2015 Goals

2014 has come to an end and what a great year it was! 

In true goal format form, lets recap, SHALLLL WE!

We started off the year beginning our never ending house hunting search and finally landed on an amazing house! We moved in 2 days before Jereks birthday and started the remodeling right away! I spent my first weekend away from all the boys at a little getaway scrapbooking with my mom right after mothers day. July was here before we knew it and while I turned 28 little baby Skylor turned the big O-N-E. In September we took our first family of four photos {finally!} and this little blogspace of mine saw it's first birthday. On October 10th Jerek surprised me by proposing just shy of 11 years together! December is almost over and Tracen just turned four?! How is it possible, I just remember finding out I was pregnant! 2015 is upon us and I'm making some big goals for myself. 

It's been a full year since I wrote this post and started posting my monthly goals. To be honest I thought I was going to be a mega flake every month and not continue them. But to my surprise I really kept them up! There were months that were better than others but over all I usually accomplished 75% of them every month. I decided I'm going to keep up the monthly goals as they really hold me accountable through out the days, months and year. I'm going to do a little something different this year though and  do three yearly goals in addition to my monthly goals. These three yearly goals are something I can work on throughout the year and not just for a month. 

Recapping December goals:

1. Drink more water- I haven't been drinking crazy amounts but I've been getting my daily intake that I should be.

2. Deep clean the house-This was half accomplished. Since we had people over for Tracen's birthday and for Christmas morning we deep cleaned the main floor but I can't vouch for the upstairs!

3. Make a growth chart-I'm currently off to the hardware store right now to get everything I need! I'll have a separate post on it in this next week!

YEAR GOALS:

1. Reduce debt: Basically I want to pay down debt. I mean who doesn't but I want this to be a BIG focus this year. I think they recommend you to have no more than 40% of your available credit used. This has always been an issue for me, especially in college and unfortunately I carried over this bad habit and haven't done that much to stop it until recently. I want to really focus on getting rid of my credit card debt and just having them for emergency. It's never a good idea to cancel cards because then your debt to income ratio lowers and it can show up as a negative on your credit report. 

2. Volunteer my time: Jer and I are so lucky to have great jobs, own a house, drive nice cars, etc etc that I want to do more for others. While I always am donating things around the house and giving money to different charities it's just not enough. I would love to get Tracen involved as well because monkey see monkey do ya know! These can range from delivering meals to people in need, donating to kids, volunteering at schools or at women's shelters. Whatever it is I just want to do more and hopefully I can do something every month no matter how "busy" life gets.

3. Buy & learn final cut pro: This will probably come later on if I upgrade my computer because as of right now my Mac Air will not be able hold Final Cut pro due to lack of space. This is one goal that if it doesn't happen this year I'm okay with it as it holds a big price tag on it but something I want so badly!

4. Work on German: I've been taking German classes since 8th grade and even have a degree in it but I've been loosing it as I rarely speak it at work or daily anymore. My company offers free Rosette Stone and I signed up for it this past year I didn't do a damn thing with it, bad, I know! This year I'm going to try and make it a priority. This can be done through the program at work or watching Youtube videos, learning new vocab, etc.

5. Live healthier: I started back up at the gym last month and while that's great n' all I fully believe that 80% of what your body looks like is based on what you put into it. While I'm all about indulging in that fountain coke or food baby Chipotle burritos I really need to get a grip! I want to start counting my macro's, choosing to eat out less and really diving in on eating healthier. I know it will take a good few months to figure things out as we grocery shop for four people and on a budget but this needs to be a priority for all of us and as they say, if the kids see you eating veggies, they will eat veggies or hopefully eat veggies!

1. Run 10 miles a week: I have been pretty good about making it to the gym a good 3 times a week so this shouldn't be too hard. I want to increase the amount every month in preparation for running some 10k's and the half marathon this year. 

2. Print pictures: I take a ton of pictures and either post them on my social media accounts or throw them on my external hard drive and they sit there for a while. Jerek made a gallery wall in the corner of our family room but the frames either have old pictures or are blank and I'm sick of hearing Jerek's nagging voice 'are we ever going to fill these things?' 

3. Learn how to fly/video with my drone: Jerek was a real babe this Christmas and remembered I kept talking about wanting a drone! I have dreams of video footage for the vlogs and he surprised me with one for Christmas! Although the weather is going to be garbage come January I'm sure, I want to really figure it out! Keep your eyes peeled in future videos!

I hope you all had a great year and remember if 2014 wasn't a year you want to remember or times were exceptionally tough you always have another day, month and year to do better and change things. This is your life and you are living it. Love you guys and happy new year!!!

Workout Schedule

Last month I talked about my January goals which you can find here if you want to read. One of them being 'get a work out plan together and actually stick to it.' Here is what I've figured out that will best fit my lifestyle as a full-time working mother of 2 that suffers from laziness and having too much on her plate at once. It's a real condition, I swear.

The Answer: small, concentrated workouts

The reason this will work for me is because of the above. I get up at 530/545am as it is and I REFUSE to get up any earlier than that to work out. I need SOME sleep to function and Sky doesn't sleep through the night like all you other lucky moms of a 5 month old. I also need a schedule, some type of structure, to push me. I can't just say every night after dinner I will work out. I have to have a plan as to exactly what I'm doing or I won't do it. So below is what I've come up with as a schedule, which was half the battle. Sticking to it is a whole other story and a conversation at a later date.

So here it is folks!

MONDAY/THURSDAY:

These are hard days. The beginning of the week where you dread going to work, let alone getting out of bed! This will get you excited for the week and excited that it's half way to the weekend! It's a great full body workout that gets all limbs moving.

TUESDAY/THURSDAY/SATURDAY:

These days I do the morning workout below, right before I shower. Then I will do my Jillian Michael's 30 day shred at night. Or if I'm really feeling feisty, in the morning (this will probably NEVER happen because as I said above, I NEED my sleep!)

WEDNESDAY/FRIDAY:
Bootay time! I should have also explained that I really want to work on my bubble butt...that I don't have...but want! You know, that real nice bootay that looks good in oh ANYTHING.

I've found a lot of these workouts through other blogs and Pinterest and have taken bits and pieces and put together my own plans. I then, printed each of these out so I can easily refer to what I need to do that day and not get on my laptop to search for them, which might will lead me to be on Youtube, watching hours of videos and NOT working out. I also keep these workout cards in the same spot, next to my weights, so I always know where they are. (TIP: If you don't know what a certain workout term means IE: Burpee, bridge, etc, Youtube that shit, don't just guess!)

Another thing I've found that is helpful is Spotify! They have workout play lists that are amazing. You no longer have to stop what you are doing to change a song because 'Train-Marry Me' comes on and you're sobbing like a baby...Just me?

I plan on making more workout cards once I try out more things but for now, this works.  In the days or weeks to come I might get real ballsy and show some 4 weeks post baby bod pictures compared to now and hopefully there is some improvement. We can then revisit the pictures at a later date and maybe I will look like this, but probably not. Oh and if you are wondering why there is nothing for Sunday, that's because I rarely get out of my sweats on Sundays. So unless I'm feeling real feisty will I even attempt to work out on these holy days.

January Goals

It's about that time of the year where people start getting depressed because their cheeks don't look that great in that ass hugging dress they wanted to wear for NYE.  So we start making obscene resolutions up for the new year; things like, go to the gym 8 days a week for 13 months in a row. No eating carbs, sugar, fruits, vegetables or anything that smells, taste or even looks good.  So back in November I told myself I was going to make a few goals, (because resolutions just seems like a scary word to begin with), and stick to them for a whole month. Here is what they were:

1. No more buying Starbucks (I know, I about pooped my pants when I wrote it out on paper but I actually kept to it!...and then December came and I caved mega hard!)
2. No more buying dumb shit at work
3. Quick gym membership & work out at home at least 3 days a week
4. Drink more water

To some these 4 things may slap you in the face and be like well duh, that's what I do on a daily basis, but to me it was hard shit!  Now that it is New Year's Eve I'm not going to make any yearly resolutions because I've been down that road before and I don't keep them, plain and simple!  I am going to make monthly goals in hopes that these will be more manageable!

Here are my goals going into January:

1. Get Etsy store inventory up to date & figure out new packaging
2. Get a workout plan together & actually stick to it
3. Figure out new budget plan for 2014-IE: pay off credit cards (bastards!)
4. Organize pictures on external hard drive

I have a feeling this month will be really busy but I'm going to try my hardest to make sure I don't half ass these.  I did make one more goal for myself, (I guess you can count it as one) one that I need to always work on and that is to slow down with these boys, to yell less, to not be as psycho about the cleaning/laundry that needs to be done and to just live!  So many days I spend trying to fit in work, errands, grocery shopping, dishes, laundry, dinner, playing and baths I forget why I enjoy being a mom so much!  I don't really need to get it all done in one day if we're being honest here! There are days where I swear I yell or tell Tracen 'no' to the DUMEST things, things that if I heard another mother tell their kid no to I would talk smack about them to Jerek and he would nod and pretend he is listening to what I'm saying. So I will have one resolution I suppose, and that will be to live more, worry less. The laundry will get done...one day and just because Tracen knocked over your morning coffee all over the rug because you left it in a bad spot doesn't mean you should get mad at him for it, it's your own damn fault really. (Also, I love improper run on sentences incase you were wondering.)

Thank you 2013 for an AMAZING year, I'm excited and looking forward to the next 365 days!