January goals and how I did with them!

This year I decided I was going to simplify my life and get more organized. That includes a major decluttering of my house, buying less, keeping less, needing less! I also splurged on a more expensive planner that I could carry with me, rather than relying on my family calendar at home, and my phone calendar. I was hesitant to buy it until the nice lady told me to split the cost over 365 (actually 366) and that was the daily cost of it. That made me feel much better and I already feel like I've gotten my money out of it.

This is the beautiful cover of it!

And this was the January divider page, which made me feel so hopeful as I wrote out my January goals when I got the planner in the second week of the month. I'm feeling motivated and hoping to stick with it with writing the monthly goals I set out.

For January here were my goals:

Blogs - as many as I can
Including this one, I've done a whopping 27 posts this month! That is more than half the amount of what I did all LAST YEAR. I am LOVING the new routines I've started with making this a priority again in my life. Even if just sharing small insignificant things like James wearing James is important to me and I know years down the road I'll love that I made the time to do it.

Yoga - 1-2 class per week
As of tonight at 8pm I will have done 11 yoga classes this month. Some might not feel like that is a lot but for a very busy mom of three who did ZERO physical activity before, that is absolutely far and above what I thought I would be able to accomplish. Throw in there a massive redo of our basement, hernia surgery for hubby, weekend trip away with KJ, day trip to the Island....a lot of external stuff that could have prevented me from going, but I made the effort, I booked the classes and I just went, even if I didn't feel like it. Moving forward my goal is 3 classes per week (1 at VIU for the next 8 weeks on Tuesday mornings, and then at least 2 at Coast), and 2-3 short 20 minute walks per week as well. I want to start small so it feels manageable and not overwhelming to me. I know myself and that's the best way for me to not get discouraged.

More games/quality time with the kids
I am trying hard at this one, but it was a busy month and I didn't get to do it as much as I would have liked to, but I did get some card games in with each of the boys and some puzzle building with Kennedy, plus of course nightly reading too. The biggest shift to the quality time has been bedtimes these days. Since the boys separated rooms it's been awesome to spend that extra few minutes with each of them every night asking about their day. We call it Happy/Crappy (thanks Foster girls for the name steal) and each day they tell me the best part and the worst part of the day. I lay with them and get some snuggles before I move on to the next child. It's turned into a much longer bedtime routine but one I'm really cherishing at the same time. As the boys get older and time marches on I realize how very important this time is with them and how even on the nights I don't feel like doing it, it's so worth it in the end to have that connection with them!

Less phone and iPad time
I'd call this one a success just by the fact that I have found the time to do all of the above three goals, in time that I would have normally before spent some of that on my phone and iPad. Plus the massive basement declutter and clean out that happened the first two-three weeks of the month too (photos coming after I finish putting it all back together again!)

Overall I am super proud of myself for my January goals and how well I did with them! My goals for February are maybe a bit loftier but still very valuable. I'll do a blog post about that at the end of next month. Coming up this weekend will be a January photo recap (which I'm also committed to doing this year after seeing the cool photo memory stuff I used to do before I got so busy). I miss that and am committed this year once again to save our family memories in a meaningful way.