book.
• Order photos and redo picture frames with updated pictures. I made a list of pictures I need to find but I haven't ordered them yet. I did redeem My Coke Rewards points for 100 free pictures from Shutterfly, so I'll be able to order those at the same time as the photo book when I do finish it.
• Order photos for Hannah's baby book and update a few things in there. Same as above, I made a list of what I need but I haven't ordered them yet.
• Finish magazine holder from Iron Craft Challenge #2 in January.  I spent more time on other projects so this still isn't done. And my magazine pile is getting bigger again. Sigh.

If I Get Ambitious:

• Go through the bins of smaller baby clothes, purge (again!), and add dividers to split each size into "boy", "girl" and "gender neutral". Done!
• Mend several pairs of pants. Not done, and I think we actually added two more pairs to the pile. What is with little boys and holes in pant kness?
• Copy printed recipes onto note cards and reorganize my recipe binder. Not done.
• Go through my Pinterest boards and delete links I'm no longer interested in keeping. Not done.

Overall, I think I did okay.  I didn't quite get everything done, but it was a long list, so I'm not surprised.  

March Goals (And The Theme For The Month!)

As I mentioned yesterday, February was kind of a big fail in a lot of ways.  I'd like for March to be better.  So...this month is Catching Up Month!  I don't know about you all, but I have some catching up to do.

Here are my goals for this month.  Some of them might look familiar...

Parenting:

• Teach Jonah and Matthew v.1 of "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" (Hymn 279).
• Switch Hannah's clothes to 12-18 months. 

Food:

• Make another food off of my Intimidating Foods list.
• Decrease my sugar intake. I can track this through My Fitness Pal, so I'm going to figure out my average for the past few months and work on lowering it.

 Personal:

• Continue to do yoga at least 6 times a week.
• Read Insurgent by Veronica Roth and Notes from a Blue Bike by Tsh Oxenreider. If I get ambitious, also read Allegiant by Veronica Roth.
• Complete at least 2 blog posts that I had wanted to do earlier this year but ran out of time.

Crafts/Home:

• Add Hannah and Micah to the birthday board.  She's 9 months and he's 6 months.
• Work on 2013 Family photo book through Shutterfly
• Order photos and redo picture frames with updated pictures.
• Order photos for Hannah's baby book and update a few things in there.
• Finish magazine holder from Iron Craft Challenge #2 in January. 

If I Get Ambitious:

• Go through the bins of smaller baby clothes, purge (again!), and add dividers to split each size into "boy", "girl" and "gender neutral". I've tried making lists, but having them visually split up I think will help me know what I have better (and no, I don't need them for anything right now, but I'd rather have everything organized).
• Mend several pairs of pants.
• Copy printed recipes onto note cards and reorganize my recipe binder.
• Go through my Pinterest boards and delete links I'm no longer interested in keeping.

So there's my list.  It's long, again, but hopefully I can run with this motivation to catch up on things, and I even gave myself a few additional "ambitious" goals.  What do you need to catch up on this month?

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links.

February Goals Update

I had several goals for this month, and I am sad to say, I did not complete most of them.  For whatever reason, this month just got really busy, and while I was able to make progress on some of these, most are still not done.

Home:

• Update family pictures in various frames on our walls. I got as far as putting post-it notes on the ones I want to update (you can see some of them in the picture above). I still need to pick new ones and print them out and put them in the frames. 
• Create 2013 Family Photo Book on Shutterfly (and order if I have a free book code). I didn't do this yet.

Food:

• Make more homemade baby foods.  Done! Pictured are applesauce, apple blueberry, and apple pineapple strawberry.
• Make one of the items on my intimidating foods list. Done! I made eggplant lasagna.

Parenting:

• Get back into the daily reading habit with the kids.  I'd say this was about 50/50.  It was more in my mind, but it didn't always happen.
•  Start teaching the boys an Easter hymn (which one I'm not sure yet). I should have picked one and maybe that would have helped.  I do have a specific one to work on for next month though!

Personal:

• Continue to do yoga at least 6 days a week. Done!
• Finish the "Budgeting Finances and Time" folder of ebooks. I didn't read these.
• Read at least 3 additional books. I didn't read any books this month.  Sad face.

So. I don't have any Pinterest to Real Life updates, or any Books I've Read This Month updates, because neither of those happened.  I kind of fell off the wagon with healthy eating (snack issues mostly, although we went out to eat several times also), so I only lost 0.2 pounds this month, which is frustrating when you are working hard every day at working out.  Those little splurges do add up though.

Here's hoping I can do better next month!

February Monthly Goals

Home:

• Update family pictures in various frames on our walls. Hannah is currently in one picture and the boys are babies in a lot of them.
• Create 2013 Family Photo Book on Shutterfly (and order if I have a free book code).

Food:

• Make more homemade baby foods. So far I've made pears, apples, carrots, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes.  It's fun, and pretty easy!
• Make one of the items on my intimidating foods list. (More about this later this week!)

Parenting:

• Get back into the daily reading habit with the kids. Whether this means starting the pick-up/bedtime routine a little earlier, or reading before afternoon rest time, we've been slacking lately.
•  Start teaching the boys an Easter hymn (which one I'm not sure yet).

Personal:

• Continue to do yoga at least 6 days a week.
• Finish the "Budgeting Finances and Time" folder of ebooks.
• Read at least 3 additional books.

January Goals Update

Food:

• Stay under budget! Unfortunately, this was a fail. We were over by quite a bit, as we ordered another big jar of coconut oil, as well as a big box of diapers for Matthew and for Hannah.  That was $70 gone right there, since household stuff also comes out of our grocery budget and my Amazon money on Swagbucks was pretty depleted.  The total was $303.83. Our budget on paper is $200, plus whatever I earn on Swagbucks (usually around $50/month).  Seeing this though, I can tell that I need to reevaluate the budget, and I also need to keep tabs on the in-between trips, because our two big grocery shopping trips were $168.95, and the rest was deal shopping, coconut oil, and fill-in trips.
• Try 2 new recipes.  We tried a lot this month! We tried Crockpot Italian Steak with Mushrooms and Onions (pretty good, although I used a smaller chunk of meat and I shouldn't have skimped), Breadmaker Breadsticks (next time I think I'll leave out the sugar since they were super sweet), Pizza Pasta Salad (this seemed really bland to me, but Jonah loved it and asked for seconds), Ham and Apple Salad with Parmesan Dressing (this was the first time I made my own dressing, and it wasn't the greatest flavor, but I'm excited to try more kinds! the basic idea of a ham and apple salad was good), Black Bean Fajita Casserole (this was really good and fairly cheap), Sausage Zucchini and Potato Soup (I doubled this and it made a ton, but it's really yummy too!), and Black Bean Pizza (we've had something similar in the past, but not for a long time).

Crafts:

• Participate in Iron Craft 2014. I've at least attempted the first two challenges, so I'm off to a good start.
• Start an embroidery project. See Iron Craft Challenge #1.

Parenting:

• Make a list of homeschool research action items. Done.

Personal:

• Read through two folders of my 97 ebook bundle. Not done. I got about halfway through one folder.
• Continue to do yoga at least 6 days a week.  I've done yoga every day this month.
• Make sure I have all the Jane Austen books somewhere and start reading Pride & Prejudice for the Motherhood & Jane Austen Book Club. Since they are free access books, I already had them all on my Kindle. Score! I didn't start reading P&P though.
• Download GoodReads app and go through a few book lists to add books I want to read. I cheated because I actually did this mostly on December 31, but I refined my lists a bit and continued to add books this month, so it still counts.

January Goals

Food:

• Stay under budget! I've gone over the past few months, mostly because of meat.  I need to get back to a few more meatless meals each week and we should be okay.
• Try 2 new recipes.

Crafts:

• Participate in Iron Craft 2014. I feel like I say this every year, and then I don't really do much toward it. My problem is that I don't usually have a project in mind and I can't come up with anything to fit the theme. So. This year I'm going to have a list of projects that I would maybe like to do, and then when the challenge comes up, I'll find one that fits.
• Start an embroidery project. I've wanted to try this for awhile and haven't made time.

Parenting:

• Make a list of homeschool research action items. (Sounds so formal!) I have been mulling over homeschooling, but I have a lot (A LOT) of research to do first. Things like "Find a list of specific things the kid needs to know at each grade level" and "Buy Homeschooling 101 ebook and read it" and so on.

Personal:

• Read through two folders of my 97 ebook bundle. I bought two big ebook bundles in 2013 (97 books and 86 books, to be precise), and I have them neatly saved on my computer (and some on my Kindle) in their categorized folders, but I haven't read most of the books.  So I want to read through two categories in the first bundle.  They are "Cleaning, Organizing and Decor" and "Budgeting Finance and Time".  
• Continue to do yoga at least 6 days a week. It's become part of my after-dinner routine.
• Make sure I have all the Jane Austen books somewhere and start reading Pride & Prejudice for the Motherhood & Jane Austen Book Club. 
• Download GoodReads app and go through a few book lists to add books I want to read.

What I'm Reading...

I haven't yet posted about my monthly goals for December. That's because I really only have one goal: enjoy it! I know my December is always packed full of things to do - buying Christmas presents, decorating trees and cookies, and so on. So my goal is to not stress too much and enjoy the season.

What I'm Reading:

You Don't Have To Save Christmas. (The Happiest Home)

How We Help Curb The "I Want That!"s During The Holidays. (The Art Of Simple)

Becoming An Indie Publishing House Is Amazing, And Not As Hard As It Looks. (Offbeat Home)

What I'm Pinning:

• Real Candy Cane Ornaments (Christmas Your Way)
• How To Make A Crocheted Dishcloth (Little House Living) I don't know how to crochet, but this includes a simple step by step that I might be able to follow.
• The After School Gingerbread Project (Simple Bites)
• Snowflake Christmas Tree Skirt (Just Crafty Enough)
• The Best Pulled Pork In The Crockpot (100 Days Of Real Food)
• Paper Snowflake Trees (Just Crafty Enough)
• Chicken Barley Soup (Money Saving Mom)
• Peanut Butter Balls (Christmas Your Way)
• How To Display Holiday Cards (Organizing Junkie)