This post contains affiliate links.

I’ve never been one to make resolutions.  They never last long and normally they’re pretty vague like “loose weight” (how much? how will I accomplish it?).   Goals, however, seem more achievable.  Somehow, the word seems to imply that you’ve thought about them and have some sort of plan in mind.  Or, maybe it’s just me.

I recently read Ruth Soukup’s Living Well, Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life and one of the things she talks about is having goals – something to work toward.  I have lots of things I want to accomplish this year, but without a plan, nothing will happen.  I want to take this blog to the next level, increase my etsy shop sales, work through Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps, travel, continue homeschooling my boys, eat healthier (or loose weight)…you get the idea.  If I don’t plan though, these are just ideas, things that would be nice to do.  So, I’m making a plan and then updating here each month with how we’re doing.  That way I’m accountable to my readers.

So, here are my goals for the new year.

Work: I want to post more regularly and am working on a schedule where I’ll post on a certain topic on certain days.  I also need to work on restocking my etsy shop.  The holidays were busy and while I’m glad, I need to work on making more footie pants to rebuild my inventory.  I would like to add 4-5 pairs a week.

Financial: We’ve had quite a few unexpected expenses recently (seriously, can we just go back to walking/biking everywhere?) that ate through our $1000 emergency fund and then some.  We need to work on rebuilding that and eliminating the credit card debt that came from covering the rest of the expenses.  We were working through Dave Ramsey’s baby steps and were on step three…now we’re back to step one.  *sigh*

Personal: Three kids & one major surgery did a number on my body.  I’m working on getting back to where I’m happy with the way I look.  I’m trying to eat more fruits and veggies and take my kids for a bike ride everyday.

Homeschool: We’re starting the second half of our school year.  This semester I’m also teaching art at the school where hubby works.  School needs to happen first thing in the morning.  Getting it done early works well for us – then the boys have the rest of the day to play and I can do some work.  I need to work on art projects ahead of time as I have a habit of throwing something together at the last minute.

Family: We’ve been wanting to camping more, but it just hasn’t been happening.  This year I want to be looking for more opportunities to camp (I’m working on our spring break camping trip).  We want to go to Wales next year for a couple weeks so planning and saving for that needs to start this year!  I would love to go to the Grand Canyon at some point in the next year or so.  I need to look into it more – it would take us a week just to drive there and back, so it would need to be a two week vacation.  We’re also in the process of selling/buying a house and there’s a lot purging going on.  Once we get moved, we need to make our new house a home.

What about you?  Do you have goals for the new year?  If you need some inspiration, check out Ruth Soukup’s Living Well, Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure page.