My Goals for 2011

As a new year begins, I've made some serious goals for myself and my family.  And there's no better time to start my first blog!!

As I share my goals with you, I hope that you'll hold me accountable.  I decided on goals rather than resolutions, and have an action plan to accompany most of my goals.  I'd love to hear what you're going to do with 2011!

1.  Become a better Couponer!  If you know me at all, you know I don't go near a restaurant without a coupon in hand, but I had become a little sloppy with my grocery coupons.  So, I threw out the old and started anew.  And I am armed with 2 new resources that my friend Debra shared with me.  www.MoneySavingMom.com and www.SouthernSavers.com
2.  Utilize my Home Control Journal to stay on top of household chores.  If you don't have a Home Control Journal, or have NO idea what shining your sink can do for your sanity, click on over to http://www.flylady.net/.  In conjunction with my Control Journal, I am also going to write all appointments and events in my planner.  If I don't write it down, it won't happen.
3.  Get the boys' clothes out for the next day when I do my Before Bed routine.
4.  Stick to the monthly budget and balance the budget at the end of each month.  If you don't know already, I use cash for everything and am a huge Dave Ramsey fan!  You can be weird with me by following him at http://www.daveramsey.com/.
5.  Work out a minimum of 3 times a week.  If you live around here, we go to the Y!  I'd love a work out date!
6.   And in my quest to have more quiet time to grow in my relationship with Christ, I'm going to make an effort to journal.  I'm starting small in the journaling department, but each day of January I am going to write one thing that makes me thankful for Jon.
7.  Plan a week of meals in advance.  I'm not going crazy on this one, just want to make sure we have several dinner options each day.  And I'd like to get better at inviting friends over for dinner.
8.  Family Night once a month.  We enjoy renting a kid-flick and popping some popcorn, but we've never been intentional, so it rarely happens.
9.  Date Night once a month.  Its so important for Jon and I to continue to build and grow our relationship, so we have decided to plan one date night each month.  It may be leaving the kids at home and grabbing a bite to eat, or putting the boys to bed early and having a quiet dinner at home.
10.  Keep the stairs free of clutter.  I am so bad about stacking things that need to go upstairs on the stairs.  Not only is it an eyesore, but its also a safety issue.  If there were an emergency, we'd have a hard time getting up the stairs in the dark with all of the stuff that accumulates there.

So those are my goals for this year.  Really, they've been my goals for quite some time, but I've never been serious enough to write them down.  I'm organized and prepared to conquer them now!