Money Saving Mom®

Last week’s goals:

Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals

1. Finish three read-aloud books with the children.

2. Write a love note to Jesse.

3. Go on an overnight trip as a family.

Personal Goals

4. Read Erasing Hell by Francis Chan, Anything by Jennie Allen, Pinterest Power, The Wings of the Morning, and Wrecked by Jeff Goins.

5. Listen to one hour of Made to Stick.

6. Do 5 days’ worth of the Couch to 10K program. {Only managed to run three days last week, but hey, that’s better than none at all!}

Homemaking Goals

7. Follow the 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home plan & blog about it.

8. Finish 25 more rows of the scarf I’m working on knitting.

9. Make at least two new recipes.

Business Goals

10. Finish all the details for a new Christmas ebook I’m launching next week.

This week’s goals:

Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals

1. Read three chapters of A Way Through the Sea with Kathrynne, read at least five chapters of The Imagination Station: Book 8 with Kaitlynn, and read three chapters of Cameron Townsend aloud to the children.

2. Write a love note to Jesse.

3. Go on a date with Jesse.

Personal Goals

4. Finish Erasing Hell by Francis Chan, Anything by Jennie Allen, Pinterest Power, and The Wings of the Morning.

5. Listen to one hour of Made to Stick.

6. Do 5 days’ worth of the Couch to 10K program.

Homemaking Goals

7. Follow the 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home plan & blog about it.

8. Finish 25 more rows of the scarf I’m working on knitting.

9. Make at least two new recipes.

Business Goals

10. Launch my Christmas ebook!

How did you do on last week’s goals? What are your goals for this week? I’d love to have you share your progress on last week’s goals and your goals for this coming week in the comments. Of, if you’ve blogged about it, leave your direct link below. Let’s cheer each other on to live purposeful and productive lives!

You can download a free customizable weekly goal-planning sheet here.

We crossed off some pretty big goals past month: we signed a contact on our first rental property and I ran my first 5K! It’s so surreal that both of those things happened as I couldn’t have imagined either of them would be possible five years ago!

And you know what they show? That this whole business of setting big goals and breaking them down into bite-sized pieces really works.

When I was at the beginning of training for the 5K and when we first started our rental investment property fund, both goals seemed so distant and audacious. But little bit by little bit, all those tiny steps added up to a goal achieved.

If goal-setting scares you, can I encourage you to be brave with me and step out and set some small goals? I know it’s daunting and sometimes it’s painful.

But jumping out and challenging ourselves outside of our comfort is when you’ll feel the most alive and passionate. You’ll be living with purpose and intention and there’s so much more fulfillment in that than in just drifting along, not really knowing where you’re headed or what you’re living for.

Now, here’s this month’s update:

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. {Almost finished through October. I have also read quite a few other books!}
Listen to 12 audiobooks. {I’ve gotten a little behind here, but I’m plugging away at it!}
Run in at least one 5K race.  {You can see a picture and read more about my experience here.}
Complete the Couch to 10K program. {Started this in October.}
Tackle 12 Do-It-Yourself Projects. {Totally bombed this one this month.}
Focus on one habit per month. {Totally bombed this one this month.}
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. {Made some progress on this one in October.}
Memorize Colossians using the plan and free download here. {I didn’t do very well on this one this past month; must make this more of a priority!}

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 & Pennsylvania in October.}
Have monthly date nights. {We had a few dates in October, plus went to Pennsylvania together!}
Read four books together. {We’ve done two books so far this year and we’re working on a third.}
Read at least 3 books on marriage. 

Children/Homeschooling
Continue regular dates/outings with each of the children individually. {Done for October.}
Continue Grace and Truth memory book. {The children memorized a few verses and worked on a hymn in October.}
Ice-skating lessons for all three children.
Swimming lessons for all three children.
Finish second grade, begin third grade with Kathrynne.
Finish kindergarten, begin first grade with Kaitlynn.
Start preschool with Silas.
Go on at least one field trip every month. {We went on one field trip in October.}
Go on at least one family vacation.
Finish at least 15 read-aloud books. {We’ve finished 24 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 in October.}
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 mostly stuck with my blogging plan in October!}
Plan blog posts out at least a month in advance. {I’ve been doing much better about this — yay!}
Write and schedule blog posts at least a week in advance. {I did a better job at this in October — woot!}

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 bought a new-to-us vehicle in July — yay!}
Finish saving for and purchase a rental property with cash. {We signed a contract on a rental house and are set to close in a few weeks!}

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!