The Year to Come

Wow, it has been quite awhile since my last post! Time to get back on the 'recording my life' train.

I've come up with a few goals for the year to come. I'm not going to call them new year's resolutions since, well, I'm a few weeks behind. And I like to be an odd ball. Let's call them: Dani's hopes and dreams for the next 355 days. I'll expand on a few while others or more self explanatory. And maybe if I am lucky, I'll be able to set dates for when I want to have them complete or check up dates.

- Get back into a better 'after-work routine' {Starting today}
Back when Jesse and I were working out after work, I seemed to do so much more around the apartment and had almost a set schedule. I would get home, start supper, clean up the kitchen, clean up the bathroom, possibly throw a load of wash in, tidy up the apartment, work out, eat, shower and have time leftover to relax before bed. Doing these things daily made them less of a task than waiting to do once a week...or more like once every two weeks. It's time to start this again.

- Watch less TV {Starting today}

- Try a new recipe or a variation of an old recipe weekly {Starting this week}
This may be difficult for me to get it done every week, but since I make a menu every Sunday maybe it will be easier to remember than I'm giving myself credit. The only issue is that often time things come up during the week where we end up doing something else for supper or end up having even more leftovers than usual.

- Try to have craft time often, weekly and keep a list of wanted craft to do's {Starting this week}
I've always liked making crafts, but I would always end up requiring help from my mother. Every time I would start a new project or tell Mom I was feeling crafty, she knew there would be something that she would be required to help! Which I'm sure she enjoyed all the time! ;) I made a coffee filter wreath a few months ago, all by myself, and absolutely love it. So I want to keep these creative/crafty juices flowing. My current project is a 'book page flower wreath.' It will take up quite a bit of time! I'm also in search of a cheap and simple sewing machine for other projects.

- Take more pictures {Starting today}

- Constantly declutter {Starting this week}

- Buy less and figure out what kind of minimalist I want to be {By end of March}
Considering that I want to weed through our possessions every few months to throw out or donate things we no longer use or need I've come to realize that there is a minimalist in me that is trying to come out. It's a bit difficult because there are tons of things I want that are truly not needed. I want to do my best to figure out how extreme of a minimalist I want to be (which I'm guessing won't be too extreme), focus on buying less, and have Jesse remind me that I want less stuff every time I say I want to buy something

- Coupon and sale shop more {Starting with next week's menu/shopping plan}
Over the summer when I was playing housewife I did a pretty good job of couponing and shopping sales. We had our weekly grocery budget and I did a pretty decent job of sticking to it. If there was spare money in the budget I would stock up on items I knew we would use when they were on sale. We've neglected this now that I'm home less and we have less time to shop for coupons and shop the sales.

- Spend less, Save more {Starting today}

- Buy locally {Starting ASAP}
From farmer's markets and flea markets to art and furniture

- Get a library card from Ames Public Library and read more {Starting tonight}
I already have a few books I want to read. I will be starting "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" soon as that is a book I've borrowed from Jesse's dad. After watching the Twilight movies and hearing how much better the books are, I would like to start that series. And there is a book on minimalism, "The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul" that I want to read.

- Research growing own veggies/herbs inside {April}

- Drink more water {Starting today}

- Have date nights {Starting next weekend}

- Set our goals for an emergency fund and saving for a down payment on a house and when we want to get there {By end of Feburary}

- Try once a month freezer cooking - at least once {By June}

- Slowly decorate our new apartment {Starting at move in, February}
Starting in the living room and moving to the bedroom with little accents in the kitchen and bathroom along the way. I say slowly because I want to force myself to only purchase or make things for a room that I will love instead of lumping a bunch of stuff together just because it matches and for the room to be done. If I'm going to start spending money on decorations that aren't essential, we need to both enjoy them. Another reason why this may take awhile is because I'm such a scatter brain when it comes to decorating. There are so many different things and styles that I like and I need to get it all figured out and focused.

I want to try to evaluate these monthly in order to remind myself of what I want to do and push myself to work on these goals. I suppose evaluating and documenting the goals could end up being a goal within itself!