WHOA! Hello! Remember me? It’s been SO long since I’ve blogged, but here I am still trucking along in this thing called motherhood life! I had big plans for 2019 and planned to blog so much, and then life happened, and it’s been over ONE YEAR, since I’ve posted anything. I’m hoping to do a bit better when it comes to sharing things this year so fingers crossed!
I might do a recap of 2019 if I get around to it and can remember what all happened throughout the year. I really need to do a better job of keeping track of our activities and fun memories, so maybe this year I’ll get better about that, too!
With the start of the new year brings new resolutions or goals as I like to call them. I always tend to make quite a few goals for myself and my business. I mean, why not? Personally, I think setting achievable goals is a great way to keep pushing yourself year after year. I don’t beat myself up if I don’t hit them, but I usually pick things that can be attainable throughout the year. Here we go:
- . My word of the year is GROW. I want to grow in all aspects of my life (personally, motherhood life, boss life and being a better wife). 2019 was such a HARD year. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of worrying and stress while caring for Elliott. He struggled hitting certain milestones when he should have, and it’s hard not to get down when your friends have babies that are thriving and growing much quicker than your little one. Everything with Elliott has been slow, but it’s been slow and steady, so I guess that’s just how it’s going to be! I feel MUCH better mentally now, but I do have moments where I get down and feel like I’ve lost myself or get in a funk. I think that’s just part of life, and something I need to recognize when it comes about.
One of my biggest worries has been Elliott’s speech development. I worried and worried and worried and worried some more about how he was growing in terms of talking, and finally when he hit 18 months, I decided it was time to speak to our pediatrician and find out more about speech therapy. I struggled with dealing with this for so long, but now that he’s been in therapy since Halloween, things have improved so much! He still has a long ways to go speaking-wise, but he is getting better and saying more words and sooo many animal sounds. With time, I know he will catch up with where he needs to be, so I just need to be patient. He is so incredibly smart and knows so much already (colors, shapes, sounds, etc), so I know he will be talking and talking before we know it, and I can’t wait for the day I get annoyed from all of his questions. 🙂 I’ve had people tell me that kids say, “Why? Why? Why?” to no end, but honestly, I can’t wait for that moment when he does!
Besides choosing a word, I also like to set some goals for myself as well, so here they are:
- Goal 1: Be nice and forgive myself for my struggles these past two years. This one is huge, and something I will have to really work on to learn to forgive myself for feeling “weak.” Being a mom is hard! Harder than I ever really thought possible. So many struggles and so many tears, and I’ve really beat myself up on all of that since E has been here, but I am determined now to give myself some grace. Some days are really tough, and I just need to remember that even on the hardest day, it will only last 24 hours. The next day is a new day to start fresh!
- Goal 2: Read at least one book a month. I LOVE to read, but finding time to do it has not been a priority. I am seriously going to make myself find a few minutes a day to try to read. It’s a great way to unplug from my phone or tv and not have that distraction. I’ve made a list of 10 books I’d like to read, and I left a couple open for new ones that I may find out about later this year. If I come across any really good ones, I’ll definitely share them on the blog!
The book I read for January (which I finished on time!) was One Day in December. My mom picked it up for me, and I really liked it. A bit predictable, but there was some clever writing (a little bad language here and there), and it had some really good moments. I definitely laughed and teared up a few times.
Basically, the book is about a girl that sees her dream guy at the bus station. It was love at first sight. She’s on the bus, but he isn’t, and she vows to find him after the bus takes off before she could get off. After searching for him over a year, she finally gives up… only to realize that her best friend is actually dating the guy from the bus station, and now she has to pretend like she’s never seen him, much less fallen in love with him a year ago.
Oh the feels! Pick this one up if you love a good little love story. It won’t take you long to read it.
- Goal 3: Limit phone usage after 8:30pm. Elliott goes to bed around 7:30, and I find that I am on my phone a lot just scrolling and scrolling, so I’m hoping I can start limiting my usage after 8:30 every night. Will I always stick to it? No, probably not, but I think it’s something I can try to do every day, and if I fail, then the next day is a new day. I’m not going to lie… I did not do great in January, so I’m going to try better in February! Although I am starting to slowly party plan for E’s birthday, so maybe I should just delete this goal. HA!
- Goal 4: Develop a skincare routine. Goodness, I have not taken very good care of my skin, but I really want to do better and change that. I asked for some Tula products for Christmas, and I have been using them for over a week now, and I can already tell a difference. I’m hoping I continue to use them and develop an everyday routine I stick with this year! So far, these are the ones I’ve been using this year:
Tula does have a little starter pack if you want to try it out first before committing to huge bottles. You can find some other options here, too.
- Goal 5: Complete Fitness Carli Challenge again. I did this program last year from August to October, and I did really, really well! I completed an exercise program for the first time ever in my life! It’s super doable and is not very time consuming, so if you are crunched for time, it’s a great one to try! I did the workout program and have purchased all of the meal plans. I am SUPER picky and haven’t been able to try a ton of the recipes, but I am working on doing better and eating more veggies every day. Check her out on instagram. Her program is amazing, and she often has discount codes for her website meal plans and workout guide!
- Goal 6: Get Notable Affairs back to where it was before baby! I have really not made much time to work on my business, and I really hope to get it back to where it was (or even better), so I plan to use Pinterest more and also make at least 10 new designs a month. Finding time to create new designs is really a struggle these days, but I need to do it, and I want my business to continue, so I have just got to get it done!! No more just coasting with this one.
- Goal 7: Get cooking! I LOVE to bake. It’s so fun for me. BUT I really dislike cooking because I just don’t think I’m that great at it, so this year, I want to try 1-2 new recipes a month. It’s so easy to just cook the same recipes we like over and over, but I would love to venture out and try new things. I have several new cookbooks I want to check out, plus TONS of pins I’ve saved, so I’m setting this goal low in hopes that I knock it out of the park. I’ll be sure to share my new favorite recipes when I find them!
So I started writing this post at the beginning of January, but I never finished it. My last goal was a good one.
- Goal 8: No spending January… or JaNOary. This year, we are really trying to buckle down and get our finances in order. We need to make a budget that we can stick to and start tackling our debt. Ideally, we’d love to build our dream home in about 5 years, but without a plan written down, I know it’ll be hard to focus and get serious. Our first step is no spending in January. Sure, we’ll have a few things pop up (like buying new stuff, so we can get rid of DirecTV), but for the most part, I’m trying not to shop for anything except necessities, and we seriously need to stop eating out so much. Our plan is to only eat out on Friday night, which is our usual mexican food night. We did fairly well for about 2.5 weeks. The other 1.5 weeks was a bit rough. Jacob was home working on honeydo projects, and to be honest, eating out was just a lot easier. The house was a wreck already, and then cooking and messing up the kitchen creating more chaos just wasn’t something I felt like dealing with. Although we didn’t completely do JaNOary, we did much better than I thought we might, so that’s a win! I hope to do more of this no spending a few times a year. With a bit of planning for Jacob’s lunches, I think we can really do it!
Those are all of the resolutions/goals I’ve made for this year. Do you make resolutions or pick a word for the year? If so, share them with me, so I can root you on. Also if you have any book recs, definitely send them my way! Happy new year!!
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