February Goals/ January Update

I am so proud of everything I got done in January! It feel so good!

I was just texting my BFF this morning, and was telling her that I spent a lazy morning in bed, and and taking my time getting ready for my day today, as I actually have most of the day off. I was recapping my month, and I realized as I typed that I'm closing out a full month of keeping up with all of my Bible reading every day (more on that below!), the first month of tax season - back to work 20-30 hours/ week at H&R Block in addition to my job at EvCC - and I'm almost to the end of my 25th week of pregnancy! WOW!

Here's a recap of my goals for the past month:

• Start back up with FlyLady - I actually decided against this on January 7th. I had too much going on, and I didn't want it to just be one more thing to do. 
• Get the office straightened up and back in order
• Re-do my weekly cleaning schedule - It's done! Just got to implement it this month!
• Stick to my deadline for the Newsletter at church, and get it out next week (this week is New Year's, so we have to push it back one week) - Both January and February's church newsletters were published right on time!
•  Read Psalms & Proverbs (going to give this another shot: 1 Proverb + 5 Psalms daily) - YES! I FINALLY DID IT! I'm so happy with everything God showed me through this daily reading.
• Try to do a meal plan two days/ week - Sadly, this became too much for me to handle, as I'm still very sick at night during this 2nd trimester stuff. I didn't think it was fair to push it off onto Robert's plate, either, so this went by the wayside.
• Make more soups to freeze (Robert's request) - I think he actually did a double-batch of something and froze twice as much. So I consider that a success!
• Get the pantry stocked back up (Kind of a joint project between Robert & me) - Yep! We did a really good job!
• Keep selling on eBay - Yep! I've had small successes, but definitely measured successes!
• Make a list or do some kind of inventory on the baby stuff we have (see my posts here and here for all the blessings we've received/ found!) - Yep! We now know what we're still needing for baby Elizabeth, and it's making it easier to deal with adding/ updating registries! :) 

So, as I said, I'm very happy with the way January went, especially considering everything I had to do in a day/ week. In addition to everything else, Robert got Christmas all packed up and put away for the year, and he's been helping me out a lot around the house. It is so hard for me to end up in bed at 8:00pm because I'm so sick and so exhausted with this pregnancy....but I know better than to push through it. I've tried it, and all that ends up happening is that I wind up sicker than ever before, getting less done than if I'd just let things sit a day or two, and discouraged and crying in bed. Sometimes, I'm getting round ligament pain, too. That is so painful. I don't even have words to describe how scary it was the first time I was woken up in the middle of the night with it earlier last week. I decided against waking up Robert until I knew whether it was serious or not. Thankfully, it went away as quickly as it came on, but since I am such a sound sleeper and rarely wake up, it was a really scary experience for me to be woken up in that much pain. 

I'm feeling very "on-top" of things at work and at home, although there is always room for improvement! And I want to strive to be the best manager of our home that I can be above all else. That does include balancing work and home, keeping the house looking nice, and being a good steward of all that we have - financial and otherwise. Oh! Which brings me to an important point! I recently re-did our budget spreadsheets (in December), and we've been doing a great job at keeping everything in order and spending less. Even with a new baby on the way, we (I mean, me, lol) have been refraining from extraneous spending. I think we really have only eaten out about once/ month or so, and I've kept a very close eye on all our other spending. 

Anyway, January went really well for us! And, I totally have to give a shameless plug for my parents here, too. My mom and stepdad have decided to jump on the budgeting bandwagon, and called me to go up to their house and set up/ program some new spreadsheets for them so that they can know where all their money is going. YAY MOM & PERRY! I just called my mom, and she said, "Yep, it's February 1st, so we're starting today!" I think my stepdad is looking forward to not having to deal with it as much (since my mom will be doing all of the entering/ data), and my mom is looking forward to knowing where every penny is going. She also told me that she went down to the Goodwill in Seattle on her lunch break and scored the crib bumper and crib skirt for the nursery at their house for a total of $9 today - brand new! 

So that was the end to a great month. :) 

Here are my goals for the month of February: 

• Get the office in order (starting with one small task every day) 
• Keep up with picking up/ vacuuming/ dusting
• Finish 2 more DIY Projects for Ellie Jo from Pinterest
• Keep up with my Bible Reading in 1 Year
• Try to find a new home for the piano in the den
• Keep up with attendance sheets for Awana Games
• Return library books and start over with a new goal of 1 book per week
• Take a bubble bath to relax
• Find a new set of 5 tall votive holders for on top of the mantle (me and my gracefulness totally kersmashed one of them over Christmas, sigh. And since one is already broken at the top, it's time for a new set). 
• Help Robert as much as I can with the furniture projects (as much as I can)
• One is moving the piano out of the office
• Two is moving the two bookcases from the guest room/ nursery into the office
• Three is moving my daybed, entertainment center, and TV to my dad's house 
• Four is getting the crib, dresser and changing table all ready to go