2014 Goals

Happy New Year everyone! We're only a few days in, so I think it's still acceptable to greet people that way (just like I think it's acceptable that I have all of my Christmas decorations up, and I'm still lighting my tree at night). It took me some time, but I finally came up with my goals for 2014. Usually I don't document them, which typically results in not following through. I think that by writing an action plan for each New Year's goal, I should be able to accomplish each one! (This is me being very optimistic, check back in 11 months to see how I'm doing.)

• Blog once a week

  This was a goal of mine last year. I went strong until July, and then I fell off the wagon a bit. I posted 42 blogs in 2013 - not bad, but I know I can do better! I'm going to plan ahead during the week and try to finalize each post by Friday afternoon or over the weekend.

• Make (and eat) more salads

  This is something that is seriously lacking in my diet, and yet there are so many great salad recipes out there (what would we do without Pinterest?!). I'm going to start making giant salads on Sundays and eat them throughout the week.

• Take a digital photography class

  Over the summer Shay gave me his Nikon D70. It came out in 2004! For a 10 year old camera, it's pretty good, however, I struggle a little with knowing how everything works. I found a class that I want to take through Lill Street Art Center. I'm planning to sign up for an introductory class for the Spring or Fall (and then hopefully get a new camera... Shay, are you reading this?).

• Attend church whenever possible

  Shay and I both want to make this more of a priority. Our goal is to get up early on Sundays for the 9am service at Soul City Church. We find that when we attend the first service in the morning, it starts our day (and week) off on a great note.

• Keep up with my magazine subscriptions

  My pile of unread magazines has gotten totally out of control. I swear it's like they come more than once a month. Anyway, reading my Real Simple & Country Living magazines the week they come in will set me up with great ideas for recipes, crafts, etc. for the whole month.

• Read before bed

  I'm embarrassed to say that the book on my nightstand has been there since May. Yep, I said it - MAY! It should not take 7 months to get through a book. I need to start reading before bed instead of playing on my iPhone. Research shows that reading before bed helps to get a better night sleep, while staring at a screen (like a phone or TV) can negatively impact our sleep. If for some reason I struggle with this goal, I may need to download some sort of app that locks my iPhone at bedtime.

• Jog the lakefront trail with Gatsby

  We live less than 1 mile from Chicago's Lakefront Trail. I always see people jogging with their dogs and I ask myself why I'm not taking advantage of this free exercise routine. The fact is, I actually hate running... but Gatsby loves it. Maybe some of his excitement will rub off on me? We're going to try this when the weather warms up in the Spring.

• Organize my closet

  My closet looks a lot like the one pictured above, except it's a total disaster. This is a goal for the Winter. One weekend, when it's totally crumby outside, I'm going to purge and organize our closet. It's set up to be so functional, and yet I take it for granted all the time.

To help follow through with these 2014 goals, I'm going to blog about each of them as they are accomplished (which will help with my goal to blog more often!).

Stay tuned!

What are your New Year's goals?