Is it too much?

I've been thinking a lot about the goals that I set for myself and for my family. Sometimes I wonder if I set them a little too high or put too much pressure on myself. I worry that I'll fail and be disappointed.

Last night I was having a conversation with someone much wiser than myself, and she told me that if a goal doesn't make you scared then it isn't worth your time. I'll be honest, when she said that I thought, "That's not a way to live your life. I want to be happy, not scared."

But I've thought about it since then and realized how much that makes sense. What decisions or goals have you made in your life that really intimidated you? Getting married? Having a baby? Having 2 babies 14 months apart? A new church calling? A new job? Moving to a new town? Going to school?

Those are all things that I remember being nervous about, to different degrees. But good has come from all of them, and I wouldn't take away any of the experiences that I have had.

And everytime we decide to sleep train a baby or wean them from a pacifier, potty train, etc. I'm nervous. And sometimes I wonder if it will be worth it or if I'm going through a lot of work for a small reward. Sleeping all night long? Isn't that irreplacable?

And I trained for the half marathon completely terrified of the actual race, wondering if I could actually do it. But guess what? I did it! And I consider it one of my greatest accomplishments, probably because I worked so hard for it.

So the next time you are setting a goal, think about what would be the easiest attainable level of your goal, and go a step further. Even if you don't hit that higher level, you're still better off than where you would have been. So why not?

New Year's Resolutions Progress

I think part of staying on top of my resolutions is to tell other people about them, and then to re-evaluate them as you go. So I thought it would be interesting to see where I am...
1. Make my family a priority. This one is going well! I can honestly say that I have never felt closer to my little family than I do right now. I feel so blessed.
2. Exercise 3 x week. I never thought I would be the one to say this, but I absolutely LOVE yoga! I go to a yoga class twice a week, so then I only have to find one other workout a week. This yoga class is really intense, and I feel like I'm in really good shape because of it.
3. Take a class. Still deciding. I will probably take this class after the baby is born since a lot of the classes I want to take overlap or come really close to my due date.
4. Stick to the budget. After the month of December, January feels like it has been a breeze to stick to the budget! Also, I started part time baby-sitting this month(3 days a week), so that is helping in my efforts!
5. Monthly temple attendance. The temple was closed the first half of January, so I need to go this weekend!
6. Finish the Book of Mormon. Hit the halfway mark on Monday!
7. A project a week. I haven't been documenting these projects very well, but my friend Charlotte has inspired me to do more before and after pictures. She is also inspiring me to get them done every week and giving me some good ideas! In January, we have turned our spare bedroom into a playroom, framed and drywalled some stuff in our basement, hung a door in our laundry room, and built a recessed shelf to get our dvd player/surround sound out of Emma's reach. Most of this Jared did the work on- he is AMAZING, by the way. We need to finish texturing, so as soon as that is done and the spare furniture is out of the playroom, I will get pictures up. My personal project this week was deep cleaning the refrigerator(also the microwave and stove). Every drawer, every shelf. I feel like I have a brand new fridge! As you can tell, now I need to go grocery shopping! :)

2010

I love setting goals. Without them I'm afraid I would get nothing done. But sometimes I think when I start setting goals(especially at the beginning of a new year), I get a little over-ambitious. So I'm trying to limit myself a little more. I would love to have a perfectly clean and cutely decorated home, an amazing yard/garden, 3 perfectly healthy, balanced meals on the table every day, accomplish amazing craft projects, get some scrapbooking done, a better routine for Emma, journal more, read more, practice the piano more, serve others more, bake bread weekly, coupon more... and the list can go on and on with things that I wish I did a little better or a little more. But I have set some priorities for my goals this year. I will work on all these other things, but I will try not to let them distract me from the others I have set.

Physical: Exercise. A minimum of 3 times a week. During and after this pregnancy. This is in large part to help the pregnancy go more smoothly as well as the delivery, but also because I am planning on running at least a 10K at the Pocatello Marathon this summer. I need to stay on top of things so I will be able to be ready and train for the race in just a couple of months.

Mental: Take a class. I haven't decided on which one yet. But CSI offers a lot of good community ed classes and I have a list of ones I would like to take. Spanish, gardening, cooking, parenting, sewing, finance, digital scrapbooking, photography. I have taken several classes there and have loved them all. I'm excited to take another one, now the trick is choosing!

Financial: Stick to the budget. I'm a little obsessive with keeping our budget current, and I also frequently update our debt payoff schedule. This year I want to stick to the budget rigidly so the debt payoff schedule doesn't have to be adjusted.

Spiritual: Attend the temple monthly. Preferably with Jared. At least every other month will be with Jared, but if I have to go on my own, that will still count. There is no excuse for me to miss a monthly temple trip when it is only 4 miles from my house.

Spiritual: Finish the Book of Mormon. I'm am happiest when I am consistently and daily working toward this goal, so I intend to accomplish it. I will re-evaluate this one monthly to make sure I am still on track.

Domestic: A project a week. This doesn't mean paint my house. This means clean out the coffee table and end table drawers one week, organize the kitchen junk drawer another week, sort through Emma's clothes and store the ones that are too small, etc. Just baby step projects to help keep the house more organized and clean.

Most of all, I plan to make my family a priority.
-Mealtimes around the table;
-More quality time with Emma everyday(reading together, going for walks, going swimming, getting down on the floor to play with her);
-Weekly date nights with Jared(even if date night is playing games or watching a movie together after Emma goes to bed at 8).

I really have so many other things I would like to improve and do, but for now I feel these are reasonable and attainable things. When I master all of these, I will add another...