Aim- Tweaks & Updates

Remember those goals of mine I set?? Well it is now June, which means it has practically been half a year since I endeavored to accomplish these things (I actually didnt set them till Feb, but close enough!). There are a few that I am realizing are not important to me, a few that I feel like I do easily and no longer need as a goal, and a few that I need to keep at and get my bottom in gear with! Ha! So here is my list, how I did last month, and a few new tweaks as well...

1. Personal Goals:

• Memorize the book of Philippians. Yep, the whole book. Still at this one! I currently know 1:1-27, which sounds pretty good till you look at how long I have been at it! I am really hoping I pick up some speed with Chapter 2. At this rate, it may take me 2 years to memorize this short book! 
• Read 2 books a month. Still at this one too. This month I finished 1 book. But it was a really good book! 
• Be social at least 3 times a month. This is one I dont feel is needed anymore. While I am still a homebody, I think now that its warm I am having no problem getting some social time in. 
• Begin a Youth Book Club. A new one. 

2. Marriage Goals:

• Have a "connect" time each day- a time where we have intentional communication, a devo and prayer time. We have scaled back our goal in this area to a couple of times a week. This seems to help it be a more meaningful time and not a chore. We need to improve on this one! 
• Be more affectionate. This one is just hard to measure, so I am taking it off the list. 
• Practice the discipline of date night. Doing well, but averaging every other week right now. 

3. Financial Goals:

• Track our monthly spending to ensure we are actually living out our proposed budget. I made some progress on this one last month. I got our spreadsheet updated and we made a plan on how to track what each purchase is for. Now we just have to enact that plan! 
• Give coupons another try. I am keeping this one on here, but I have made zero progress. So my new short term goal is to begin this in July. 
• Cut our grocery budget by 10%. Did a horrid job of this last month. Went over! 
• Be more diligent about contributing to our savings & retirement. Savings is going strong, retirement not so much. But Mr.Pate met with our advisor guy today, so hopefully this month will be more productive. 

4. Physical Health:

• No longer be considered insulin resistant. I know this sounds presumptuous or like I think I have control over my health, but in the case of insulin resistance you really can control having it or not by managing a healthy weight. I am getting so close, but not there yet! My levels were actually slightly up last time, which my doctor was not sure why. I do labs again in August, so hopefully I will be at a 0 at that point! 
• Get to my WW goal. Ugh!! Remember when I updated you guys on my WW journey? Yeah, well it is almost a month later and I am only 0.4 lbs lower. I am still going for it, but these last pounds are creeping off! Ha! 3 lbs to go. 
• Do something physically active 5-6 times a week. This one is no longer an issue, so its coming off too. 

5. Project Goals:

• Begin my Holiday memories & random memories scrapbooks. This one is getting changed alittle, but I have not started any of it. 
• Create a family heritage cookbook for my side of the family and Justin's. I am going to try this one for one more month, but this one may not happen either. I cant find a company that does them relatively cheap, and I cant get our families to send us any recipes. 
• Make a price book. I have gotten a little closer, but not yet. I have downloaded another ladies, and found it helpful! Ha! 

How are you doing on those New Year's Goals?? Do you even remember them?? Do share!

Aim- Check in #2

Well, I completely skipped a check in on my goals last month. But I am ready to face the music and see how I am doing after 3 months, did I hit the target or forget to aim altogether?

1. Personal Goals:

• Memorize the book of Philippians. Yep, the whole book. Still working on it! I didn't do so well in March, but got back on focus in April. So far I have 1:1-24... which isn't a ton for three months but is a good start I think! 
• Read 2 books a month. Big Fail in March, but I have more than made up for it in April by reading 6 books! And I am 1/3 a way thru one more.  
• Be social at least 3 times a month. A rough count for March and April would be 5 times maybe?? Not too bad. The warm weather is definitely making me more social! 

2. Marriage Goals:

• Have a "connect" time each day- a time where we have intentional communication, a devo and prayer time. Well, we have not been very intentional the last two months. We have had some great time together, but not this consistent time like we were hoping for. But we are refocused and trying again! 
• Be more affectionate. Doing good! :)
• Practice the discipline of date night. Doing pretty well on this one. We are probably averaging every other week, which I think is good for us at this phase of life. 

3. Financial Goals:

• Track our monthly spending to ensure we are actually living out our proposed budget. I have been bad at this. But we had a budget meeting a few nights ago and I feel motivated in this area again. Mr.Pate is going to help me figure out how to get a better grasp on this. So we are moving in the right direction. 
• Give coupons another try. I am getting closer to this one, but haven't tried yet. I did read several "tutorials" on this today, and I am just trying to decide what my "plan of attack" will be. So many decisions! Binder or box, clip them all or keep the insert intake, etc etc!!
• Cut our grocery budget by 10%. I just barely made our limit in March and went over in April. I have just not planned well, and some things have gone up. Aldi's where did the super cheap milk go?? Ugh!
• Be more diligent about contributing to our savings & retirement. Savings- yes. Retirement- no. I have a pension, but we have got to start being more focused on Mr.Pate's. 

4. Physical Health:

• No longer be considered insulin resistant. I know this sounds presumptuous or like I think I have control over my health, but in the case of insulin resistance you really can control having it or not by managing a healthy weight. My labs in March showed an improvement! I am almost there! I have been doing a great job of taking the medicine for this pretty consistently. I will be doing labs in the next few weeks to see how its going. In March I was at a 2 on the indicator she uses, and I need to be at a 0 to be considered no longer insulin resistant. 
• Get to my WW goal. I am 3.2 lbs away. 
• Do something physically active 5-6 times a week. I have probably been averaging 5 times a week for both months. Now that its warm, we have been doing lots of yard work outside too! I also have done two 5Ks since my last check in. 

5. Project Goals:

• Begin my Holiday memories scrapbook. Nope. 
• Create a family heritage cookbook for my side of the family and Justin's. Nope. 
• Make a price book. Nope. 

How are you doing on your goals for the year???

Aim- Check in #1

It has already been a month since I posted my goals for 2010! Time just flies these days! So I am back to face the music and see how I am doing so far, did I hit the target or forget to aim altogether?

1. Personal Goals:

• Memorize the book of Philippians. Yep, the whole book. I have actually begun, which I was worried I would never do! So far- 1:1-16... 
• Read 2 books a month. I have not completed a single book this month. But I have gotten 1/2 way thru one and read a little in the other one I am on. I am going to have to really get busy on this in March. 
• Be social at least 3 times a month. Check! I actually did 5 social things this month (not counting youth events, which are social but work too), which was quite alot for me. It was good for me to make myself come out of hibernation! 

2. Marriage Goals:

• Have a "connect" time each day- a time where we have intentional communication, a devo and prayer time. We didnt do this everyday, and maybe only averaged 2 or 3 times a week. That is still great, and I loved everytime, but I need to work at saving energy for this each night. 
• Be more affectionate. I was not intentional about this and have no idea how I did. I will try better next month.
• Practice the discipline of date night. Check. We had a date night 3 out of the 4 weeks! And they were wonderful. I am so glad we have started this discipline back up. I can see the difference in our relationship already. We are more patient with each other and just more on the same page about things.

3. Financial Goals:

• Track our monthly spending to ensure we are actually living out our proposed budget. Well, I found and tweaked a spreadsheet to do this but I have not plugged in all our numbers yet. Thats a goal for this week. 
• Give coupons another try. Not yet. I am not even going to attempt this until this summer probably.
• Cut our grocery budget by 10%. I had 5% left at the end of the month, so thats an improvement! 
• Be more diligent about contributing to our savings & retirement. Savings, check. Retirement, not so much. We really got to get on this. 

4. Physical Health:

• No longer be considered insulin resistant. I know this sounds presumptuous or like I think I have control over my health, but in the case of insulin resistance you really can control having it or not by managing a healthy weight. I have been really bad this month at taking the medicine I am supposed to for this and I was supposed to do labs at the beginning of the month and have yet to do them. I have no idea whats up with me in that regard, I never miss my labs. I am going to try to do it this week! 
• Get to my WW goal. Well Feb. was not the best month for that, but not the worst either. Total I lost .8 lbs for the month, which is nothing to complain about if I was really working at it. For some reason this month my head has not been in it, so I have struggled. I am still 6.4 lbs from goal. 
• Do something physically active 5-6 times a week. Check. Mr.Pate and I played the wii a few times and went for some walks too. 

5. Project Goals:

• Begin my Holiday memories scrapbook. Nope.
• Create a family heritage cookbook for my side of the family and Justin's. Nope.
• Make a price book. Nope. 

How are you doing on your goals this year? Anybody actually making progress??

Aim

It's the start of a new year. Ok well its the second month of a new year, but regardless it is still towards the beginning of the year and you know what that means.... goals/resolutions/new habits/whatever you want to name them. Though I didn't join in all the fun of posting these at the beginning of the year, I have been thinking through what I want to aim for this year. The old saying goes, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time." I want to be a person with aim (as I type this I can already hear mr.pate saying I need alot of ball practice then haha). So while they may not be the most measurable, well put together goals, here are the things I want to strive to focus on this year.

1. Personal Goals:

• Memorize the book of Philippians. Yep, the whole book.
• Read 2 books a month.
• Be social at least 3 times a month.

2. Marriage Goals:

• Have a "connect" time each day- a time where we have intentional communication, a devo and prayer time.
• Be more affectionate.
• Practice the discipline of date night.

3. Financial Goals:

• Track our monthly spending to ensure we are actually living out our proposed budget.
• Give coupons another try.
• Cut our grocery budget by 10%.
• Be more diligent about contributing to our savings & retirement.

4. Physical Health:

• No longer be considered insulin resistant. I know this sounds presumptuous or like I think I have control over my health, but in the case of insulin resistance you really can control having it or not by managing a healthy weight.
• Get to my WW goal.
• Do something physically active 5-6 times a week.

5. Project Goals:

• Begin my Holiday memories scrapbook.
• Create a family heritage cookbook for my side of the family and Justin's.
• Make a price book.

So there you have it. Hold me to it people! And now for your enjoyment, some quotes I love about goals:

You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures. ~Charles C. Noble

Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another. ~John Dewey

Establishing goals is all right if you don't let them deprive you of interesting detours. ~Doug Larson

Goals are dreams with deadlines. ~Diana Scharf Hunt

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. ~Author Unknown

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

New Years according to my pastor

Last week my pastor gave us this quote (I don't remember who its by):

"New Year's day is the religious holiday of self salvation- resolving to fix what is wrong in our lives ourselves."

Its a pretty good point. I have felt almost overwhelmed with new year's posts on blogs since the end of December. I mean, I have enjoyed them alot, don't get me wrong. But they made me feel like I needed to have my goals all laid out and ready to post. I needed to have a game plan.

But I didn't (and don't) have one. I have been mulling over my goals for this year since Christmas, brainstorming and trying to pinpoint what I really want to focus on. It's tough work setting goals which are "SMART" (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely)! And this quote made me dial in on why I am having such a hard time with this... I have been putting off really sitting down in prayer over what the Lord wants me to "resolve" to do this year. Instead, I have been thinking about what I may want. Me.

So goals are a coming people, I am that kind of a person. But let us all keep in mind that these are not things to "fix" about myself. These goals will not save me, they will not met my every need or make my life perfect. They will simply help me focus on the God given priorities in my life instead of all the other things I so easily get distracted by!

What about you, did you make any goals or resolutions? How are they going?

MY AWESOME AUTUMN GOAL LIST

So I was randomly reading a blog the other day, and came across an interesting goal list. This goal list was not made up of things the person thought they needed to do, or should do, or felt obligated to do. it was not a list of things they would have to force themselves to do if it killed them. it was a list made up of things they wanted to do simply for the fun of it. yep completely focused on pleasure and nothing more. and i loved the idea of it! so without further ado, my list-of-things-i-want-to-do-in-autumn-simply-because-i-want-to-do-them-and-i-wont-feel-bad-about-it:

1. lay in my hammock at least once a week
2. have a leaf fight
3. eat a carmel apple with nuts
4. make s'mores in my backyard (yes i live in the city limits and if anyone of you tells on me i am coming after you!)
5. go to a bonfire and hayride (someone is going to need to have one of these so i can do this... please?!)
6. dress up for halloween
7. carve an amazing pumpkin (Sims family pumpkin carving 09 is just around the corner-oh yea!)
8. make something crafty out of some natural fall stuff...
9. make pumpkin choc chip cookies