Progress Towards Goals

Since I listed my goals here on my blog in order to help keep me accountable, I thought it was time for another update on my progress.

1) Be debt free except student loans! January was not a good "paying off debt" month for me. I sent $3000 towards hubby's credit card at the end of December and sent $1200 last week towards his car but in January I didn't send a single dollar. When I realized last week how badly I did in January, I quickly jumped back on the wagon, sent the $1200 off, hopefully there will be no more major derailments in this goal.

2) Become homeowners. We're in a lease until June so not a lot happening to meet this goal. Paying off debt is helping us to qualify for the best rate and terms and we've been casually looking at houses, slowly compromising on what we can't live without.

3) Be ready to start trying for a baby. After a long discussion with Nate and some self exploration, I think this goal is going to be delayed until spring 2012 instead of by the end of 2011. Another year of full-time income would pay off half our student loan debt, putting us in an even better financial position to have a baby. This is important since I want to mainly stay home once I have another baby. Running a half-marathon is another one of my goals. It is looking like a fall half marathon is in the cards for me. I do not want to be training for a half marathon and trying to get pregnant at the same time (morning sickness, anyone?). We really want to take the kids on a big Disney World/Wizarding World of Harry Potter trip to Orlando. Due to finances this isn't going to happen until spring break 2012. I know I am overly practical but I don't want to spend $3000-$4000 on a trip for my family and be pregnant and not be able to ride anything or have an infant and not be able to enjoy it. Obviously not the only reason, but with all the other circumstances and given our 3 kids ages, this trip is something I'd really like to do for them before they are too old and too cool to appreciate it.

4) Run a half marathon. The training schedule did not work with my family schedule so I am going to delay training for and running a half marathon until the fall. I am running a 5K in 4 weeks and am excited to start running regularly and training for that. I am running it with one of my friends who is new to running and it is this very fun St. Patty's Day run.

5) Eat healthier, exercise more, and lose 10 pounds. Not sure I am eating a ton healthier but some and eating a lot less. Before I started calorie counting I didn't realize how much I was overeating by snacking too often. I eat small portions so that was not the problem, it was more the eating when I was bored. Weight lose is still going amazing! I have not been calorie counting on my phone for the last 2 1/2 weeks but I have lost 8 pounds since the beginning of the year. These last 2 pounds are the stubborn ones, I can never seem to manage to lose, so we'll see if I have any luck this time.

6) Attend Sunday morning worship at church, at least twice per month. Happy to say we made it 3 times in January and so far once in February. I think this is a very important goal to keep!

7) Post new blog content at least three times per week. Considering this is my 11th post for the year and we are 6 weeks in, I am a bit behind but three times per week is my goal. We'll see if I can even come close!

8) Manage my time better. Be more on time. Not sure if I've been managing my time better since that is a hard thing to measure but I have been more on time. I was several minutes early to meeting friends for coffee and the first to arrive, and we arrived at church before the worship team started since one week. I know I'll never be the person who shows up early to everything but little improvements in this area make me happy! I will admit that I almost made Phoenix late to dance this week and Brennan late to basketball but both times we slid in just in time.

9) Save more money. Spend money wisely. As indicated in #1, January was not a good month for me in this regard and I haven't done anything new to save us money yet. Still working on this one.

10) Travel to my heart's content. So far 2011, is not looking like a good travel year for our family but I know we'll manage to sneak a trip or two in.

Thanks for helping to hold me accountable!