In the year 2011, I made 11 goals for myself.  Every month I would check in on the blog, and see how I was doing on each goal.  It was a great method to keeping myself accountable, and ensuring that I sat down and thought about how each goal was doing.  It may have been slightly boring, reading through my goal accountability each month, but it was a huge help to me, and I was able to accomplish a lot, and stick with a plan.  I felt really good about my goals last year.  It only seemed fitting that I would continue the goal trend this year with a 12 in 2012.  I have added a bar along the top where I will be keeping track of my check-in each month.  You can also find a link to my goals from last year.  

Today, I want to introduce my goals a little bit, and provide any updates I may have.  We are only 2 weeks into 2012, but I have made a little progress on a few of my goals, which I am excited to share!

My 12 goals for 2012: 

1. Community Living: We have now lived here for over a year, and we have yet to join a small group or bible study that Max and I can go to together.  We attend a larger church, and would really like to find a smaller community to be a part of, that we can pour our lives into, and get to know other couples.

2. Weight Loss: I want to lose at least 25 pounds this year.  This involves making healthier eating choices and working out 5-6 times a week.  I have made some progress on this goal, but I think I will save that for a blog post coming up soon.

3. Read 15 books: My reading list continues to grow, and I feel I have found a decent balance between household/child tasks, that I can usually allow myself a few nights a week of reading before bed, so I think 15 books this year is doable.  I want to read a mix of fiction and nonfiction, although I know I will lean more towards the fiction.  In the past 2 weeks, I have read The Hunger Games and Body for Life for Women.  I started Crazy Love and 1000 Gifts, which I am eager to continue working on.

4. Manual Photography skills: I want to learn more about taking photos.  I want to learn more of the mechanics and technique behind my camera, rather than just pushing the button and snapping away.  I want to practice using my camera on the manual setting this year.

5. Outside walks/playtime: It is so good for all of us to get outside and walk every day.  And if we for some reason can't or don't walk, I would like to still find time to get outside and ride bikes and push the kids in their cars, or walk down to the park to play.

6. Creative and structured toddler activities: The kids love to play and we spend most of our day playing together with toys.  I want to spend time coming up with creative and structured activities to do a few times a week.  It doesn't have to be a long or super intense activity, but I want to work on having a more structured playtime a few times a week.

7. Journal: I want to develop consistent journaling habits.  I used to journal quite frequently, but last year, when Max came back from deployment, my journaling went out the window.  I want to make time to journal most nights of the week.  This has been going well.  I have following Along for the Ride, as Laura provides Journaling through January prompts.

8. Date Night: We want to have a date night at least one time a month.  Find someone to watch the babes and go out sans kids, so we can have some husband-wife time.  Doesn't need to be fancy or crazy, but we'd like to make a point to go out at least once a month.

9. Grow a garden: I want to cultivate more vegetables this year.  This will involve some research on my part, and some investing in time and a few tools/seeds, but I want to learn more about gardening, and would like to grow more for us to consume.

10. Be Still and Know: I want to spend at least 10 minutes a day, reading my Bible, being still with God, soaking in His word and taking time to intentionally pray.  I had a similar goal last year, to do with reading my Bible.  It proved to be the most challenging goal I made, and once again, this goal is hard for me.  I need to be very intentional about setting time aside every single day.

11. Craft time: Last year, I had so many ideas and projects that I wanted to work on, and so often I never had the time to do them.  This year, I want to be intentional about making time to sew and craft.  I love being creative and making things, so I need to make the time for it.  I am thinking about setting aside a night a month for Craft Night, and invite over a friend or two - maybe that would help me find the motivation to actually make specific time!

12. Baby #3: When I asked Max about goals for this year, the only one he came up with was getting pregnant with baby #3.  Bwa ha ha.  We would like to have baby #3 sometime in the next year or so.  We'll see if and when that happens :)