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.

one twelfth

one twelfth of the little things that make up a year. one twelfth of the things that make me happy. one twelfth of the silly, meaningless details that make up a day, which make up a week, which make up a month, which make up a year, which make up the years of my life.

my favorite moments and things from january 2010:

• Grilled Cheese sandwiches: Mr.Pate randomly decided to make a grilled cheese one night at the beginning of the month and love it. It made me crave one. So we had a grown up grilled cheese night with turkey and swiss grilled cheeses. #1. They were delicious. #2. It just felt homy to and classic to be making good ol grilled cheeses.
• HGTV moments with my man: Holmes on Homes, House Hunters, My First Place, and Property Virgins. Most of the nights in January Mr.Pate and I spent some time watching an HGTV show together, which is totally my love language! Haha!
• Say Yes to the Dress: This show is my favorite. I heart it. Alot.
• Tags: I discovered that google reader allows you to tag blog posts so you can quickly reference back whenever you need. WHAT?? My little organization-loving heart overflowth! Now I will always know exactly where to go when I want to reread those helpful posts on parenting that I cant utilize know but hope to use one day, or those freezer cooking posts about big omac days I hope to attempt sometime soon. Pure genius people.
• Cuddling: Thanks to our new couch being big, Mr.Pate and I can actually lay on the couch and cuddle for the first time since we were engaged! Shear joy. Be still my heart.

Did anything make your heart beat fast in January?

5 O'Clock Club

Recently, my friend Cheye posted about a club she was joining called the 5 O'Clock Club. Some of you may read the Girltalk blog and be familiar with this club, but I was not. So the background is that Carolyn Mahaney and her daughters formed a club a while back where they got up at 5 am to spend time with the Lord. Carolyn would call her daughters and be their alarm clock! (I can do this for you if you want me too...) This month they are hosting a 28 Day Challenge on the Girltalk blog, here is a little snippet from them:

In emergency mode. So much to do. No time for the Lord. Desperate. Alone. No doubt every woman—whether you are a mom, a student, or a businesswoman—can identify. We all want to be consistent to sit at Jesus’ feet. And yet it can seem impossible to find a slot in the schedule that we can maintain.

Dramatic action is needed. Enter the 5 O’Clock Club. For many of us, the only cure for our starving souls is to wake up early—or at least earlier than we currently do. It doesn’t have to be 5 O’Clock to join the club, just early enough to secure a regular time to sit at Jesus’ feet.

I have been struggling to really get a morning routine down every since I returned to the working world! This may be just what I need, a little bit of motivation to get up and get focused. Besides, half the time mr.pate is leaving the house at 4:45am! It will be good for me to get a little taste of how hard my man works for me. So I will be posting an update every weekend on how it is (or isnt!) going and some reflections.

If you want to join in "officially" just head over to the girltalk blog to sign up, or you can "unofficially" just leave a comment letting em know you are joining in and I will bug you check up on you throughout the month.

Good Morning!

Getting those ducks in a what?

Remember how I was writing several posts on time management and planning? Remember how I was going to do more posts on that?? I pretty much get a big fail on this one. Dangit.

This would be one of those good examples of how I am not a very good finisher. The night I began writing these posts I was super inspired about it and had it all written in my head. But I could only get a few typed up that night before I just had to get in bed. A few days later I tried to finish it up and realized I had nothing to say about it... why was I writing this again?? Haha, see this is why I have a blog. If I didnt write things as they came into my brain I would lose so many memories or thoughts!

So sorry if there were any of you who actually cared about these posts and wanted them to continue. Congrats to those of you who could care less about those posts, there will be no more torture for you.

But for those of you that do want to work on time management and planning here are a few suggestions to check out:

• Simple Mom- She has a whole category on this, just scroll down and look to the right.
• Organizing your way
• Passionate Homemaking

Why I Love This Week!

• I will celebrate being married 4 years this week! Crazy! It's so strange, I kinda feel like its been way longer and at the same time I cant believe it has already been 4 years. Strange.
• Work will hopefully begin to slow down this week! Things were super busy during the month of January, but now that we have gotten past a couple of things it should slow down. I mean I dont want to be bored, but I dont want to stay late every night either! Ha!
• My dgroup is going through the bible study No Other Gods, and we will meet about it the first time this week. Does it sound familiar?? Love it.
• I already know I will get flack for this one, but I am super excited bc I finally found a budget tracking spreadsheet that works for us. So this week I am working on getting all our info plugged in so I can see how we are doing each month. Yes I am actually excited about tracking spending, I know I am weird... whatever.
• Did I mention I will celebrate being married 4 years on Thursday??

Looking forward to anything this week??