2015: a year of focus (part two: family and home goals)

hello everyone! welcome to part two of my 2015 goals series! in my last two posts, i unveiled my word for 2015 (focus) and outlined my (very focused) goals for the blog and shop. today im continuing the series with my family and home goals for this year. 

in keeping with my theme of focus, i chose just a few, specific goals for each category, to keep me focused on whats most important. i also put this post in the middle, because, well, family and home are in the middle of every thing i do. 

so what are these goals? 

family goals:

1. commit to one "real date" per month. confession: james and i have always been terrible at dating each other. we werent even good at it when we were actually dating. but over the years weve learned how important this is (even if to my logical, unromantic brain it seems like a waste of time and money). so i want to commit to one real date every month. not a redbox movie, not takeout because i dont feel like cooking, not a walk in the park. a real, babysitter, thing we need reservations or tickets to grown up date. 

2. schedule family time into every week. now this, this is where the redbox movies and walks in the park come into play. last semester was really, really hard on us as a family, not only because i was busy/stressed out all the time, but because of how little time we got to spend just doing things as a family. so in addition to a monthly date, i want to schedule some kind of family outing every week. whether its something free (disneyland, the zoo, the park, the beach), or not (dinner out, a movie, or a new museum). 

3. be more consistent with homeschooling. alice may only be three, but she is very, very smart. and she needs constant intellectual stimulation. this past summer (when james was out of town all the time), i had gotten her a few preschool workbooks from the dollar store to try out. shes been doing great learning her letters, numbers, and shapes and learning to follow simple directions (like circling things or crossing them out), but her patience with school work is short, since shes, you know, three. this year i want to be more consistent with both book-type things (even though she is pretty far from actual formal schooling), but also with field trips to fun places. 

home goals: 

1. continue to purge and simplify everywhere. de-cluttering has been a HUGE undertaking over the past year or so, and it has been AMAZING. the house is cleaner and more organized, i am way less stressed out and anxious (who knew clutter had such a deep impact?), and surprisingly, we spend way less money. but the funny thing about getting rid of stuff is that the stuff you got rid of just uncovers another layer of things you realize you dont need. so it looks like weve got more to clean out this year too. 

2. buy a new bed/mattress. our mattress is starting to get lumpy, and ive wanted a cute bed frame for years. but weve been severely limited in our options since we have a king sized mattress and well, both mattresses and bed frames at this size literally start at one thousand dollars. and frankly, this bed is huge and impractical and im over it. so as soon as we can afford it, were treating ourselves to a new queen sized mattress on a cute bed frame. (obviously i am super excited about this). 

3. replace our vintage hi-fi with something actually functional. this was a hard call to make, but we just had to. the centerpiece of our living room has always been this gorgeous vintage console record player, and we both love it. thing is, its huge. it offers nothing in the way of storage or functionality (other than being a nice long surface for the computer and tv). and the wiring has a short so we cant even use the turntable. so it has to go. as soon as i find just the right midcentury style credenza to replace it with. 

i am super excited about my family and home goals for this year, and i cant wait to get started on them! stay tuned for next time, when i talk about my personal and financial goals!

(and dont forget, everything in the etsy shop is 30% off this whole month with the code JAN15)