New Year's Goals

It seems some people are very anti-new-year's-resolution. I, on the other hand, happen to like new beginnings, even if they come in the form of a new calendar year. I got a new year-long devotional book for Christmas, called Voices of the Faithful by Beth Moore. In the January introduction Beth comments about how new beginnings are a blessing from the Lord, and reminds us that we get a new beginning with each new day, week, month AND year. That is refreshing to me, because a year is a long time to wait for a new beginning!

So in light of my new beginning, I have outlined some goals (or resolutions, if you like that word).

• Have a daily devotional time with the Lord. I have not been as consistent with this in the last year as I want to be, so my goal is to carve out this time consistently. I'm already enjoying my new devotional book, so I look forward to reading that everyday. I'd also like to develop a Scripture memory plan.


• Reduce clutter. It drives Chris crazy and causes strife in our relationship at times, so am going to try to do better about keeping things straight. I think part of this will be slowing down and staying home more, making our home more of a priority. I will be more at peace with a cleaner home!
  
• Make time to craft on a regular basis. While Chris was away on his hunting trip last week I organized my craft area and had a great time scrapbooking. My goal, which Chris seems to be in agreement with, is to have one night each week where I do a light dinner (like sandwiches or pizza), and after the kids are up from nap and I'm done working (around 4:00), I get out my craft stuff to work on that night. He has agreed to do baths and bedtime on those nights! I'm shooting for Thursday nights. Crafting is therapeutic for me, and I think making time for it on a regular basis will be a great escape for me! Plus maybe I won't be so behind on my scrapbooks and have so many projects I want to do that never get done.


• Manage my time better. The big thing here is reducing my computer time! I tend to get sucked away when I'm on the computer, but I need to limit my time and pay more attention to other things that need to be done...like reducing clutter or cleaning!
  
• Pay closer attention to the budget. We have one, but Chris does most of our finances, and I do most of the spending, so it's too easy for me to just go spend without giving much thought to how we're doing on the budget. I'm not an excessive spender, but I still want to be more careful with our finances!
  

I have some action points written down for how to accomplish some of these. Here's to a great year in 2009!