Update on January Goals

 

As I worked through this first month of the year, I gave myself grace and space to figure out how to make my goals work.  I really focused on the process - meaning figuring out how to incorporate the tasks I wanted to get done into my daily routine.  I quickly figured out where I can slip things in during the day and what doesn't work.  I never expect to accomplish every goal because life gets busy and even when I try to block out time to do certain things it doesn't always happen. Guess what? That's ok!  Anyway, here are my notes about my January goals: 

Any, here is my list for January!  

1. Follow the declutter 365 plan for January and do every task that applies to me. I accomplished all of the items on the 365 plan that pertained to my space.  This month the majority of the tasks were about decluttering and deep cleaning the kitchen.  Not every item on the calendar match my space so I just alter it to make sure I touch every space. 
2. Follow Flylady weekly plan for decluttering then cleaning each room - 15 minutes at a time. I uploaded the app to my phone and tackled at least one item in each space this month.  I'm working on making lists, again, more relevant to my space. 
3. Pick a room cleaning - 15 minutes decluttering
1. January's room is the bathroom I am continuing work on this space.  I totally deep cleaned (and cleaned out LOTS of stuff) the bathroom storage cabinet.  I also did more cleaning but still have more to go.  
4. Spend 15-20 minutes a day cleaning the basement - this months goal is the laundry room side. I did tackle some of this in order to put Christmas decor back neatly.  Not nearly as much as I wanted but, again, that's ok!  
5. Finish all of the odds and end in Josh's room (hang things, paint closet) Nope :-)  Darryl put his weight tower together and Joshua put all his Christmas gifts away so now I feel like we can empty his closet and finish painting. 
6. Finish things in Nate's room (hanging things and fixing a drawer) Done! 
7. Replaced burned out lightbulbs inside and outside. This got bumped to February. 
8. Go on a date with Darryl Our teens have been busy this month so we've had the chance to go out a few times which has been nice :-) 
9. Read!  As many books as possible but at least the 2 for my book clubs. I read both of my book club books; Five books total this month. 
10. Do my daily Bible study, prayer journal and word study. This is one thing I did not start - I have all of my books but just didn't find the right time to focus on this.  
11. Scrapbook 
1. Finish 2017 and 2018 I worked on 2017 but did not finish it. 
2. Upload 2024 photos to Snapfish Done
3. On January 31st upload to Snapfish, order and then scrapbook 1/2025 by the end of February They are uploaded and ordered 
4. Order large prints for my wall Done! 
5. Do virtual scrapbooking weekend Done - I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted because there were other things going on that weekend that took me away from my desk but I did finish a handful of pages which is great. 
12. Co-Op
1. Plan Joyful weeks 1-4 and make a sub plan Done! 
13. Go through my music books and pick one song to practice. I picked a couple of songs to work on as well as a piano song. 
14. Update some seasonal items  Done!  I found some great Valentine's Day items to add to what I already owned to add a little seasonal fun to our house! 
15. Write my blogs each week Done! 
16. Finish taxes Done! 
17. Plan Darryl's birthday (February) Done!  (It helps my brother will be here so we plan to celebrate with him!) 
18. Plan Valentine's Day This is about 1/2 done - I planned our menu but still need to think through some fun little things. 
19. Plan February goals/activities by the end of January Done! 
20. Finances - continue to work on tracking everything and limit spending I did work on this - not as consistently as I'd like but better than last month :-) 
21. Computer clean -up - Go through every file on my computer and clean things out. I never got to this item. 
22. Update Josh's gradebook by January 31st This won't be done by the 31st but I plan to work on it over the weekend (First weekend in February)
23. Host Nate's birthday party (1/25) Done - and it was fun! 

TobyMac - a lil Church (Lyric Video)

Toby Mac has a new album coming out so he is releasing some songs including this one!  

Weekly Menu - Superbowl Weekend!

 We love Super Bowl weekend.  It's such a big game and I enjoy all of the human interest stories throughout the coverage.  

Friday -  pizza!!!  

Saturday - dinner at my mom's 

Sunday - Super Bowl Sunday!  

Monday - leftovers from Sunday 

Tuesday - nachos and salad 

Wednesday - Youth Group night

Thursday - We are going to celebrate Valentine's Day tonight since my teens will be gone on Friday.  So, our tradition is Homemade Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Bread and Chocolate Covered Strawberries!  Plus we always invite my mom for dinner today so we can celebrate together (Because, after all, we all love each other HA!) 

Joyful Weeks 2 and 3 - Our Co-Op

 I realized last Wednesday evening that I forgot to post my weekly Wednesday post and decided that I would just combine weeks 2 and 3 of my Joyful class all together in one post.  

Weeks 2 and 3 started out the same way as week one.  

1) This semester I am sharing a short devotional around the idea of why we memorize scripture.  I'm taking my thoughts from HERE.  There are 10 Biblical reasons to memorize scripture so I'm sharing one each week. 

2) We then do our Joyful Bucket.  Each student has to name one thing that brought them joy throughout the week.  Sometimes this is hard.  I try to help them understand that their item doesn't have to be a "thing" - something they did or experienced - but rather even something simple they saw that brought them true joy. They also get to chose something out of our treat bucket. 

3) We review our scripture memorization.  We spend the semester memorizing scripture that we then share at presentation night. 

What changes each week are our activities. 

Our activity for week 2 was a team building activity that included popscicle sticks, tape, and a rubber band.  It also included NO talking as it was an activity build around non-verbal communication.  

The activity is sold on Teachers Pay Teachers and you can find it HERE. 

It was great to watch the teams work together and figure out how to communicate their ideas.  It was also interesting to see them look around at what others were doing to get ideas for their own projects.  

I told my class that this was my new favorite activity.  Why?  The silence HA!  We are usually a SUPER loud class so having them work in silence was a nice treat. 

Our activity for week 3 is called The Fishbowl Game.  We actually played it last semester and normally I do not bring back an activity the next semester UNLESS it is something that is requested by multiple people.  

The full instructions can be found HERE. 

We divided into two teams after everyone wrote down 3 nouns on 3 pieces of paper.  All of those papers are put into a large bowl.  Then three rounds are played - Taboo, Password, and Charades.  It's great because the same words are used in each round so, if they pay attention, they can use clues used in previous rounds.  I was actually surprised at how much everyone enjoyed this game AND that they requested to do it again.  It really is "The best party game".  

 

Josiah Queen - Can't Steal My Joy feat. Brandon Lake (Official Lyric Video)

This is a new release and it is great!  Enjoy 

Our Weekly Snapshot

 Here's a quick glance back at our week

Nate got to enjoy his birthday party on Saturday.  Since his birthday is December 22nd we always wait until January for him to celebrate with friends.  It's a nice break in a long month!  This year he decided to have a few more friends over than normal and just hang out during the day instead of an all nighter.  It was a very enjoyable day!  (He has great friends!) 

Wednesday included haircuts!  It's always fun to see them with new cuts :-)  

Joshua and Nate headed off to Winter Retreat with our church youthgroup and these are the best photos I was able to snap 🤣

Weekly Menu

 As we settle into 2025 I'm trying to continue to be intentional with meal planning to make sure that I am using our budget as wisely as possible and stretching it as far as I can.  I really love doing my shopping online and ordering groceries each week.  The system is not perfect but it sure is a great way to budget as I can see exactly what I'm spending and remove/add/change items to stay within the budget.  I also run into thinking I added an item to my cart but when I get my groceries home, it is "missing". (Not really, I just didn't order it).  Overall though, it really is great!  

Here's the plan for the coming week - the first week of February! 

Friday - We are taking Josh and Nate off to winter retreat so it will just be quick food before we leave - Tacos!  

Saturday - All of a sudden (as winter retreat was just scheduled LAST week!) Darryl and I have no kids HA!  IF there is a good movie showing - we will use a Christmas gift from Darryl's sister to see a movie.  If not, I'm not sure what we will do.  :-) 

Sunday - Josh and Nate return mid afternoon and then Darryl,  Josh, and Nate are attending a Chili Cook-off Men's Conference in the evening.  I'm not really sure what we will do for lunch - the guys will be hungry after the retreat so we may take advantage of a gift card and get taco Bell or Pizza on the way home. 

Monday - Creamy Tortellini Soup (a carry over from last week)

Tuesday - Shrimp and Grits and Corn Bread (I usually only buy shrimp when it is on sale for buy one bag/get one free which means we get to enjoy Shrimp and Grits a few times in a row!) 

Wednesday - It is youth group night so Darryl and I might grab something for dinner. 

Thursday - Spaghetti Carbonara and French Bread (another carry over from last week)