2016 Goals in Review

It’s the first week of February and the perfect time to check-in with our goals for 2016! A full month has passed since we last reflected on what we’d like to accomplish this year and we still have a long way to go. January wasn’t perfect, but we’re proud to say that progress is being made!

How are you doing? Are you still plugging away at those resolutions or have you lost your enthusiasm? We hope that our honesty and imperfections encourage you to keep trying. After all, we’ve still got eleven months to get it right! Here’s how we did in January.

Sarah’s Goals:

Successful.

• Eat healthier. So far, so good! I’ve cut down my consumption of red meat to only about twice a week and now, I’m focusing on lowering my daily sugar intake!
• Read more. Last month, I started reading The Body Book by Cameron Diaz—it’s a lot to digest, so I’m about halfway through it. I also read Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke as my January pick for our 2016 reading list. This month, I’m going to read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and one more book for the reading list, TBD.
• Have a weekly date night. It’s been so nice to connect with each other each week, free from any other distractions! We’ve gone out for dinner, taken walks, and even had a movie night.

Not-so-much.

• Start exercising 30 minutes a day. While I’m not doing this daily yet, I am exercising a lot more than I was. In January, I averaged 30 minutes of exercise, 3 days a week. Not near where I need to be, so I’ll definitely be focusing on this in February.
• Do a daily devotional with my husband. Not even close! We only made this happen a few times in January! Ryan has a new work schedule this month so hopefully we’ll finally get on the same page in this department.
• Get on a cleaning schedule. Closer. I only made it one week following Clean Mama’s schedule. It definitely helped but I found it difficult to stick to. I’m in the process of tailoring it to fit my preferences, so I’ll keep you posted. 🙂

Deborah’s Goals:

Successful.

• Read more. I’m already working on book number 4 for this year! I read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson for January’s reading list pick. Now, I’m finishing the final book of the Ally Condie’s Matched trilogy. I’d wanted to read it for a while, and the library had the first one when I checked out Speak, so I went for it!
• Unplug more often. This one isn’t going as well as it could, but, thanks to reading more, I’m not on my phone as much! I also haven’t been turning on the TV as soon as I get home after work either. Still, I think this one could get even better.
• Pray with my husband. We’ve been doing pretty good with this, I’m glad to say. Right now, after we’re in bed with the lights off, one of us says a short prayer. No more than a couple minutes, and we take turns each day. We’re both also careful to not let it turn into a wish list by starting out with thanking God, even if it’s just for the little things of the day.

Not-so-much.

• Exercise 3 times a week. Ugh. We have gone to play tennis exactly one time this year! In my defense, it’s been pretty chilly here in Charleston, so it hasn’t exactly been tennis-friendly. But, I think, instead of using the weather as an excuse, I should try to come up with some alternate forms of exercise.
• Try new recipes and eat healthier. Let’s face it. I still am not a fan of cooking. Plus, with a change in our diet for 3 weeks in January, we weren’t doing our usual. I’m trying to branch out some though, by attempting some of those simple video recipes I keep posting on Facebook (like the Cheeseburger Cups and S’mores Pinwheels). I figure if I keep trying little things, I can work up to full meals. I hope!
• Work on my time management skills. This one will be a toughie because it’s something I’ve always struggled with. Luckily, my husband is a stickler for punctuality, so he’s happy to guide me on this path!

 

As you can see, we’ve already succeeded and failed! But, as we said before, it’s still early. If you’re struggling with some of your goals too, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Keep working on it. A lot of our goals are things that are accomplished by forming new habits, and those don’t happen overnight.

How about you? Tell us how your goals are going so far, and let us know if you have any tips for how we can do better on ours!

 

Favorites of the Week

Hello, again! We hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Did anyone else watch the NFL Playoffs? Holy cow, were those games intense or what?! We can’t wait to see what happens next week!

Anyway, it’s Monday and time to talk about everything we’re loving this week!

Deborah’s loving…

• The Matched Trilogy: When I went to the library last week, I picked up books for the challenge, but I also found a book I’d been wanting to read for awhile now: Matched by Ally Condie. It’s a dystopian novel about a world where The Society chooses everything for everyone, including your Match. A girl named Cassia gets matched with her best friend Xander, but, by a fluke, she is also matched to another friend, Ky. What follows is the obvious love triangle, and raging against the man. But I still like it. 🙂

• M*A*S*H*: I love watching old shows that are fully on Netflix, so when I dug up M*A*S*H*, I was in luck to find all 11 seasons of it! It’s about an Army hospital camp during the Korean War. With memorable characters like Hawkeye, Trapper, Radar, and Klinger, it’s a classic. The doctors have quick wits and even quicker mouths. From tying to get with all the nurses to complaining about being drafted, Hawkeye and Trapper lead the gang through all kinds of craziness!

• Cracklin’ Oat Bran: Despite my huge sweet tooth and love of junk food, my favorite cereal has always been Kellogg’s Cracklin’ Oat Bran. Actually, my whole family likes it, so it never lasted long in our house. Andrew knows how much I love it, and he bought me a box for Christmas. 🙂 It’s about the little things. A box runs about $5 at Publix (where I usually shop), but I found it at Wal-mart for $3.69, so I’ve decided to treat myself a little more often this year!

 

Sarah’s loving…

image credit: amazon.com

• Dark nail polish: One of my favorite things about winter is the shift to darker colors in my wardrobe. I’m pretty fair-skinned to begin with but, in winter, I’m flat out pale. So when the temperatures drop, I embrace the deep tones of gray and navy, black and burgundy. I also love incorporating these colors into my makeup routine, namely in the form of dark nail polish. Check out Nemesis 195 from Covergirl’s Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Gloss.

image credit: pexels.com

• Tulips: The easiest way to breathe life and color into your home is by adding fresh flowers–and tulips are my favorite! They started showing up in stores about a week ago and I can’t wait to get some!! One of the best places to get fresh flowers is Fresh Market. They have a great selection at reasonable prices and their flowers seem to hold up longer than those from any other grocery store.

• Sunny Health & Fitness Exercise Bike: Last Sunday, my husband and I became the proud owners of an exercise bike! To be honest, I never thought we’d own a piece of fitness equipment, but it was definitely a good decision for us. A couple of years ago, we gave a gym membership a try and hardly ever used it. We just couldn’t get motivated to actually make the drive to the gym. Having the exercise bike changes all that though. It’s set up in our bedroom so it’s pretty hard to ignore and there’s no reason not to set aside time for a 30 minute workout. (I usually ride the bike for 20 minutes and do some strength exercises, like push-ups and sit-ups, for another 10.) In the first week of having the bike, I exercised 4 out of the 7 days. Yay me!! 🙂

What a great batch of winter favorites! Books, old TV, exercise, with still some flowers to keep the color around. What are some of your favorites this week?