The Inspire Me Sundays...My 13 in 2013.

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This was the first year of my life that I created goals for myself and worked on them throughout the year. I think the difference was that they were not New Years resolutions...you know the ones that you work on in the month of January and then successfully forget about as spring rolls in. Putting them in writing here on this blog made them real, visual and something I felt accountable for. I didn't achieve all of my goals (especially, the weight loss one...that's where I plain failed) but I didn't forget about them, I kept moving on and learned from what I achieved and from my mistakes too.
So today I'm finally ready with my 13 for 2013. It took me a while. I wrote a few goals down and then I realized my heart just wasn't in it. I went back and forth with others. So here it goes:

1. Live healthier. Last year I wanted to lose a set amount of pounds. I did great for a few moths, then slacked for a few months, then completely gave up in the last quarter of the year. But I realized it's more than just losing a few pounds. I'm not very big. At 5'6" I'm 159 pounds right now. It's a lot more than I would like to weigh but I have other more pressing issues. We don't eat very unhealthy. We can't afford to go organic (we do have our own organic garden though) and I'm not ready to become a vegetarian again in my life. But we rarely eat outside of home and try to stay away from a lot of processed food. We consume a ton of fruit and veggies too. My biggest problem is lack of moving andlack of adequate sleep. These are two of the few things I need to work on this year. I'm lazy, I'm not gonna lie. We go to bed late, and I'm so tired in the mornings that I have no desire to exercise at all. I have a sitting job working from home, so I move very little. That's why I realized that I need to make a few changes. It's not about losing pounds (but I wouldn't mind to shed a few along the way). It's about becoming healthier and stronger. This is my priority for this year.

2. Keep track of food waste and continue with meal planning. It worked great for us this year and I want to keep going. Menu planning really helps us to spend less and to use up more before food goes bad. I will keep posting it on Mondays as I did this year.

3. Create mini-goals every month. That's another goal that I'll continue next year too because it worked great for us in 2012. It helps me stay focused and feel that I make progress.

4. Read 50 books this year. Last year my goal was 12 books. I don't know what I was thinking! I love to read and read a lot (when I have time, often hiding in the bathroom :). So I think 50 is a very achievable goal for me. Any suggestions on books worth reading?? Just, please, don't recommend  "Fifty shades of grey" because it's...mmmm...not exactly my style :)

5. Have a Pinterest Challenge once a month and post about it. This is something I started working on last year but never kept it going. But I keep pinning things, just don't do them. I think it's time for me to try again and share with you if I was successful or not.

6. Nourish my creativity (on a budget). Somewhere mid-year I changed a focus of this blog from being strictly financial to just being about me and us. We have a very tight budget that dictates lots of things we do. But I just go crazy if all I concentrate on in life is money. I'm a fairly creative person. I love to work on different things and projects. I love to explore and learn new things. I want to keep doing it on a budget that we can afford. And of course, I will keep sharing my/our projects with you :)

7. Finish two bigger projects in our house. We have a few bigger projects here that will require  advanced planning/saving for. No, I'm not ripping off the kitchen cabinets...We (I... believe me, Hubby doesn't want to re-do anything :) want to work on our powder room and our laundry room/area this year.  

8. Keep working on organizing our lives. This year we got 412 different items out of our house. I didn't realize we had that much stuff! So this year we will keep working on de-cluttering but I'm not going to have big goals. It will be more about organizing things we have and take stuff out before we bring new things in.

9. Write at least 3 letters a month. This year I tried to write in my journal 4 times a month. I'm ashamed to say but I haven't reached this goal even once. I was close though! But one of the things I felt  bad about is not writing many letters. I have a lot of friends, especially back in Russia. And I haven't talked to many of them for more than a year. I'd love to try to write a letter a week but I think it's a little bit of a taller order than I can handle, so I'll keep it at 3 a month. They don't have to be hand-written letters. It could be a message on Facebook or e-mail. Or even writing in my journal (these are "letters' for future generations, right?:)

10. Make time for myself, for us and for others. I tend to be an over-achiever...I'm always working on something. I want to learn to simplify my life and spend more time doing what's really important- spending time with my kids, going on dates with Hubby, serving others. And finding time for myself. I think it's the hardest thing for me. But just like the quote above said- I want these goals to help me become somebody - somebody better, more relaxed, more spiritually uplifted, more satisfied with life. Happier...This is my goal for this year.

11. Work on savings goals. We have so many things we want to work on that it will need a separate post! Stay tuned...

12. Have a smaller family vacation and a little getaway with Hubby. Originally, we planned to go to San Diego and Sea World this year. But after we played with the numbers, we realized it's not going to be possible. So we decided to settle for a Bear Lake trip again and then Hubby and I want to go to Las Vegas this summer. Neither of us are gamblers. We will not waste money there. But I just wanted to see the city, out of curiousity. Plus we have friends living in the suburbs of Vegas, and we wanted to go visit them for a while. So here's the plan for now but it might change as time goes.

13. Last but not least, I'm thinking about joining Facebook and/or Twitter. Or not. I haven't decided yet. I have a personal Facebook account but I don't spend much time on it. And as for Twitter, I don't know ANYTHING about it. So it will take me some time to figure out what I want to do and if I do it, how to manage my time better so I can update one or both of these accounts.

 Again, it's all about finding a healthy balance in all of the goals. I don't want to feel intimidated by them, I want them to help me to progress.

So here it is. Might not be very inspiring for YOU, guys (sorry!) but I hope it will at least inspire ME to have a better year in 2013 :)