2025 Goals and Resolutions

Checking in with my 2024 Goals and Resolutions -

House Goals/Resolutions

Paint the living room (and maybe playroom) - FAIL
Downsize the playroom ✓

Life Goals/Resolutions

Complete 52 Hikes ✓ - We don’t ever get to 52 hikes, but the idea is to focus on getting out into nature often.
Add More Vegetarian Dishes to Our Rotation ✓
Work on a Better Budget ✓

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Read 200 Books/60,000 Books ✓
Clear Off 50 Books from My UnRead Shelf ✓ - Between my read books and unloading some that I will never read, I definitely got to this number.
Skip at Least 50% of BOTM Months ✓ - I really stuck to my idea of only ordering books I was actually excited about.

Homeschool Goals/Resolutions

Be a Leader for the Secular Homeschool Community ✓
Move the Coop into the Next Era ✓
Complete Another Year of Homeschooling ✓

And now on to 2025…

I’m not actually going to make any goals and resolutions this year. 2024 was hard and I really want to focus on the everyday victories instead of lofty goals. I want to try to live in the moments this year.

Next up on the TBR pile:

2024 Goals and Resolutions

Checking in with my 2023 Goals and Resolutions

House Goals/Resolutions

Organize My Craft Room/Library ✓
Make Progress with One Home Project - Um… well house project really took a backseat to a lot of things this year.

Life Goals/Resolutions

Complete 52 Hikes - We got so close! We’re ending the year at 44 hikes. I think that’s a great number even if I didn’t hit 52.
Add More Vegetarian Dishes to Our Rotation ✓
Take Care of My Medical Issues ✓

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Read 200 Books/60,000 Books ✓
Clear Off 50 Books from My UnRead Shelf - Nope, but that’s okay.
Skip at Least 50% of BOTM Months ✓

Homeschool Goals/Resolutions

Create a Long-Term Plan for Homeschool Curriculum ✓
Continue to Organize the Coop, But Also Delegate for Growth ✓

And now on to 2024…

House Goals/Resolutions

Paint the living room (and maybe playroom) - Other projects haven’t progressed as far I had hoped, and I’m oh so sick of the walls in the living room and playroom. I convinced J to paint those two rooms at least in the spring.
Downsize the playroom - The kids aren’t playing with as many tows as they were, so I want to downsize the playroom and start the transition to study/homeschool/video game room.

Life Goals/Resolutions

Complete 52 Hikes -We’re going to attempt this one again in 2024. I’m really trying to be more and more intentional with our outside time.
Add More Vegetarian Dishes to Our Rotation - Adding this one on our resolution list again next year. It’s been a great experiment, but I want to do more.
Work on a Better Budget - I really want to retool our expenses for 2024 and work out a bitter budget.

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Read 200 Books/60,000 Books - Going with the same thing as last year.
Clear Off 50 Books from My UnRead Shelf - Going to try again.
Skip at Least 50% of BOTM Months - This was a great goal and I really did stick with it. If I’m not super excited about the selections, I’m going to skip that month.

Homeschool Goals/Resolutions

Be a Leader for the Secular Homeschool Community - I want to help others in the area lead the community of secular homeschoolers. There’s not that many of us and we should be inclusive and supportive.
Move the Coop into the Next Era - I have some dreams and plans that I would love to see come to fruition in 2024.
Complete Another Year of Homeschooling - We’ve got some great things are going and I want to keep it up in 2024.

Next up on the TBR pile:

2023 Goals and Resolutions

Checking in with my 2022 Goals and Resolutions -

House Goals/Resolutions

Finish One Home Renovation Project - Haha! This was just all over the place and nothing really happened.
Finish Organizing My Craft Room/Library ✓ - At one point, this was organized. Now, it’s a mess again, but it’s a constant reorganization.

Life Goals/Resolutions

Get Back into My Treadmill Goals - Nope, but we did spend much more time outside this past year.
1000 Hours Outside - There’s not way that we will ever reach 1000 hours. We managed about 400 hours this past year. I call that a big win for us, especially as I do not love being outdoors in the heat.

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Read 200 Books / 60,000 Pages ✓
Decrease my UnRead Shelf by 50 Books - Fail.

Craft Goals/Resolutions

Get Back into Crafting! - Nope.
Finish 2021 Memory Planner ✓
Keep Up with 2022 Memory Planner ✓

And now on to 2023…

House Goals/Resolutions

Organize My Craft Room/Library - Trying to find that floor again. I should also do a bit of cleanout with regards to my craft supplies.
Make Progress with One Home Project - We need to remove the deck and hopefully replace it this year. I also want to redo our homeschool corner.

Life Goals/Resolutions

Complete 52 Hikes - Instead of 1000 Hours, we’re going to focus on weekly nature hikes. I think that will help get us out and moving.
Add More Vegetarian Dishes to Our Rotation - With the price of groceries right now, we’re cutting back on some things. Trying to up my vegetarian and even vegan game.
Take Care of My Medical Issues - I will be having surgery for one thing on Monday. But I’m still hoping to take care of some other issues this winter/spring. Hoping for a less painful year overall.

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Read 200 Books/60,000 Books
Clear Off 50 Books from My UnRead Shelf
Skip at Least 50% of BOTM Months

Homeschool Goals/Resolutions

Create a Long-Term Plan for Homeschool Curriculum - I started a scope and sequence last year, but want to beef that up. I also have to get some options in mind for future curriculum (e.g. what to do after Singapore 5B?).
Continue to Organize the Coop, But Also Delegate for Growth - We’re into our second full year of the coop and it’s been amazing. But I have some ideas about growing our membership. I also want to focus a bit on delegating more tasks to others to allow for some breathing room for me.

Next up on the TBR pile:

2022 Goals and Resolution

Checking in with my 2021 Goals and Resolutions -

House Goals/Resolutions

Tackle at least one big renovation project - Fail. The cost of supplies prohibited us from doing much
Lay out a kitchen renovation plan - Fail. We talked a lot about it, but didn’t actually do anything.

Life Goals/Resolutions

Set a treadmill goal for every month ✓ - I made decent progress, but fell off at the end of the year.
Complete our 52 Weeks of Desserts and Snack - Fail. We only made 26 recipes. We’re going to continue this into next year.
Plan and Complete a fun summer road trip ✓ - So much fun! We are doing this every year right after Labor Day.
Plan and complete a reading retreat ✓ - Finally! We went at the end of September.

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Set up a book buying budget ✓ - I spent a bit more than I planned to, but still didn’t spend that much.
Read 200 books / 50,000 pages ✓ - I ended up reading 223 books and 67,000 pages.
Decrease my physical UnRead Shelves by 50 books - Fail. I really want to get on this in 2022.
Decrease my ebook UnRead Shelves by 30 books ✓ - I did knock off some duds and some good ones.

Craft Goals/Resolutions

Complete at least 60% of my currently in-progress projects - Fail. I just didn’t craft at all this year.
Finish organizing my craft space ✓ - My office is really looking good!
Organize and use my supplies! (limited buying) ✓ - Defacto success as not crafting meant that I didn’t buy much of anything.

And now on to 2022…

House Goals/Resolutions

Finish One Home Renovation Project - So many things to do. I just want to finish one project.
Finish Organizing My Craft Room/Library - Now that we’ve shifted some things around, I really want get everything off my floor and in it’s place.

Life Goals/Resolutions

Get Back into My Treadmill Goals - I’m aiming for 20 miles a month.
1000 Hours Outside - This is a challenge for the kids and I. It’s a national movement, and we want to attempt it this year. It might be tricky during the winter and high heat of later summer, but we are going to try to do our best.

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Read 200 Books / 60,000 Pages
Decrease my UnRead Shelf by 50 Books - Going to try to do this again. I’m sitting at 305 physical books at the beginning of this year.

Craft Goals/Resolutions

Get Back into Crafting!
Finish 2021 Memory Planner
Keep Up with 2022 Memory Planner

Next up on the TBR pile:

2021 Goals and Resolutions

Checking in with my 2020 Goals and Resolutions - Obviously this turned into a very strange year and some of these goals and resolutions just couldn’t happen.

House Goals/Resolutions

Successfully move into our new house! ✓
Make a list of house renovations/projects and complete at least 50% - Nope. Quarantining put a weird damper on this goal.
Create a plan to tackle the house one room at a time ✓ - We do have a more solid plan.

Life Goals/Resolutions

Get back into a gym schedule - We dropped our membership due to COVID, but did buy a treadmill in July and have been more intentional in using it.
Complete our 52 Weeks of Soups and Stews Around the World (adding some permanently to Paprika) ✓ - We completed 53 different recipes.
Create a spending budget and stick to it - Nope. I completely forgot about this.
Create and stick to a new weekly routine for Quentin and Arthur - Nope.
Plan and complete a fun summer road trip! - Nope. Cancelled.
Plan and complete a reading retreat! - Nope. Cancelled.

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Read 200 books / 50,000 pages ✓
Decrease my physical UnRead Shelves by 50 books - Nope. I didn’t get very many completed.
Decrease my ebook UnRead Shelves by 30 books - Nope. But I did get closer than the previous goal.
Create a library/reading space in the new house ✓ - Loving my space!
Follow my reading whims/cravings instead of rigid reading challenges ✓

Craft Goals/Resolutions

Finish all currently in progress projects - Nope. Completely unrealtistic goal.
Organize a craft space in the new house ✓ - In December, but I did it!
Take stock of my supplies and use them! ✓ - I need to do a bit more organizing and weeding, but I did buy less this year.

And now on to 2021…

House Goals/Resolutions

Tackle at least one big renovation project - We’re thinking it’s probably going to be landscaping and the deck. The deck is going to be a safety issue pretty soon so we at least need to remove it this summer at some point.
Lay out a kitchen renovation plan - The actual construction won’t be for a few years, but we need to figure out most of the plan soon as it might impact some other house projects.

Life Goals/Resolutions

Set a treadmill goal for every month - I am really enjoying the convenience of having a treadmill in the basement. I need a firmer schedule, but it has been going well.
Complete our 52 Weeks of Desserts and Snack
Plan and Complete a fun summer road trip
Plan and complete a reading retreat

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Set up a book buying budget - Last year I spent somewhere around $315 on books. For this year, I’m going to set a budget of $350 to spend on books (new, used, or ebooks).
Read 200 books / 50,000 pages
Decrease my physical UnRead Shelves by 50 books
Decrease my ebook UnRead Shelves by 30 books

Craft Goals/Resolutions

Complete at least 60% of my currently in-progress projects
Finish organizing my craft space
Organize and use my supplies! (limited buying)

Next up on the TBR pile:

2020 Goals and Resolutions

2018’s Resolution Message: Usually I make a whole list of goals and resolutions to focus on for the year, but honestly, I’m not feeling it this year at all. Instead of yearly goals, I’m going to try and focus on monthly and seasonal goals. I want to be more intentional with my weeks as opposed to this large, lofty goals.

2020

There are some changes coming this year and I want to go back to having some big goals/resolutions to refer back to throughout the year.

House Goals/Resolutions

Successfully move into our new house!
Make a list of house renovations/projects and complete at least 50%
Create a plan to tackle the house one room at a time

Life Goals/Resolutions

Get back into a gym schedule
Complete our 52 Weeks of Soups and Stews Around the World (adding some permanently to Paprika)
Create a spending budget and stick to it
Create and stick to a new weekly routine for Quentin and Arthur
Plan and complete a fun summer road trip!
Plan and complete a reading retreat!

Reading Goals/Resolutions

Read 200 books / 50,000 pages
Decrease my physical UnRead Shelves by 50 books
Decrease my ebook UnRead Shelves by 30 books
Create a library/reading space in the new house
Follow my reading whims/cravings instead of rigid reading challenges

Craft Goals/Resolutions

Finish all currently in progress projects
Organize a craft space in the new house
Take stock of my supplies and use them!

Next up on the TBR pile:

2019 Goals and Resolutions

Usually I make a whole list of goals and resolutions to focus on for the year, but honestly, I’m not feeling it this year at all. Instead of yearly goals, I’m going to try and focus on monthly and seasonal goals. I want to be more intentional with my weeks as opposed to this large, lofty goals.

Revisiting 2018’s goals and resolutions:

Read 35,000 pages — I surpasses my goal and ended up reading almost 60,000 pages.
Read 100 books — Another goal surpassed! I read 217 books.
Clear off another shelf of unread books — Success! I’m shooting for three shelves next year.
Rejoin the SSINK Design Team — Success! Unfortunately the Design Team is dissolving.
Restart MommaStrong — Fail. Although I did join the gym when we moved.

Next up on the TBR pile:

2018 Goals and Resolutions

I usually have about 10 resolutions for the New Year, but I must admit that life is a bit much right now. I don't want to over-burden myself with too many goals to think about. I'm going to focus on my smaller monthly goals this coming year. However, I do have a few resolutions to highlight.

Blog and Reading Resolutions:

Read 35,00 pages -- I've been hovering around this number for a few years now. I think 35,000 is my spot-on number.
Read 100 books -- A realistic goal.
Clear off another shelf of unread books -- Still working on clearing off our bookshelves from all this unread books. I'm doing well not adding too many more books to the stacks.

Life Resolutions:

Rejoin the SSINK Design Team -- I'm excited to rejoin the team this January. Looking forward to all the challenges and creations.
Restart MommaStrong -- Seriously need to get back on this in January. I am feeling the lack of exercise...

Revisiting 2017’s goals and resolutions:

Read 35,000 pages -- Check! I ended up just a bit over my goal.
Read 100 books -- Check!
Reevaluate my person blog -- Success. I did a little reevaluation and changed a few things around. We also moved the entire thing to SquareSpace and I think I've finally gotten used to how things work here. I'm temporarily happy with my blog.
Keep posting on my craft blog MWFS -- Success! I missed a few days here and there, but I ended up with a good schedule.
Clear off at least one shelf of unread books -- Success. I didn't keep a very detailed record of this one, but considering I've taken three bags of books to sell at Half Price Books over the year, I've cleared off few spots on the shelves.
Cut our grocery budget dramatically and stick to it -- Fail I guess. I did reevaluate our grocery budget and buying habits. We haven't really cut it, but we have held steady for most of the year.
Continue with MommaStrong -- Big huge fail! I fell off the bandwagon so hard. Need to get back to this one soon.
Participate in SSINK Design Team -- I participated the first half of the year and took the second half off. Things were getting super crazy in the summer and I made the decision to step away for a round. I'm glad I did. I love the team, but I also loved the freedom of making whatever I wanted for a few months. I'm excited to get back into it in January.
Participate in the Awesome Ladies Project Design Team -- Fail. I started strong in January, but this proved to be one thing too many on my plate.

Next up on the TBR pile:

2017 Goals and Resolutions

It’s the New Year. Time for my yearly goals and resolutions… I’ve cut back a bit because I have so many other projects, goals, and resolutions heading into 2017.

Blog and Reading Resolutions:

Read 35,000 pages
Read 100 books
Reevaluate my personal blog
Keep posting on my craft blog MWFS
Clear off at least one shelf of unread books

Life Resolutions:

Cut our good budget dramatically and stick to it
Continue with MommaStrong - losing weight, gaining strength
Participate in SSINK Design Team
Participate in the Awesome Ladies Project Design Team

Revisiting 2016’s goals and resolutions:

Focus on my Happiness Project — OLW just didn’t work for me, so I’m trying this project instead. And I have an accountability group to help me stay on track.
Focus on freezer meals and cutting our food budget — It’s gotten out of control. I really want to spend less money on food.
Read 30,00 pages — I’m going for it again this year!
Read 100 books — I’m excited to up my goal this year.
Finish at least 75% of my reading challenges — i’ve cut back on the number of challenges for the year, so I think I just might be able to attain this goal.
Create a weekly schedule and stick to it for all three of the blogs

2016 Goals and Resolutions

It’s the New Year. Time for my yearly goals and resolutions… I've cut back a bit because I have so many other projects, goals, and resolutions heading into 2016.

Blog and Reading Resolutions:

Read 30,00 pages -- I'm going for it again this year!
Read 100 books -- I'm excited to up my goal this year.
Finish at least 75% of my reading challenges -- i've cut back on the number of challenges for the year, so I think I just might be able to attain this goal.
Create a weekly schedule and stick to it for all three of the blogs

Life Resolutions:

Focus on my Happiness Project -- OLW just didn't work for me, so I'm trying this project instead. And I have an accountability group to help me stay on track.
Focus on freezer meals and cutting our food budget -- It's gotten out of control. I really want to spend less money on food.

Revisiting 2015’s goals and resolutions:

Read 30,000 pages — Woohoo! I read over 35,000 pages in 2015!
Read at least 75 books — I made it to 117 books so awesome!
Read 20 new fiction authors — I read exactly 20 new fiction authors in 2015.
Focus on OLW 2015 Home — I didn't quite put a huge amount of effort into this. I'd call it a fail this past year.
Set up more 30 Day Challenges — A decent showing. I'm hoping to do more of these in 2016.
Write more personal posts — I don't think I did a great job at this last year, but I'm going to continue.
Be intentional about meal planning — I got much better at this in 2015.
Create and stick to an exercise plan — Utter and total fail.
Work on creating livable rooms — Decent showing for this goal this past year.
Make progress on my 101 in 1001 list — I've completed 22 tasks and made huge progress on many others. Very excited.

2015 Goals and Resolutions

It's the New Year. Time for my yearly goals and resolutions...

Blog and Reading Resolutions:

Read 30,000 pages -- Figured I'd try and make this an attainable goal this year.
Read at least 75 books -- Passed this number in 2014, hoping to keep the momentum going.
Read 20 new fiction authors -- I have a ton of never read authors on my shelves. Want to get to some of these this coming year.

Life Resolutions:

Focus on OLW 2015 Home -- I have an entire blog post about my choice and intentions, but I also put it here to stress the importance of incorporating Home into everyday life.
Set up more 30 Day Challenges -- I liked the idea in 2014, I want to continue this for 2015.
Write more personal posts -- I don't want to rely on too many memes... I want to write more personal blog posts.
Be intentional about meal planning -- Did decently in 2014, really want to focus on this in 2015.
Create and stick to an exercise plan -- Yeah... I'm not going to say that I will lose all the baby weight, but I definitely want to start some sort of exercise regime.
Work on creating livable rooms -- New house = randomly decorated and placed rooms. Now to focus on creating a home and truly livable spaces.
Make progress on my 101 in 1001 list -- I'm restarting this challenge in 2015 after failing the last one. Hopefully I made my list challenging by doable.

Revisiting 2014's goals and resolutions:

Read over 50,000 pages —Fail. I didn't even make it to 30,000 pages this year. But my reading was good considering the baby.
Get rid of at least one box of books —Success! I ended up taking probably 10 bags of books to sell at HPB over the course of the year.
Add in my new features/update weekly schedule —Success! I changed a few things around and it seemed to work a lot better. More changes will be coming this next year.
Focus on reading my own books — Success! I really got a ton of those long languishing books read. Want to keep this up for next year.
Focus on my perpetual lists —50% Success! I got a decent start on these lists, but need to read from them more.
30 Day Challenges —Success! I planned a ton of these and completed at least half of these.
Documentation through Project Life —Success! 2014's albums are 90% complete. Being in Indiana for 5 weeks put me a bit behind, but I'll catch up by the start of February.
New food adventures —Success! We tried some great new restaurants and made some new recipes this past year. Want to keep this going.
Losing the baby weight —Fail. Yep, I didn't lose a single pound this year.
Exploring the Bay Area —50% Success! The baby and I explored a ton of parks and baby related spaces, but could have done more. Next year will include a ton of exploring by necessity. We now have all of East Bay to explore.

Top Ten Tuesday -- 2014 Goals and Resolutions

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers’ answers. Everyone is welcome to join. If you can’t come up with ten, don’t worry about it—post as many as you can!

Blog and Reading Resolutions:

Read over 50,000 pages -- Dropped it a bit from last year. I like having a fairly manageable page goal instead of a book number goal.
Get rid of at least one box of books -- Again, same as last year. Really want to free up space in the office closet.
Add in my new features/update weekly schedule -- Really this is adding in more of my Project Life spreads and my monthly goals posts.
Focus on reading my own books -- Not necessarily a library ban, but limiting my visits. I have way too many books sitting in the closet to constantly be picking up outside books. I'm setting a goal of 80% of my 2014 reads to be ones I own.
Focus on my perpetual lists -- In fact, I am using my perpetual challenges for a majority of my year's reading challenges.

Life Resolutions:

30 Day Challenges --- Instead of yearly goals, I need to focus on smaller and shorter goals. So, I will be posting monthly goals containing a mix of one time activities and 30 day challenges. As an added bonus, many of the 30 day challenges I am scheduling will knock off a few Day Zero Project goals.
Documentation through Project Life -- I started in October and am absolutely loving the process. I hope to keep my momentum through 2014. I purchased a January PL class through Studio Calico to start the year off right. Hopefully I will get some good tips and inspiration to sustain me. I will be sharing our spread monthly.
New food adventures -- I don't really like to cook, but I love new recipes. I want to focus on trying at least one new recipe a week. I have many cookbooks and multitudes of recipes saved online. I need to start weeding out the crap and the ones we love. Maybe I'll create theme months... or weeks... or quarters. This is one of the new features that I'm still thinking about starting on the blog.
Losing the baby weight -- I gained 30 pounds with Arthur on top of the extra 15 I had been carrying around since my miscarriage in August 2012. I want to make 2014 the year of getting back to being comfortable. I want to get down to my prepregnancy weight. I'm starting this off with a January month goal of losing a pants size. I'm eating better, I just need to exercise more.
Exploring the Bay Area -- I feel like we've only seen a fraction of things in our area. Since we won't be taking a big out of area vacation this year, I want to spend the year exploring our local region. I've already got a few ideas of fun with the boys during the summer. I'm also kicking around a possible weekend trip to Yosemite... In fact, my word of the year is EXPLORE! I don't really follow through with all the One Little Word hoopla, but I am going to attempt to use my word and feature it in my Project Life pages.

Revisiting the 2013 blog and reading resolutions:

Read over 60,000 pages -- Nope... Got pretty close with 53,622 pages.
Get rid of at least one box of books — Definitely accomplished this one. However, I think we only got rid of one box. I hope to make a bigger dent in 2014.
Finish any series started — I did a fairly good job on this one. I joined the Seriously Series Reading Challenge to help me focus. With that, I finished 10 series. I'm hoping to repeat my success next year.
Finish 75% or more of the reading challenges I join —Woohoo! This is the first time that I met this goal. So excited!
Read more on the iPad — Read more than I have ever have before on the iPad. But I still need to decrease our physical book inventory. I'm sure I'll keep reading ebooks in 2014.
Be stricter about DNFs — I DNF'd 3 books this year. I probably could have added about 2 more to that total, but I'm okay with not. I am getting better at putting books aside if they don't interest me at all.
Read the book before seeing the movie — Fairly decent job at this. I read a ton of books that I had already seen the movie years ago. I also read a few in anticipation of their movie release. Continuing this in 2014.
Do at least six readathons — I did 10 throughout the year. Great accomplishment. I'll probably do most of these for 2014.
Focus on my perpetual lists -- Failed at this goal. I read maybe 6 books off my perpetual lists. My failure is the reason I decided to change up my reading challenges for 2014.
Limit by book buying — I think I only bought 7 or 8 books throughout the entirety of 2013. I call that a success! Unfortunately, I probably added about 30 free ebooks to the iPad. I really need to work on resisting those free deals. Just because it's free, doesn't mean that I have to download it...