My Goals for 2019 & 2020

I love the fresh start of a new year. I love the chance to dream big and imagine what the year will hold. As our Christmas taught me, I am glad I don’t know what the future holds and this makes me  more determined than ever to simply make the most of each day. Whatever it brings.

I always have lots of little goals and projects each year. You know the type. I want to organize things and declutter rooms and cook healthier and walk more. These are things I will still work on throughout the year but I choose to focus on a couple big goals throughout the year. 

I always try to focus on a personal goals, financial goals and blogging goals. It helps me zone in on the areas that are most important to me. Last year, I had 6 goals for the year and this year, I am choosing to focus on 5 goals.

As I looked back over my goals for 2019, I was pleased to say that I met most of them.

Here’s a look into my goals for last year and for the new year!

2019 Goals

1. Spend intentional time with my children each day. Done!

Could I do better and spend more time? Yes. But did I focus on putting aside the chores and to do lists and setting down my phone to spend time with them? Yes. I want to be intentional about the time I have with our children – especially while they are young and at home with me. It’s hard to believe Nathan is already in Kindergarten! It really is true what they say that the days are long but the years are short.

2. Read 50 books. Done!

I ended the year having read 68 books on my own and 23 chapter books with Nathan. I also finally transferred all my book lists (since I started keeping track in 2012) to a special reading journal. I love being able to look back and see all I’ve read. I am now including a page for the kid’s chapter books as well. Picture books read could fill a whole journal every year! 🙂

3. Go on an overnight 10th anniversary trip with Andy – without kids. Done!

We had a wonderful time cruising to Alaska last June. My in-laws graciously kept the kids for a week and we enjoyed both the cruise, our time alone, and exploring Alaska. There is still so much more we would like to see in Alaska but we are so glad we saved as long as we did to make this dream a reality. We love to travel and create memories with our family, but it was nice to create these memories just the two of us. Now we are saving up for our someday trip to Europe!

4. Save cash to pay for a new (to us) used Tahoe. Not Done.

We did make progress but are not even close to this goal. It was a big goal and we still saved in quite a few other areas, so I’m okay with where we ended. We started 2019 at 25% of our goal and ended at 50% of our goal. So, we did make progress but still have a lot to save. This year, we are focusing on this goal again and would like to fully fund this account by the end of the year.

5. Increase my blog income by 1.5 times. Not Done.

Sadly, this was the first year in several years that I did not see an increase in blogging income. I did maintain my blog income, despite several traffic dips and online algorithm changes. My blog continues to be a good source of income for me, and has allowed us to save in ways we didn’t always think possible. Still, I would like to try to increase my blog income again.

6. Maximize my time as a blogger for highest rate of return, while still being wife and mom first. Mostly Done.

This year, I put aside the blog more than I thought and wanted. But being a wife and mom will always come first. If this means my growth continues to be slow and steady instead of fast and furious, I am okay with that. When I did devote time to work, I feel like I was better focused on the most important things first. It changed my mindset of how I blog and I plan to carry this forward.

2020 Goals

1, Have a baby and adjust to life as a family of six – with 4 little ones ages 6 and under. 

This is definitely my biggest goal for the new year! Our new baby boy is due in March, just like our other 3 children. He should be born just after Lily turns 2 and Emma turns 4, and hopefully before Nathan turns 6. We are all excited but I am starting to realize we have less than 3 months until this new baby is born and lots to do! See the next goal for one of my before baby projects.

2. Get caught up on our digital photo albums.

I started making yearly photo albums at Shutterfly for our family in 2014, when Nathan was born. They end up being around 100 pages and I love having a yearly photo record for our family. I also still make smaller books for special moments (like births and baptisms). Somehow, I feel behind this year so it’s time to get caught up. I need to finish journalling in our 2018 album and completely create the 2019 one. I want to have both these albums created (and waiting for a free unlimited pages sale) before the baby is born. I also have a couple smaller books that I want to complete too. This is my year to get caught up again! Would you be interested in seeing a blog post, looking inside my photo albums?

3. Read daily – with the kids and for myself.

Even in the busy-ness of our lives, we thrive on reading in our house. I had a great reading year but am choosing not to set a book goal this year (especially with a new baby coming). I simply want to read daily. I’m so tired at night that I have fallen out of the habit of reading before bed. I want to revive it. This is also my goal for the kids, of which we do better – and I want to maintain or increase our reading time. We read picture books daily but I also want to make our nightly chapter books a cherished routine for Nathan and add Emma. We are reading Homer Price right and thoroughly enjoying it.

4. Save cash to fully fund our new car savings account.

Like I said earlier, we are making this our main savings goal this year. We are going to increase our automatic contributions and put more of my blogging income toward meeting this goal. Thankfully, our Tahoe is at 260,000 miles and still driving great! My van has some quirks but since we paid cash for it, it is easier to find the money to pay our mechanic to fix some of those things.

5. Increase blogging income again – while still staying focused on ROI. 

Finally, I want to focus on increasing my income while truly serving you, my faithful readers. I’ve been feeling the pull on my heart to write more encouragement for church worker wives, as well as all the wives who want to simplify their lives at home. I am looking into small switches that increase income (such as switching ad companies, which I already did to great income increase). I wrote and sold 250 some custom books last year and have plans to launch a new custom book this winter. Through it all, I want to stay focused on maximizing my time and focusing on what will bring the best return on my investment (ROI).

There you have it! There’s a look into my goals for the new year. What are some of your goals for 2020? I’d love to encourage you as we start this new year together!