2012 Goals

With every New Year, I feel like I have a fresh start, and this year is no different.  This year, I am posting my goals for everyone to hold me accountable!  I will be posting updates every month as to how the goals are coming along.  This is what my personal goals look like for 2012:


Spiritual

• Daily Devotional: Read The One Year Bible (I enjoyed reading the Bible in 90 Days, but I would like to slow it down this year!)
• Find a church that is a fit for our family

Marriage

• Read one marriage book a month and put it’s teachings into practice

Health / Personal

• Eat healthfully (more fruits and vegetables, less meat, carbs and sugars)
• Create and maintain a cleaning routine
• Lose 50 lbs (that’s only a pound a week – achievable!)
• Decrease the amount of “stuff” in our home (Purge-A-Palooza 2012! - will talk about that next week)
• Volunteer at the Happy Trails Animal Sanctuary (a monthly commitment) 

Financial

• Sponsor a child in need
• When I started making my list of goals in October, as soon as I had this goal listed, a fellow blogger wrote about how she and her family sponsor a child through Compassion.  After a lot of research about the ministry, we sponsored a child 11/11/11!  It is amazing how God put everything into place!!
• It is our goal to sponsor another child, but this time, through another organization called Amazima.
• Save $5,000 toward a replacement vehicle/maintenance
• Invest 5% of our take-home income into a Roth IRA
• Sponsor a pot bellied pig at Happy Trails Animal Sanctuary

Environmental 

• Less pre-packaged food / more cooking from scratch
• Reduce use of paper towels and paper napkins replacing them with cloth
• Lower resource consumption (electric / propane / water)
• Electric use of primary residence over past 12 months=15,298 kWh
• Electric use of the house we own next door over past 12 months=6,876 kWh
• We expect this number to be drastically lower due to the fact that we are no longer heating the shed, which was our pot bellied pig and puppy’s abode last winter
• Install energy-saving power strips throughout home

Gardening & Preserving

• Grow enough tomatoes, green beans, snow peas, squash and green peppers to be used through the fall and winter 2012 and spring 2013
• Can at least 24 quarts of tomatoes (sauces, stewed tomatoes, etc)
• Freeze at least 50 pint-sized bags of vegetables
• Plant at least 3 concord grape vines

 What are your goals / aspirations / resolutions for 2012?