During the first week of December, I celebrated my birthday. To help me celebrate, knowing how my mind works, a good friend sent me a Passion Planner. She didn't realize that I'd actually tried to buy one a year ago, but they were all sold out. Isn't it amazing how that works? Since it wasn't available, I began a Bullet Journal instead (which I'll share more about soon). While I've loved my Bullet Journal, as soon as my Passion Planner arrived I knew I needed to start it right away. A personal revelation of 2015 was that I needed to schedule my days more. While I became good at daily goals, thanks in part to Bullet Journaling, I found that scheduling those goals into my day really does help with accomplishing them. I also realized that- even though I've become fond of sleeping in- our days go much smoother when I'm the first one out of bed! So to continue my goal-setting, I'm joining some blogging friends in setting monthly goals this year. Do you goal set? I'd love to hear in the comments what you're planning for this month too!

Inspired by my friend MaryAnne, I'm choosing a word for this year. 2015 was a year of adjustment for us. Deciding to homeschool again, adjusting to life at home with three kids, longer days for Cory as he moved into a supervisory role at his school, and personal family loss made me feel like I was treading water a lot. Moving into a new year, I'm choosing Courage to start swimming again in all areas of my life.  

*Finish Esther's Baby Book: Almost there! Just need to add pictures and write a few more snippets.

*Master list for shopping: Since the little tummies in our home continue to grow bigger, and we live over thirty minutes away from stores, I want to get a better handle on groceries. My goal is to figure out how to make one big trip every month, with a few smaller trips as needed. I think this will also help us budget better. 

*Master list for packing: All of our holiday traveling made me realize how much I dread packing! I think master lists, one for the kids & one for us, would really help. Something I can laminate & reference every time we pack to go somewhere. 

*Sewing Projects: Finish Christmas stockings, and sew Christmas skirts. I've had the fabric for both of these projects for over two years, but they keep getting skipped over. I want to finish them both in January, and use them for Valentine's Day (wink)

*Embroider Tree Skirt: I need to add & embroider our little hands for this year. 

*Christmas Memories Book: I started this last year, and find it very helpful! I record our traditions, including what we want to bake again. It's a good way to store memories- What were the favorite presents?- and refresh my memory when our next Christmas comes along. I also need to scan & print our Santa pictures to include too. We have this version, but this newer version looks nice too. 

*Oil Posts: We've used Young Living oils for the past three years. I've been wanting to share about how we use them on the blog, and 2016 is a perfect year to finally do that! 

*Regular Posting: I used to post on a M/W schedule with a photo on Friday, which helped me to keep up with our daily activities & pictures. My goal for January is to return to this blogging schedule.

*Editing Pictures: I have over 500 pictures on my computer, which I need to get edited & arranged into blog posts. I also need to shuffle the rest onto Shutterfly to be dealt with next month. 

*Linking Tags: If you click on any of the beautiful content links at the top of this page, they don't work! I need to finish tagging posts & get them linked up, so it's easier for you (and me!) to navigate around this site.

Happy New Year!