Looking Ahead

Since today is the last day of the year, I reflect on the things I have accomplished in 2011.  This year honestly was a blur, which saddens me because we were just TOO BUSY.  But here are some of the highlights...

*The biggest accomplishment was running the half-marathon and coming in under my goal time.  A half-marathon was something I never ever thought I would do (nor did I have the desire to!).  But I did it and I'm extremely proud of that accomplishment. 

*I also became a bit more active in our church.  Nothing major, but I signed up to do check-in for the children's ministry at my church at least 1 service a month (usually twice a month).  We also increased our financial giving to our church.  My husband and I decided to start a small group in our home with some couples from our church and we meet with them twice a month. 

* My marriage is the best it's ever been.  We still have areas we need to work on, but I am absolutely amazed at how God has intervened and helped us continue to grow closer to each other!

* We bought a pop-up camper and was able to use it several times on family camping weekends. 

As this year comes to a close tonight, I am looking ahead to 2012.  I'm not really a resolution type of gal.  To me, resolutions are something most people make that they HOPE to accomplish, but quickly forget about and, most times, they make the same resolution next time Jan 1st rolls around.  So, I am making GOALS for 2012 instead of resolutions...these are things I am actively going to strive for...

1.  Reach my goal weight of 150 by June 4th.  (see previous post!)

2.  Go on at least 1 date night per month with the hubster.  (And I already have the babysitters lined up for them!)

3.  Stay on budget financially and start to build up an emergency fund.  (ideally 3 month's living expenses)

4.  Start a savings fund for a new vehicle so we can pay cash for it!

5.  Run another half-marathon and beat last year's time of 2:24:29

6.  Take a family vacation to the beach. 

7.  Be intentional about spending time together as a family.  I want to be aware of how quickly Satan can use things (even good things!) to steal our time together and keep everyone tired and short-fused.   One way we are gonig to do this is to once again limit our children to one sport per year.  So Evan is going to only play football this year instead of baseball and football.  Last year, our schedule was packed from March until October!  We want to prevent that from happening again. 

So there you have it!  Here's to a great New Year...bring on 2012!!