2023 Goals

So this time my first post of the year (or rather my goals for the year post) will be a bit different. See, I don't really feel I have any specific goals for the year set. Not like normal, at least. I really ended the year with wanting to me more in the moment and less constantly planning for the next moments (or, like, three moments) so trying to figure out exactly where I want to be in 12 months almost feels unnatural.

With that said, here are some immediate to-do's I would like to cross off:

• Purge the house of all the crap we don't need anymore. Pick an area that has been neglected or not really been looked at in past "purge moods" and get it cleaned out. Big ones on this include the bedroom closets and the basement. Every time I start this I get pregnant and too sick to finish or I feel good by the second trimester, but then get too big and exhausted or I have a new baby and just don't have time for quite a few months. This time nothing should stand in my way!
• Read all the books on my "I haven't read these ones yet" shelf so I can make room for new ones! I was really reading a lot before Pierce was born (granted I wasn't working out or doing other things so most of my nights so I got quite a few books done, but still had a good amount to still read. I feel good that I can get them all read by the end of the year.
• Clear off my movies to watch list. I have so many on my Netflix list and DVDs we bought that we haven't watched yet (we've seen the movies, yes, but haven't watched them to see that they are good copies). I've had these on my list or our bookshelf for a long time so it's about time we get them cleared out!
• I am going to start my coding learning again. I'm hoping to do more SQL learning, but I also love the idea of learning HTML and CSS and other ones. Larry got me a book about different coding languages so I can study that as well. I'm very excited to see what comes of this.
• I want to organize my recipes and put them in an actual cook book rather than just papers in a folder. I'm also implementing a new way to meal plan. Before I was assigning a meal and it's leftovers for specific days,  but numerous times we'd forget to pull out the meal we needed from the freezer to thaw out so we'd have to push a meal back or we'd end up going out or one meal would last longer/not as long as I planned so it threw things off and I'd have quite a few recipes that would roll over into the next month. Now I just write down about 6 meals (usually 3 chicken and 3 beef/turkey) and how long they take to make so we can decide what we want to do next with that information. Hopefully this gives me more times to try new recipes!
• I really want to find ways to have less waste as much as possible. We got a compost can for so we can put our scraps in that for our garden in the summer. We also plan to get switch to blocked cheese rather than already shredded and sliced cheese wrapped in so much plastic. Once we're out of what we already have, I'm going to order a slicer and shredder to make it easer. I'm pretty excited about this one.
• I am going to be implementing our 1:1 dates with the kids as well. Lucy is this month and I think I'm going to be taking her to Build-A-Bear and maybe get a Mrs. Field's cookie haha. I'm very excited to bring this back into things.
• Last year I wanted to be aware of my spending and save more. I loved that and felt it really gave me some good insight into spending. This year I've reconfigured my budget and I'm really excited to see how I feel about it by the end of the year.
• I'm going to keep doing  my puzzles, skin care, working out, reading, bath, game, and movie nights. I also would like to learn more about NFL rules, players, scoring, and everything else to help me understand more. I love football season, but I'd love to know as much as possible. I love my "me time" nights and doing things that make me happier and a happier wife & mom.
• I may throw in a few monthly challenges (I'm still a bit undecided on if I'll do these this year or focus on my other things, I'll just see how I feel each month). Some of these include doing a plant based diet, food tracking to limit my calories to 1,200 each day, intermittent fasting, try CBD, practice using my left hand, limiting my social media use to 1 hour a day.
• Really celebrate the holidays and start my new traditions that I've got set for each one. I'm very excited for this!!
• Have family vacations again! I'm so so so so excited for this and to bring this back into our yearly planning!

My list always ends up longer than I realize, makes me feel I'm always starting a year so ambitious, I hope I can keep the motivation. We'll see how it goes!