My 12 Goals for 2016: September Update

My main goals for 2016 are to work on finances and myself.

Sadly, I haven’t been so good at working on myself, but that started to change in August.

Here’s how I did in September:

Exercise 4,160 minutes in 2016.
11.6% Complete.

No progress this month.

In August, I exercised 160 minutes this month.

In July, I exercised 20 minutes

In June, I exercised 0 minutes.

In May, I exercised for 129 minutes.

In April, I exercised for 41 minutes.

In March, I didn’t exercise at all.

In February, I only exercised for 30 minutes!!!

I exercised 103 minutes in January.

Write in my journal 100 times this year.  8% Complete.  I wrote in my journal once in September.  (Seriously, I used to write in my journal every day.  I can’t believe how hard it is to start this habit again.

Stay within our budget all 12 months of the year.  41.6% Complete.  No progress here.  We’ve had some personal issues that required attention and were expensive.

Read 52 books this year, and blog about each of them.  71.1% Complete.  I was able to read and blog about 5 books in September:

• Greater than Gold by David Boudia
• The Occupied by Craig Parshall
• The Land I Lost by Huynh Quang Nhuong
• Freedom Train by Dorothy Sterling
• Access Denied by Katherine Reddick

I was able to read and blog about 5 books in August:

• The Happiness Dare by Jennifer Dukes Lee
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Fidelity: Five Stories by Wendell Berry
• Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
• By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleishman

I was able to read and blog about 5 books in July:

• The Chosen by Chaim Potok
  All but Normal: Life on Victory Road by Shawn Thornton
  Our Town by Thornton Wilder
  The Life We Never Expected by Andrew and Rachel Wilson
  I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Lee Wilson

I was able to read and blog about 4 books in June:

• The Glass Castle by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins
• A Mother’s Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot
• The Pearl by John Steinbeck
• Deadliest Sea by Kalee Thompson

I was able to read and blog about 3 books in May:

• A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt by C. Coco De Young
• The League & The Lantern by Brian Wells
• The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

I was able to read and blog about 3 books in April:

• Dragonwings by Lawrence Yep
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• A Father’s Promise by Donnalynn Hess

I was able to read and blog about 4 books in March:

• Unstuffed by Ruth Soukup
• A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal
• The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
• The Master Puppeteer by Katherine Paterson

I was able to read and blog about 4 books in February:

• Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario
• Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji Li Jiang
• Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen
• Henry Reed, Inc. by Keith Robertson

I was able to read and blog about 4 books in January:

• The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
• Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
• Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin
• Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

I also joined Goodreads.  If you’re on there, I’d love to become friends.

Make 12 homemade gifts for Christmas.  8.3% Complete.  I made one gift in September, but I don’t want to take a picture of it in case the recipient decides to check in on the blog.

Get organized!  60% Completed.

The whole family is decluttering as we prepare for a garage sale we’ll have in a few weeks.

In August, honestly, I didn’t do much on this end.

In July, I mapped out the kids’ school schedule for the next 9 weeks including all assignments I want them to complete.  I also created a Mom’s Organizational Binder that contains the assignments, attendance sheets, and chores.

In June I sold 18 items on eBay and Facebook.  I have also sorted out more items that I want to sell.

Not much happened in May, though I did sell some school books to reduce our homeschool clutter.

This month I worked on our budgeting system.  Yay!  Look for a post on that later this week.

In March, we decluttered more kids’ clothes.  I took three more bags to the resale shop, so now I have $52 in credit, which I’ll use for birthday and Christmas presents.

In February, we decluttered our bedroom and the kids’ closets.  I took five bags of items to the kids’ resale shop, and I packed up a box for a garage sale later in the year.  We also threw away alot.

In January, we worked on organizing the kids’ schedule for chores and school.  It’s worked wonderfully, which is great because right now we’re too busy to be unorganized!

Enter 200 giveaways.  26.5% Complete.  I FINALLY WON!  I entered a giveaway for a smartphone, and I won!  The timing couldn’t have been better as my old Tracfone had just died.  Even better, the company also gave us a generous credit, so we got my husband a smartphone for free, too! So far I’ve entered 53 giveaways and won one.

Get into a regular prayer routine.  40% Complete.  I am consistently progressing with this.  I say my morning chores every morning and my evening prayers about 75% of the time.  The kids and I are able to say afternoon prayers about 75% of the time.  I haven’t hit the 100% mark with this yet because it’s still a new routine for us, but I’m making good progress (finally!)

Control my sugar consumption.  75% Complete.  I gave up all sugar on June 9, 2016.  So far, so good.

Go Paleo again.  70% Complete.  I am following a Paleo diet completely and have been doing so since early June.

Visit Michigan.  COMPLETED!!  We went to Ohio and Michigan in March and had a great time, even if we had to drive in some wonky weather.

Save 10 to 15% of my husband’s income.  Will not happen this year.  On the 4th of July, our air conditioner died–permanently.  We had to buy a new one, which was not cheap.  Also, my husband would like to buy a car this year.  (He’s not had one for 14 of our 15 years of marriage, so he’s long overdue.  Now that he’s getting busier at work, he does need one.)

Do you set goals for the new year?  If so, what goals are you setting?