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2012 Goals: May Update

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How are you doing on your goals for 2012? I’m excited about the progress I made in May…

Personal
Read through the Bible in a year. {I’ve been keeping up with this faithfully.}
Read through the 24 books on my 2012 booklist. {I’m almost finished with May’s books and have read quite a few other books!}
Listen to 12 audiobooks. {I just finished May’s audiobook and am starting on June’s!}
Run in at least one 5K race. {Finished the Couch to 5K program and am now working on getting my time down. Hoping to sign up for a race soon.}
Complete the Couch to 10K program.
Tackle 12 Do-It-Yourself Projects. {I made English Muffin Bread last week — I’ll blog about it next week!}
Focus on one habit per month. {We made some good headway with consistent bedtimes in May — yay! On to getting places on time — one of the areas I really struggle with!}
Learn to use my new DSLR camera (huge surprise Christmas present from Jesse!!) & improve my photography skills. {I’m excited to be seeing some improvement and progress with this! And I’m also excited that I’m beginning to feel more and more comfortable using my camera!}
Take at least one photo a day and put together a page every week for my Project Life album. {I’m behind on putting my album together, but I’ve been doing good about taking lots of pictures!}
Memorize Colossians using the plan and free download here. {I’m almost caught up with this.}

Marriage
Go on the Love Like You Mean It Cruise. {Done–read my recap here.}
Go on two Marriage Retreats (Went to Cincinnati together in April).
Have monthly date nights. {We had one date in May.}
Read four books together. {We’ve done two books so far this year.}
Read at least 3 books on marriage. {I’ve read two so far this year.}

Children/Homeschooling
Continue regular dates/outings with each of the children individually. {I went on at least one outing with each child individually in April.}
Continue Grace and Truth memory book. {The children memorized three verses plus one verse of a hymn in May.}
Ice-skating lessons for all three children. {The children finished up their second round of classes and we enrolled them in a third round since they are enjoying it so much!}
Swimming lessons for all three children. {We’re hoping to get all three signed up for this within the next two weeks.}
Finish second grade, begin third grade with Kathrynne. {Kathrynne finished second grade in May — woohoo!}
Finish kindergarten, begin first grade with Kaitlynn. {Kaitlynn finished Kindergarten in May and is excited about beginning first grade soon. I’m excited because her reading and spelling have taken off in the last month — she’s quite self-motivated which helps tremendously!}
Start preschool with Silas. {Started this in April.}
Go on at least one field trip every month. {We went on one field trip in May.}
Go on at least one family vacation. {We have one planned for July.}
Finish at least 15 read-aloud books. {We’ve finished 14 read-alouds so far this year.}

Ministry/Friendships/Extended Family
Write at least two handwritten notes every month to encourage someone. {I wrote & mailed five handwritten notes this month.}
Continue being involved in our local church, homeschool group, young couple’s group, and blogging accountability group. {Ongoing}
Continue with weekly get-togethers with both sides of our extended family. {Ongoing}

Business/Blogging
Continue to take Sundays off from blogging/business work. {Ongoing}
Continue keeping strict Office Hours for the business/blogging time each day. {Still plugging away on this!}
Switch to a paperless planning system. {This is the one goal I think I’ve officially decided to drop this year as it just wasn’t working for me. Back to the paper.}
Follow my weekly blogging plan. {I stuck with my blogging plan all but three days in May, if I’m remembering correctly — woot!}
Plan blog posts out at least a month in advance. {I made some great progress in this area in May!}
Write and schedule blog posts at least a week in advance. {Making some headway with this, though I’m far from where I want to be!}

Financial
Continue to tithe 10% of our income. {Ongoing}
Give generously to needs in our community and around the world, as God prompts us. {Ongoing}
Pay cash for a new-to-us vehicle to replace our family’s van. {We’re still looking and haven’t found anything we love in our price range yet!}
Finish saving for and purchase a rental property with cash. {We’re in the process of investigating our options in our price range right now and deciding if we want to go ahead and purchase something or continue saving.}

How Are You Doing on Your Goals for 2012?

If you’ve posted goals for 2012, I’d love for you to post an update on how things are going and share your link in the comments. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to just leave your update as a comment. Let’s encourage one another to live lives of intention and purpose!

Reader Interactions

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  1. Sarah says

    Quick homeschooling question. Are you going to take a summer break from school or do you just continue through at the same pace?

    • Crystal says

      We always take a few week-long breaks in summer, as well as having more of a relaxed homeschooling pace. But I’ve found that it seems to work better in this season of life if we continue on with some subjects and a basic routine for most of the summer.

  2. Ginger says

    Your monthly goals check-ins are my favorite posts, and I look forward to them every month. I’m not jealous; I’m inspired! I think of you often whenever I’m wanting some retail therapy and to spend money on eating out that’s not in my budget. I’m saving for the down payment on a 4-plex and will never make it unless I stay within my monthly budget.

  3. Crissy says

    I had a homeschool question. You have mention that your oldest is going into third grade but she is younger than my daughter who ia just going into second. Do you put your kids in higher grade levels. I am just trying to make sure we are not behind. Thanks so much for your help.

    • Crystal says

      We started homeschooling both of them at age 4 (because they showed all the signs of kindergarten readiness), so that’s why they are in the grades they are. As long as they continue to perform well and complete the necessary grade level requirements, we’re letting them move up. However, we’re just taking it one year at a time and evaluating it as we go.

      We may take a completely different path with Silas, depending upon the kindergarten readiness signs he shows (or doesn’t show). All children are different, so we’re just seeking to evaluate the needs of each child and do what is best for them each year.

      I know many children who are the same ages as ours who are much more advanced or much less advanced academically. Children learn at different speeds and in different ways, so I’m sure you’re doing what is best for your children and they are not at all “behind”.

    • Diane says

      Crissy, from a homeschooling mom who has teenagers, I’ll tell you don’t worry so much about what grade children are in. The only reason my kids are “in a grade” is that the state requires that they be assigned one. They are constantly doing work above or below their grade level at any given time. As Crystal says, they all learn at different speeds. I’m sure you’re doing a wonderful job with her.

  4. Shelly says

    I did not make any 2012 goals. I do make weekly goals. I will have to think about what it is I want to accomplish for the rest of this year. I guess it is not too late to start half way through the year.

  5. Michele says

    Can you share what types of books your daughter Kaitlynn is reading? My son is the same age as yours, and I’m always on the lookout for books that he will enjoy reading. Right now he reads those Step 1 Reader type books but I’d love to give him others. Thanks!

    • Crystal says

      So far, we’ve just been using BOB books and then moving up to the Level 1 readers after all of the levels of BOB books.

      For both of the girls, that has seemed to work best for easing them into reading. And they both have liked the readers (our library has a LOT of different ones to choose from so that helps keep things interesting!). If other people know of easy reader books that aren’t a part of some of the Beginning Reader series, I’d love to hear about them.

      Kathrynne went from Level 4 readers straight to chapter books, so that’s the path I’ve been taking with Kaitlynn, too, as long as it seems to be working.

  7. Yunnie says

    You did ALL that for the month of May? Wow! My only goal is doing my best in every aspect of my life and that brings me peace and satisfaction. That’s just the way I work I guess! Props to those wo work like Crystal!

    • Crystal says

      No, no, no — That’s the combined effort of all of this year so far. These are my yearly goals and I’m just updating my progress on them each month (and some of them, namely our financial goals, are things we’ve been saving for for longer than this year). My apologies if that didn’t make sense — it would seem like I’m some crazy superwoman if I did all of that in *May* alone.

      I’ll try to remember to make it more clear next month, as I realized it may be confusing to new readers here.

  8. San Diego Deals and Steals says

    Our goals this year are to finish up our Baby Step 3, 4, and 5 – all this year! We should have Baby Step 3 completed within 2 months and I can hardly believe it! Baby Step four will be automatic – we have just been holding off because we want to have a fully funded emergency fund first – but we already put 3% in retirement so bumping to 15% will not be too crazy, hopefully!- we could afford to now but just were trying to do it baby step style! Also we hope to get college funds for all three kids – they do have SMALL college accounts right now – but basically it is just random birthday money that goes into it, nothing is coming out as a monthly or regular deposit – but our goal is to have that by this year.

    We started our dave ramsey inspired cash only lifestyle about 2 years ago – we had baby step 1 done, but that was it – it is crazy to think that in about a year from now (God willing!) we will be at the point of paying our house off early – such a blessing!

  9. billie says

    For your goals, do you have a budget line to meet your “give generously” goal or do you just take it out of money that you would have spent somewhere else? Thanks. 🙂

  12. sona says

    I wondered if there were any suggestions for a Christian male who is a college graduate, on leadership etc without being shame based etc.

  14. Susan in St. Louis says

    Yay! And thanks for letting me be on the receiving end for one of your “goals”. 🙂

    I feel as if in some ways we’re making progress here, specifically in regards to paying off our mortgage. I’m SO excited about the progress we’ve made, and now it looks as if we’ll be able to have it completely paid off by the end of 2013! As for personal goals, I’m doing well on some and need to put forth more effort in other areas. Sometimes things move at a snail’s pace around here.

  16. Laura @ Frugal Follies says

    Thanks for your update! I love how you make goals even for some of the small things that might be forgotten in the craziness of everyday life.

    Our financial goal is to pay off our home equity line of credit by the end of the year. We made some great progress on that goal this month, and we expect to make a huge amount of progress in June. That’s because my husband is paid every two weeks, which means that two months of the year he gets three paychecks – and June is one of those months! We plan our spending based on two paychecks per month, so we should be able to put the entire third check toward debt reduction.

    Here’s my update: http://www.frugalfollies.com/2012/05/delve-into-your-finances-in-2012-may.html

  17. Teena says

    Love hearing about your goal updates Crystal! I was just wondering what sorts of field trips you do with your children? I am always looking for ideas on fun and educational places to take my son, and wondering how you decide where to go and what to do?

    • Lana says

      If you have a rock quarry in your area it is the coolest field trip we ever went on as homeschoolers. Our kids that went are in their 20’s now and still talk about it.

      • Diane says

        We took our 2 yr old to a rock quarry and she loved it so much she still talks about it almost a year later!

      • Courtney says

        We actually own a quarry and even though our kids have {obviously} been there a thousand times, they still love it 🙂

    • Crystal says

      It depends upon the month. Last month we went to a botanical garden. I think we’re going to the zoo this month, if our plans work out.

  18. B says

    Are you Mormon? Everything you do is perfectly met. Not that Mormons don’t make mistakes or come up short – they just don’t admit it when they do.

      • K says

        I wondered if I was the only one to think that the comment was rude; not to mention entirely inaccurate.

        I think that Crystal handled it very well, though.

    • Tammy Skipper (@Tammy_Skipper) says

      I think Crystal is quick to admit when she misses the mark on her goals, if you go back through previous updates, you will see this. Also, a sign of a good role model in goal setting is someone who knows how to push herself while still staying focused on the things that are truly important (and motivating) to her.

    • Crystal says

      We’re not Mormom or anywhere near perfect. 🙂

      As I often blog about (and those who have met me in real-life will heartily attest to) we’re struggling and learning and growing right along with the rest of you all. Sometimes, though, I think it’s easy for people to forget — especially when just reading a slice of someone’s life on a computer screen — that bloggers are real people, with real struggles and very real short-comings. None of us have “arrived”.

      All of us have our strengths and our weaknesses. So be encouraged; we’re all in this together!

      Also, make sure you read my weekly goals each week as I never reach all of them. And some weeks, I fall miserably behind where I’d hoped to be! However, I’ve found that by plugging along each week and reaching some of my goals and making progress in other areas, it always surprises me how much that little progress starts to add up to significant traction toward my year goals when I go to do my monthly goal review!

      By the way, this post might be an encouragement to you:
      https://moneysavingmom.com/2012/05/how-to-overcome-burnout-and-get-back-on-a-routine-part-3.html

      • K says

        You handled this w/ such grace.

        By the way, I don’t think that you come off as not being able to admit to your shortcomings. That’s why you have goals, right? To have a goal implies that one is working towards improvement, (for a lack of a better term.)

        I’m encouraged and challenged, (in a positive way), when I read your blog.

    • Sarah says

      I am Mormon, and I make mistakes all the time and am happy to admit it. Please don’t make such sweeping judgments of an entire group of people.

  20. Heather says

    I enjoy reading your updates…. I also a type A, goal setting woman. However, I will admit to struggling with jealousy when I read your updates… not in the area of what you accomplish, but in your financial goals. I get jealous with all your savings…. then I have to put things in perspective and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I am too often guilty of comparison…. and comparing your life is an apples to oranges not apple to apple. I have to remind myself that we are doing everything we can do in our situation… single income (ceramic tile contractor husband) with 4 kids. God has been VERY good to us and jealousy is not a good thing!

    • Tammy Skipper (@Tammy_Skipper) says

      I’m so glad you saw this attack for what it was…jealousy does not edify us and I believe we divide ourselves as women when we allow it to have a place in our lives. May God continue to show you His faithfulness!

    • Diane says

      Try not to compare yourself to others. Comparing will rob you of your joy. You can always find someone better or worse off than you are. I’m glad you realize how good God has been to you.

  26. Meredith M says

    I love reading your goal posts! I have to look back at mine, but I have to say, I love writing weekly goals. I get so much done during the week! One of my goals this week is to plan summer goals, based on my yearly goals. This is my last week of school for summer vacation! Yay!

  27. Victoria @Snail Pace Transformations says

    I love reading your monthly goal updates. Although I make New Years Goals I am not so good at breaking them down through out the year. I am making progress though, I am up to 70 lengths of the pool and my goal is to do a 120 length swim by the end of the year which if I did my math right is equal to an iron man distance swim (except without the 100 miles of biking and the 26.2 miles or running afterwards. LOL!)

  28. Jody Susan says

    I made myself break this months goals into bite-sized pieces yesterday. It really does help to see what is realistic and what isn’t.