Goals for the week: How I did in the week of a vacation!

I had such a good week! It could possibly have to do with the fact that half of the week's goals were met by having fun with my family, but I'll take a win where I can get it!

• Continue to work on getting to bed by 10 am and be up by 7 am. I did such a great job at this! I even continued it through vacation, which wasn't as difficult since I was so exhausted at the end of each day and was excited to get ready for the day each morning!
• Have house cleaned up prior to leaving for vacation Until I made it a point last summer to come home to a clean house, I totally didn't understand why someone would put time in to cleaning when they are trying to get ready for a vacation. But I tried it and discovered that it is AMAZING to come home to a house that can be relaxed in when you are worn out from vacation!
• Get family packed up prior to leaving I have a little confession to make- I have actually started LIKING packing for the family. Weird, I know. But I have gotten it down to such a system that it isn't so stressful and it feels so good to get somewhere and know that I have planned for everything without toting along our entire house!
• Stay within budget while on vacation I don't mean to brag, but we rocked this one! We actually came home with money LEFTOVER. We have never returned from a vacation with money to spare, and once upon a time, returned with a stack of credit card debt (I plan to post a blog about how we did this soon!)
• Enjoy some family time during vacation!!!! We had a WONDERFUL time. It was such a low stress, relaxing, enjoyable time!

Goals for this week:

• Keep up with daily chore list
• Blog about vacation budgeting
• Plan Sunday School class
• Get list of words for language book to Lona (Delaney's speech helper)
• Work on sight words with Jameson
• Work on obtaining a location for playgroup 
• Work on getting house prepared for new pictures

Goal Making Monday: Getting ready for vaca!!!

Did okay, but not awesome last week...

• Keep up with the daily chore list (no, really!!!)- Almost did perfect on this! I got super busy toward the end of the week so I didn't finish great. But I have definitely improved!
• Continue to work on getting to bed by 10 pm and get up before 7 am- Almost perfect on this, too! Just a few nights I didn't make it to bed on time! I also was up by 7 am every morning except the one where the kiddos were staying at grandmas- who can blame me???!!!
• Do one craft with kids- FAIL!
• Organize a playgroup to take place in the next couple of months (I have been a part of a mom's group since I started staying home and am feeling like it is time for me to start setting up some activities instead of just going to them! I can't really have it at home since I live out of town so I have to figure out a location. Hoping I can come up with something fun!)- I haven't set anything up for sure, but I am working on this!
• Work on sight words with Jameson and speech temptations with Delaney- Only got to work on this a little, but did do it!
• Prepare Sunday school for the next two weeks since I will not be there the last weekend of September
• Drop off Little Britches items Thursday morning and work volunteer shift Thursday night
• Enjoy some shopping at Little Britches with the hubby on Friday night followed by a late anniversary dinner!

Goals for this week:

• Continue to work on getting to bed by 10 am and be up by 7 am.
• Have house cleaned up prior to leaving for vacation
• Get family packed up prior to leaving
• Stay within budget while on vacation
• Enjoy some family time during vacation!!!!

Goal Making Monday: The week that was eaten by Little Britches

This week didn't really go as planned. I really thought that tagging wouldn't take a whole lot longer and that I could get it out of the way and move on with the week. This just wasn't the case- it took me an entire day and a half! Now, this was definitely not committed tagging as I was also having to keep two children alive during the day as well. 

1.  Find out the baby’s gender Monday night, go to dinner to celebrate! We found out that we are having a little girl which was a total shock because I was sure I was having a boy! We went to Chilis after dinner with a coupon for the kids to eat free and Shaun and I got the 2 for $20 combo. Since we had a few dollars left on a gift card, we ate dinner out for less than $20! I was pretty satisfied!
2.  Finish tagging for Little Britches (has to be a priority- last day to enter is the 16^th!!!) Done! Yea!
3.  Take Delaney to a library story-time while Jameson attends preschool This is definitely going to become a weekly event. She absolutely loved it. It was a "Move and Groove" storytime so there was a perfect mix of songs and stories so it kept her attention well!
4.   Initiate some "communication temptations" for Delaney around the house (She is really doing great on catching her speech up, these will give her more opportunities to use her words!)- We didn't get any of the formal things done I wanted to do, but I have been making more of a commitment to helping her speech on a daily basis and it is going great!
5.  Prepare for toddler Sunday school and print off schedule hardcopies to keep at church 
6.  Keep up with daily chore list- this may be a little difficult since I have to get tagging done! I’ll of course keep the house livable, but extra cleaning has to go on the back burner this week!- Heh, yeah, not so much. Shaun did help me get the house back to normal at the end of the week, but I really had to get the tagging done! So happy that I can get back to a little normalcy this week!?
7.  Do one craft with the kids This technically got done. I asked the kids if they wanted to do a craft or help me make cookies and they wanted to cook, so that won out!
8.  Do one school work/ coloring activity with kiddos Jameson really wasn't interested in "school work" this week and I want to keep it fun so I didn't push it. We did do a lot of coloring. I also am starting to work with him on his sight words so that kind of replaced this activity.
9.  Start making it a priority to go to bed before 10 o’clock and get up before 7 o’clock (I was AWESOME at this when I first started staying home, but my morning sickness switched me to survival mode. Now that I am feeling better I need to start getting up earlier again! I can get so much more done when I get up before the kids!)- Um... I tried? E for effort?
10. Attend the K-State game with the hubby! This would have been a much better time if a certain little in utero daughter of mine hadn't been kicking my bladder the whole game causing non-stop bathroom trips!

Goals for the week:

• Keep up with the daily chore list (no, really!!!)
• Continue to work on getting to bed by 10 pm and get up before 7 am
• Do one craft with kids
• Organize a playgroup to take place in the next couple of months (I have been a part of a mom's group since I started staying home and am feeling like it is time for me to start setting up some activities instead of just going to them! I can't really have it at home since I live out of town so I have to figure out a location. Hoping I can come up with something fun!)
• Work on sight words with Jameson and speech temptations with Delaney
• Prepare Sunday school for the next two weeks since I will not be there the last weekend of September
• Drop off Little Britches items Thursday morning and work volunteer shift Thursday night
• Enjoy some shopping at Little Britches with the hubby on Friday night followed by a late anniversary dinner!

Goal Making Monday: Geez that was a busy week!

Last week didn't go too well. I wasn't feeling too great on Monday and Tuesday due to a combination of pregnancy making me super tired and my allergies being OUT OF CONTROL!!! Normally I just push through these kinds of things, but being pregnant I think it is really important to listen to your body so I decided to take it easy. The rest of the week was crazy busy! Luckliy my wonderful hubby helped me with a lot, but I still didn't accomplish a few things. Oh well!

1. Keep up with my daily chore list- this was apparently a week of just "Keep the house livable" and that was only accomplished because Shaun helped out a lot

2. Do at least one school work activity with my kids This was Jameson doing a school work page and Delaney doing some coloring- that works!

3. Do at least one craft with the kiddos When I went to Dollar Tree to get some final things for Sunday school I found some cute little crafty things. I got a ton of stickers since they have been all about the stickers lately and I think that pulling them off the sticker pages helps with their fine motor development so I am following their lead! We made some cute little bags with stickers and glitter glue, which cost about $3, and I still have a ton of stickers, glitter glue, and even one bag left, so it was actually even way less than $3!

4. Read more of "I love you Rituals" Got a bit more read. I am loving some things in this book but I am not really on board with others, so it is sometimes hard to get into. But I am working on it! 

5. Spend at least two hours tagging for Little Britches- I only ended up spending maybe 45 minutes on this- yikes!

6. Get meal plan and grocery shopping done for the next two weeks

7. Prepare toddler Sunday school class and do last preparations for Mountains of Faith Sunday school

8. Give my little boy a wonderful 4th birthday We had his party a couple of weeks ago, so this was just kept simple. We ended up going to Pizza Hut for dinner since Pizza is his FAVORITE! Then we had cake at home and opened a few presents. I think he had fun! 

9. Prepare for and attend Kansas State football game with the hubby! Had a great time and what an awesome game!

10. Prepare for and attend the Kansas State Fair with my family! We had a wonderful time! 

11. Get in some outdoor time with the wonderful weather we should have at the end of the week! I hoped to get more of this in, but it didn't happen partly because it was so busy and partly because it was a lot hotter than it was supposed to be! But we did go to the Blue Valley high school game on Friday and the kids had a blast!

Goals for this week:

1.            Find out the baby’s gender Monday night, go to dinner to celebrate!
   2.       Finish tagging for Little Britches (has to be a priority- last day to enter is the 16^th!!!)
   3.       Take Delaney to a library story-time while Jameson attends preschool
   4.       Initiate some "communication temptations" for Delaney around the house (She is really doing great on catching her speech up, these will give her more opportunities to use her words!)
   5.       Prepare for toddler Sunday school and print off schedule hardcopies to keep at church
   6.       Keep up with daily chore list- this may be a little difficult since I have to get tagging done! I’ll of course keep the house livable, but extra cleaning has to go on the back burner this week!
   7.       Do one craft with the kids
   8.       Do one school work/ coloring activity with kiddos
   9.       Start making it a priority to go to bed before 10 o’clock and get up before 7 o’clock (I was AWESOME at this when I first started staying home, but my morning sickness switched me to survival mode. Now that I am feeling better I need to start getting up earlier again! I can get so much more done when I get up before the kids!)
   10.   Attend the K-State game with the hubby!

Goal making Monday: First Week? Not too shabby!

Let me first say this- I am SOOOO wishing I would have started this sooner! I found myself to be much more motivated this week! Even when I just wasn't feeling like getting things done, I got my butt in gear so I wouldn't have to report that I bombed my first week! Plus, I was even more motivated on things that I didn't have on my goals sheet! I definitely didn't do perfect, but I think I did pretty well!

1. Make final organizations to Sunday School curriculum and get delivered to the education building

2. Take kids to a play group/organized activity (this ended up being a playdate with my friend who was in from out of town. I was planning to do something with more kids, but my desire to spend time with my friend and her little boy trumped my original plan, and I still achieved my goal!)

3. Keep up with daily cleaning list. I definitely didn't do perfectly on this as I didn't do all of the additional daily tasks, but I did keep up with the regular daily chores which is a big improvement!

4. Do at least 2 "school work" times with kids- This didn't really happen so much. I tried to get the kids in on it once, but they both just wanted to color, so I let them do that instead.

5. Use cups at meals to get Jameson accustomed to using cups for preschool- Achieved this for every meal we ate at home! He is doing much better with cups now!

6. Start reading "I love you Rituals" recommended by Lona, the development specialist helping Delaney with her speech-  Well, I did "start" it, and by that I mean that I read the first page! Eek! I did decide to download it on my eReader since I just hate reading a "real" book now! How ridiculous am I???

7. Do at least 1 craft with kids- Didn't get to this. Oh well!

8. Get packed/prepared for Daniel's wedding this weekend!- Not to brag, but I totally get a gold star on this one. I felt super organized and even left a mostly clean house! See what I mean about being more motivated this week???

9. Buy Daniel and Ashley's wedding gift- Ended up order this online to pick up in the store and my mama ended up picking it up for me! Huge help for me! Though, with the chaos of being a bridesmaid, wife to a groomsman, and mother to the flower girl and ring bearer, the gift never made it inside! I guess they will be getting a late gift from us next week!

10. Head to Burlington on Friday and pretty much be at Miss Ashley's disposal for the weekend! :)- I had SUCH a blast with this wedding! I really enjoyed hanging out with Ashley and her bridesmaids and spending sometime with my family. Their wedding was beautiful, and I cried SEVERAL times. It was such a fabulous weekend!

See? I didn't do too bad at all! Here are the goals for this week!

1. Keep up with my daily chore list

2. Do at least one school work activity with my kids

3. Do at least one craft with the kiddos

4. Read more of "I love you Rituals"

5. Spend at least two hours tagging for Little Britches

6. Get meal plan and grocery shopping done for the next two weeks

7. Prepare toddler Sunday school class and do last preparations for Mountains of Faith Sunday school

8. Give my little boy a wonderful 4th birthday

9. Prepare for and attend Kansas State football game with the hubby!

10. Prepare for and attend the Kansas State Fair with my family!

11. Get in some outdoor time with the wonderful weather we should have at the end of the week!

Goal makin' Monday: Jumping on the goal making bandwagon!

I have now been a stay at home mom for about 4 months now, and you would think that by now I would have a handle on things. Um... wrong! I am feeling so disorganized these days! The first reason being that I am only now getting to some normalcy! I spent the first couple weeks caring for Jameson after having surgery, and a few weeks after that my morning sickness started. I am only now starting to get to more of a situation where I can get a sense of routine or feeling like I am accomplishing anything. And now that I am here I am so ready!

I was thinking about it, and I feel like one of the things that is holding me back is that I am very much living day to day and don't really have a plan. I have tried to develop a sort of routine to our day, and it works some, but living out of town means that any time I have to run into town for anything it takes an entire morning or afternoon, which makes strict, day to day routines very difficult. This is why I thought that goal making would be more productive for me. I tried goal making awhile before I started staying at home but I found that I wasn't making accomplishing my goals a priority. My favorite blog, Money Saving Mom, posts her goals every week as well as an update to keep herself accountable. I love this idea but felt a little weary about posting all my goals for the world to see when I might not achieve them. But then I realized, that is kind of the point! If I let a goal fall behind, I will be much more likely to make sure it is for good reason if I know that I have to answer to somebody eventually! You will probably notice that some of these "goals" are a little lame, but that is how badly I am needing to have a list of things to accomplish- I am not even accomplishing these little things! Yikes!

So without further ado, my goals for the week:

1. Make final organizations to Sunday School curriculum and get delivered to the education building

2. Take kids to a play group/organized activity

3. Keep up with daily cleaning list. (Side note: if you are like me and need a LOT of direction on cleaning to do each day, I highly recommend the site I linked to. You do have to pay for the list but it is worth it! I feel so much less overwhelmed and organized- when I actually follow it! Right now it is $4 since it is only for the end of 2012, so it would be a good time to try it out if you are interested!) 

4. Do at least 2 "school work" times with kids (Worksheets, etc. They actually really enjoy this but I have to give the idea!)

5. Use cups at meals to get Jameson accustomed to using cups for preschool (bad, I know, but Jameson hates using anything but a sippy and I never really pushed it since I enjoy the lack of mess!)

6. Start reading "I love you Rituals" recommended by Lona, the development specialist helping Delaney with her speech

7. Do at least 1 craft with kids

8. Get packed/prepared for Daniel's wedding this weekend!

9. Buy Daniel and Ashley's wedding gift

10. Head to Burlington on Friday and pretty much be at Miss Ashley's disposal for the weekend! :)

Do any of you make goals for the week? If so, do you have any suggestions for me!?!?!