Thursday, January 03, 2008

In Review and Goals

The year 2007 was good to us! J and I celebrated our one year anniversary. We took a few weekends away and a big seven-day cruise vacation to the Caribbean. We saw a few friends get married and were both in the O wedding (some of our dearest friends) which was really special for us. We continued home projects. J completed his first year of grad school and is half way finished. I began to expand on my at home business and experiment with new products and options. I became more involved in a few social/service activities and made several new friends. In July we adopted our little Mackipoo! I found a new job where I'm actually happy and doing Marketing/PR as I'd always wanted. We spent time with our family, friends, and precious kids (our "boyfriend" and "girlfriend") every chance we got. We were and continue to be blessed and look forward to another year together.

I don't do resolutions, but I've been working on a list of goals for 2008. (Imagine that, I'm making a list!)

  • Contemplate Grad School: I know I want to go, but I need to find a way to make it work. With my busy schedule I'd like an online program, but I want to keep the price reasonable.
  • Expand business: I'll be online soon--get excited!
  • Read through the Bible in one year. J and I recently purchased a Bible that walks you through reading it in one year. It also has great questions, overviews, time lines, etc.
  • Get a green thumb. I'm a horrible gardener. Plants come to me to die. I want to change that. We'll see if there is hope.
  • Be more earth friendly. J and I are avid recyclers, and conserve energy every way possible, but I plan on finding ways to go one step further.
  • Be healthier. I want to focus on being healthy with things in and around my body. We eat rather well with veggies and whole grains, but I would like to improve on heavily salted and sugared items with lots of preservatives. I want to be more aware and conservative about chemicals we use, etc. Using home remedies and less chemicals will also be a step towards being more earth friendly. I also want to work at taking better care of my skin, body, hair, etc. and keep it healthy so that age is kind to me.
  • Live more simply. J and I have been working on simplifying our lives since summer. I want to focus more on quality than quantity and realize that we don't need "stuff".
  • Go Backpacking with my Husband. I'm really not a froo-froo high maintenance girl (ok, maybe a little froo-froo) but I don't like to get dirty. However, the only camping I've ever done is in a tent, on an air mattress, next to the bath house with toilets, hot showers and running water, and even mirrors and electric outlets. However I vow to put on my backpack of goodies and hike 5 miles into the wilderness to spend the night. One night! I can do this!
  • Support the mom and pop shop. I often try to support local merchants although I'll never give up my big box stores. I have a stay-at-home-mom and a mom and pop shop for my engraving needs. There is a house nearby that has a great season stand with fruit and flowers in the spring, pumpkins and mums in the fall, and Christmas trees, wreaths, and poinsettas in the winter. I also like to shop at the Southern Market, a local venue with all local owner and mom and pop type shops. Still I think I can find more of these. I think I'm even going to do the Mary Kay thing to support a friend, although I will always (always) be a Clinique free gift girl!

2 comments:

The Robbins Nest said...

Love it! Regarding Grad school: Have you looked into an online grad program?? That might be a way to make it work. Just make sure it is an accredited school. I have a home depot book for gardens--it is awesome! Tells you everything you need to know!
Cheers to a great year ahead!!

Unknown said...

I love that everyone is now setting "goals" as opposed to "resolutions" this year. Even if they are kind of the same thing, I just think goals are more attainable :)

I love your goal to live more simply. I'm thinking I may adopt that for DH and I - that's awesome!

PS - I had a dream last night that you went private (again) and kicked me out of your blog :( Weird!