I’ve never been a huge New Year’s resolution person, but I love Gretchen Rubin’s approach.

Last year, she started an 18 for 2018 list, which is just what it sounds like – a list of 18 things she wanted to get done in 2018.

I think I like this approach better than traditional resolutions for 2 reasons.

First, it lends itself to very actionable and specific goals, ones that you can actually check off of a list, which I find very satisfying.

Second, it makes it easy to incorporate a mix a fun and practical goals, big and small goals, even serious and whimsical goals into your plans for the year.

So I’ve decided to give it a try this year and wanted to post about it so that I can keep myself accountable through updates, and to share in case anyone else wants to try it out too!

Now given that my life is about to majorly change (baby is due in two days as I write this!), I have no idea how many of these things I’ll actually get done. I had fun making the list though and at least thinking through things I would like to do this year, so that’s something.

Here’s my list!

1. Learn to use our DSLR (pretty sure this has been a New Year’s goal of mine for at least 3 years….)
2. Visit the mountains
3. Complete a fiction writing project I’ve been working on
4. Get professional family photos taken
5. Bake 5 different kinds of (non quick) bread
6. Read 12 books (I realize this number is not very lofty, but would love to finish one a month as a minimum)
7. Make a detailed outline for a non-fiction book I’m thinking of attempting
8. Start college funds for our kids (we have money saved for them, but need to start an official account – recommendations?)
9. Write / submit some kind of children’s literature (probably to a magazine)
10. Find a babysitter and go on dates!
11. Limit my Amazon orders to one per month
12. See 4 movies in the theater
13. Send holiday cards
14. Celebrate small holidays (another Gretchen Rubin thing I’d love to try!)
15. Limit grocery budget to $X per week
16. Visit my family in Houston 3 times (I usually go more than this, but I know it will be trickier to travel with the new baby)
17. Run a fall race (likely just a 5K or 10K)
18. Visit our family’s ranch 3 times
19. Try Burn Boot Camp, which just opened an Austin location!

So this is a pretty random list, but there it is! I suppose if there were a theme, it would be that I want to write more. I really hope that I can make that happen this year.

Do you have New Year’s goals? Please share some in the comments!

Good morning and happy first of November!

I normally set a series of small goals each month, but this month I have one really BIG goal that I’m excited to share.  But first, here’s a look at last month’s goals to keep me accountable:

October Goals:

Make Montessori work for James:

Yes!  I did lots of this and it has been so rewarding to watch him play with and love many of the things I made for him.  I shared a few of these here, but will share some more easy ideas soon.

Work on long-term writing projects:

Ehh, sort of?  I started one project that’s been on my mind for a while, but didn’t get very far.  I’d give myself a C – on this one.

Find / make fun recipes for James:

No, I did hardly any of this.  On the plus side, James is eating mostly what we eat now, so it’s becoming less necessary.  He did try and love turkey chili and corn chowder this month!

Choose a half marathon plan:

Yes!  I’ve made a training plan for myself and started following it and so far it’s going great!  It involves a LOT less running than a typical half marathon plan, but that is what I need given my long-term foot injury.  My basic plan is:

• Tuesdays: Easy run of 3-5 miles – My husband sometimes works from home on Tuesdays, so if that’s the case, I’ll do this during naptime.  Otherwise, it will be a stroller run.
• Thursdays: Short two mile speed interval run on the treadmill or tempo outside + short strength or yoga (loving this yoga video)  If my foot starts really bothering me, I’ll ditch the speed work and switch to a longer strength workout.
• Saturdays: Long run.  Right now I’m only at 7 miles, but I have almost three months, so I can build up to twelve or so miles gradually.

I’m hopeful that my daily walking and the added difficulty of stroller runs will make this enough…we shall see.

November Goals

I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo)!

That’s right, only one goal this month.  I’m equally excited and terrified to do this because I honestly don’t know where I will find the time, BUT, I was thinking about it and realized this is probably the least busy I will be for many years (yikes…).

I feel busy many days, but I’m a stay at home mom to one child.  I plan to hopefully have more children and go back to work, so with that in mind, I will only become busier over the coming years and I’m not ready to let go of this life goal of mine.

One caveat – the program is set up to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.  There is of course a lot of variance, but I believe the average novel these days is around 80,000 words.  I already have about 20,000 words, so hopefully I can at least get close to finishing.  I’m going with a goal of writing 50,000 words rather than a goal of finishing.

If I start to feel like the quality is suffering, I will step back from the word count and make some other type of tangible daily writing goal.  For me, this is less about finishing the writing project I’m working on and more about creating a daily habit and carving out time to work toward my big goals.

I’m excited and I would love to connect with anyone who also wants to do this!

Do you have any November goals?  Please share in the comments!

P.S. If you’re looking for something to read, check out this article I wrote on how rewards impact children!