2014

Yeah I'm the punk planning out my goals and aspirations for 2014.

I'm good at brainstorming. Not so much with execution. ;o)

I've been teaching (alongside my Momma) a preschool class at a homeschool co-op through my church. It's been a great experience and Titus LOVES going to school. We just finished up our fall semester and I'm looking forward to the break. I'm going to use this time to plan out the spring and maybe even get ahead on some of the craft/activity prep. It's been pretty standard for me to being doing prep at 9 Wednesday night when co-op is Thursday morning. I'm hoping to break this cycle so I can enjoy teaching so much more.

I'm going to be more intentional with Titus about "learning time". This kid is crazy smart and it usually doesn't take him very long to catch on to something. (If he's interested.) I hope to make table time a little more exciting for him so he will enjoy it and learn things like tracing, cutting, and coloring inside the lines. He's an active little boy and really prefers to have sword fights and wrestle. So I'm sure we will do plenty of that stuff too. :) Well was much as my pregnant belly allows. :)

Along that line I think I could definitely be more intentional with Rya. Her vocabulary is increasing all the time. So I know we could work on colors, counting 1-5, and more item recognition. And of course reading lots of books. I want to read more with both kids. They generally love it and sometimes will sit for as many books as my voice can handle. And nothing is better these days than snuggling under a warm blanket reading books!

I want to read more books for myself this next year. I have a list of parenting books I'd like to read, like Grace-based Parenting by Dr. Tim Kimmel. I also want to read more books for just me. I love getting lost in a book, but it's been probably almost a year since I've really read anything. Makes me sad to think about. But the times I have for reading I usually spend sleeping! :o)

I've had a cleaning schedule up on my fridge for two years. I've never completed a week for various reasons. And I think that I'm going to revamp it to make it more doable. Not going to lie what usually hangs me up is working on the bedrooms. Anything that takes more than 10 minutes upstairs is hard to complete. Usually when I want to be upstairs working the kids are not in a cooperating mood and it's super frustrating. However, I do want to be better at staying on top of house work. So I'm going to rework the schedule I have and try to find one that works for our family. With adding another little one the daily tasks can't add up to too much time. Titus and Rya can help out a lot more, which generally they love to do.

Added to the cleaning theme I want to figure out a better system for laundry. Washing it isn't really an issue. Even though we have to go somewhere to wash our clothes I generally can stay on top of it. Putting away clean laundry is another story. Because we go somewhere else we usually end up doing laundry at night and therefore the clean clothes don't get put away the same day. So we end up with piles or baskets of clean clothes that we dig through for awhile until we are completely fed up and then finally put it all away. Why is it so hard to put away? I have no idea!!! I have my theories- like not being able to work upstairs when the kids are crazy which is more often than not. But maybe that's just a lame excuse. Although in the moment it feels very real! I also could work during nap time, but I'm usually sleeping too or enjoying a little peace and quiet. I often feel guilty for not getting work done during that time, but at the same time I really need that nap or down time.


I'm not going to wait until 2014 to start working on these. I know these things need to change so I'm going to start working on them now. I'm sure I will come up with more goals to focus on as time goes on but for now I think I have enough to work on!

What are your goals for 2014?