Tag: goals

My Goals in Action for 2014 + a Free Printable Goal Outline

One of my favorite New Year’s Day activities is planning, praying, and dreaming through my goals for the next year.  Jed and I each write down our individual goals as well as those for our family as a unit.  I created the goal outline above to use for myself, but am sharing it with you just in case you need a handy dandy outline to help your brainstorming efforts.  Click here to download the sky & bokeh clouds version above or click here to download the white background outline below.  I’ve divided the outline in to 6 categories with room for three goals each as well as a section for action steps.  I’ve found the action steps to be the most important step.  Without them, my goals don’t happen and are relegated to the land of day dreams.  Action must be taken to achieve a goal.  
I’m excited to share a few of my goals with y’all, but I’m saving the big brainstorming for tomorrow because it’s our little tradition.  One of my personal goals is to lose 35 pounds by the time I turn 35 in June.  Actions steps for this goal include exercising 210 minutes per week and dropping processed sugar from my diet.  One spiritual goal is to complete my BSF Bible study every week in full.  An action step towards this goal is to get up before my kids to have quiet time with Jesus.  One of my physical goals is tied to my personal goal of losing weight.  I want to participate in one workout class per week.  Jed bought me Zumba classes for Christmas so I’m well on my way towards this goal.  One of our family goals this year is to become a fit family.  We will work towards this goal by doing something active together as a family every week.  One of our financial goals is to rebuild our emergency fund after it took a big hit with the great plumbing disaster of 2013.  We will work towards this goal by continuing to budget every month and by me going back to work for Young Life part time from January to June. 

What goals are you putting into action this coming year? 

Make It Happen – A Family Photo Shoot

A big family photo shoot is one of those things that I’ve wanted to do for a while, but is nearly impossible to actually make happen.  Obstacles were stacked against me.  My family is large and spread out, four siblings, 3 spouses, 3 states, 4 cities.  We hadn’t posed all together in any organized fashion since before Chris left for Afghanistan and any of us were married.  It was time.  Over Christmas break there was a 12 hour window when we were all in the same place at the same time, so it was go time.  As the oldest kid and natural born bossypants, I basically forced everyone into it, but most thanked me later.  Just kidding, but maybe they will someday.  I told everyone to wear any shade of grey, white, black, or red, and put a brush through their hair. Somehow my daddy managed to sneak in a baseball cap, but you can’t win ’em all.  We called our friends the Filipeks and had them send down a photographer or two.  We had three cameras going to get lots of pics.  I marched the group down the street to the other side of the lake behind my parents’ house for a scenic backdrop.  It was like herding cats.  Finally we got to posing, and the results are pretty great.  
 Nice and normal, grouped close together.
 Each little family group separate, looking at each other.
 Surprised!
 You’re a tiger! Roar!
Big thanks to the Filipek family for snapping our pics.
The silly ones are probably my favorites.  After the group shots we took a couple of the grandkids with Dede and Poppy.  My goal was to get these printed on canvas for my mama’s birthday, which is today.  Over the weekend we sat down and edited them using Picnik and ordered a few canvas prints.  I can’t wait to see the results.  All in all it was totally worth the hassle and cat herding to get pictures we will treasure for years to come.  
What tasks are on your “Make It Happen” list this year?