Roundup of January 2012

1. What types of media did I enjoy this month? (books, movies, blogs, tv shows, favorite apps, etc.)

On the 31^st of December we saw We Bought a Zoo as a family; Reading organizing blogs; about Project Life; watched an episode of Hoarders; Loving My Fitness Pal App (tracks all my food and exercise); 1/16 - A Joyful Noise (at the theater); 1/27 - One for the Money (at the theater); Fear Factor; American Idol started up again (Wednesday & Thursday); reading about sugar addiction; listening to The Digi Show podcast; listened to some Oct. General Conference talks

With the laptop able to go downstairs I have tried to go down and sit with Adam while he is watching TV – makes it seem like we see each other more!

Adam also saw: Contraband, The Devil Inside, The Darkest Hour, The Grey, Man on the Ledge, Mission Impossible, Underworld Awakening, War Horse (part of it)

The app I used the most was Feedler, My Fitness Pal, Pinterest

Adam’s most used apps – Angry Birds or Moviefone

2. What were our health/development/exercise/extra curricular activities this month?

Adam – Thursday meetings; extra meetings while I am off; 1/26 acupuncture; horrible cough for the last 2 weeks of the month; 1/28 got out on his motorcycle and rode with Chad; lots of movies

Krisi – 1/2 Hospitalized for appendicitis; 1/3 Surgery; 1/4 Released from hospital; Round Up class with Katie the Scrapbook Lady; 1/11 parents club meeting (just popped in for a short bit); 1/24 acupuncture, manicure/pedicure & dinner out at PF Changs; Participating in Biggest Loser on Scrap Orchard and Biggest Winner at In-Shape

Rebecca – Dance (Thursdays); 1/4 – Pump it Up with the Bigalows; 1/9 & 1/23 – Brownies; 1/16 Pump it Up we took the Addison & Abby Seagle with us; 1/31 – Bowling with girl scouts

Rachel – Dance (Mondays); 1/4 – Pump it Up with the Bigalows; 1/12 – Playdate at park with other kids entering Kindergarten with you next year; 1/16 Pump it Up we took the Addison & Abby Seagle with us; 1/20 Ears pierced; for the last few weeks of the month has been complaining about her tummy hurting. We are going to the doctors on the 1^st of February.

Kayla – Shots (1/5); walks to the park are starting; went to the dog park twice; went to the groomers (1/19); We began puppy training and Kayla is making great progress. The first week we worked on “off”, “crate”, “quiet” (for when in the crate) and a release command “go ahead”.

3. What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends? (Memorable meals/dinners out/food, games we are playing, activities enjoying, trips, parties, big purchases)

1/8 – Lynch family open house at the Olsons

1/10 – Dinner out El Camino

1/12 – Ate at Chapala for Loma Vista Fundraiser

1/14 – Gabriel’s birthday party at Chichibu park

1/15 – Spam & Eggs (we are doing a pantry challenge this month)

1/19 – Red Robin (gift card)

1/20 – I got the new iPhone 4S for me at Stoneridge. Adam got M Frame Oakley’s. Rachel got ears pierced. We went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner after (using a gift card).

1/28 – Oakland Zoo (have a membership there now)

Some games we played this month: Dominos, Racko, Chutes & Ladders, Guess Who, Uno Spin, puzzles

One of my favorite foods right now (well the last two weeks or so of the month) has been steel cut oats. I have been making them using the overnight pot method (1 cup steel cut oats, 3 cups of water – bring to a boil turn off stove, put lid on the pot and they are ready in the morning). I like to add apple cut up small, cranberries, raisins, almonds and I was adding coconut before I started detoxing from sugar.

Rachel gets into food ruts as well – she has been wanting crackers with cream cheese and a chocolate milk (which in our house is a protein drink). Gotta love her!

As part of our pantry challenge we also challenge ourselves to use gift cards that we have if we were going to go out.

4. What gifts/service did I give and/or receive?

Tons of service given to us early in the month – Tami, Charice, Rebecca, Tara, Jen, Celia, Andria, Scottie & Brigetta from the ward plus Nana & Papa Tom and my mom.

We made lots more donations (a HUGE load was taken on the 31^st of December) throughout this month. We now have giveaway boxes around the house so we can fill them and donate to those who need them.

We delivered homemade bread to Rebecca’s teacher.

We took Abby & Addison to Pump It Up so Charice could take Kevin to the doctors.

5. What were my accomplishments/disappointments this month? (goals, wanna do, gotta do, creative projects, etc.)

Well I realized toward the end of the month that I have a sugar addiction – that is an accomplishment in and of itself. But I am doing something about it and working to overcome it.

I have been doing Project Life each week and have been able to complete our pages each week – looking forward to keeping up during the month of February as well.

I was able to do a couple hybrid projects – including some that are “top secret” until they are released.

This month’s gotta do’s changed on the 3^rd when I landed in the hospital. The only thing necessary after that was for me to get better. I had to extend my leave from work once because I had so much pain and discomfort when I tried to do much of anything.

I did lose about 8.5 pounds this month – a little bit closer to my goal.

I did get the carpets cleaned – but they did not come out that well. We sent the cleaner back.

6. What are we thankful for this month?

We are so thankful for our family and friends who helped us throughout the month but ESPECIALLY the first week or so. – THANK YOU everyone.

We are also thankful for all the gifts we received during the holidays – and getting out thank you notes to people is still on our list to do.

7. Anything else noteworthy to include? (News, trends, births, deaths, etc.)

1/8 - New Bishop (Ashcroft)

The San Francisco 49ers almost made it to the Super Bowl. Two good games leading up to that decision. It had the Bay Area very excited.

I have felt pretty isolated from the news this month since I have not been in the car alone to listen to the news. But I did see a couple news stories while walking at the gym.

1/14 - Italian cruise ship that crashed and sunk. American couple on board.

1/29 2242 – Jean had her baby – a girl Lyla Rose

8. Goals for next month

Project Life

Work on training for a 5K

Lose 9 pounds (track my food, stay away from sugar, be at the gym 3 days a week)

Organize our closet & room (Doing orgjunkie.com’s 29 day declutter challenge)

Finish designer classes from Chelle’s Creations; Use my laptop and learn PS – DigiScrapApalooza is coming and I need to use the laptop there to scrap!

Spend time on Shelf Reliance business

2012 Family Goals

Here is the simple list of FAMILY goals. We made this list at our first FHE of the year.

*Family Home Evening weekly {the kids are definitely holding us accountable to this}

*Helping Others – at least once a week

*Family activity/exercise {getting moving as a family}

*Prayer/Scripture Study/Magazine Reading frequently {we didn’t specify how often but we do prayer daily already, but lack in the Scripture Study or Magazine Reading so that is what we really need to work on}

*Work together as a team

*make Smart Choices

 

There you have it our FAMILY goals for 2012.

My own goals obviously include these but I tend to spell them out a little more {not that it helps me accomplish them!}.

A look back at 2011 GOALS

Here they are in text format.  I highlighted what we/I accomplished – not as much as I would have liked to!

* Use a quiet voice (less yelling) – worked really hard at this but not sure I can say I accomplished it
* Create good habits – for the first 5 months I did this and then I got some bad habits back
* Scrap two layouts a week (one current and one older) – not even close
* Take pictures that matter – I tried to pay more attention but really didn’t take as many photos this past year as I usually do
* Work on manual inside photos – I did but it needs more work
* Visit mimi two times a month and come with questions  - visited about 6 times this year but didn’t go with questions
* Visit with Mom monthly (saw her monthly does that count?)
* Read lesson(s) before class – Sorry teachers
* Read scriptures at least four times a week – Gotta work on this
* Run/jog a 5k – Almost signed up in December but was not prepared for it and was only going to try it because it was on my goals list. I will get one scheduled for spring though.
* Read ARP book & work on steps – Not really done.
* Update blog & smugmug monthly with photos – I have been a huge slacker
* Work on 2012 calendar monthly – Nope… but I got them all done in a few days and still got them to people on time.
* Complete LYM challenges – for the first couple months only
* Work on balance – I did work on it but it still needs tweeking.
* Declutter our home (did most of the house the last week of the year!)
*  Think prior to speaking – still need to work on this.
* Limit eating out to once a week  (we were successful on average with this – some weeks none and others twice)
* Plan menus weekly (85% of the time)
* Build up savings  (we did but then we bought the trailer and a camping timeshare so we spent some of it)
*  Try a new recipe two times a month – probably did one a month
* Temple at least two times this year  - we went at least once (how bad is that I can’t even remember)
* Daily family prayer (we did this probably 350 days this year)
* Husband & wife prayer (95% of the nights that we were both home this happened)
* Take a trip with just the two of us (Salt Lake City)
* Cook one Thrive meal each week  (We used THRIVE a few times a week not sure that we did one full THRIVE meal each week though.)
* Pay half of the new Mini Cooper off  (We did pay extra but not 1/2) 
* Date nights once a month (umm.. maybe 6 times this year – gotta work on this)
* Be active - including family activities 
*Two new design items each month for ScrapMatters I would say I did this for the most part. The end of October I started a guest spot at Scrap Orchard which turned into a new store for me so… working on getting all my old products in the store there. 
* Convert old templates to include SVG files  (Doing this as I add items into Scrap Orchard)
* Guest at three stores (guested in one store and ended up moving there)
* Two Shelf Reliance parties each month  (some months 3 others 1 but probably didn’t average out to two a month)
* Two new Q’s each party  (need to schedule more parties)
* Build my team by six consultants by end of year
* Build own food storage with Thrive
* Attend one all day conference related to neuro or cardio This was at work but I did go to a neuro class.

Our 2012 goals will be posted soon (it will look awfully similar to this set!)

2010 a look back

Well ... I guess I never posted my goals last year. I wrote this post here that talked about the blog and my scrapbooking goals {totally NOT met} but never discussed our personal goals.

So... since they don't usually change much I will look at this post from 2009 and see how I was still doing on those goals!

Financial Goals
*Be a 0.7 by end of year (means I would work 7 days a pay period)
EVEN BETTER - This year I went to a 0.6 (3 days each week) 
*Max $125 month on out to eat
We have done well on controlling our eating out budget. This is in our goals for 2011.
*Pay off van (we owe $9983.61 -- so that means to pay it off by next December is only $100 more per month than we were paying). We want to try to do it before September -- so about $1200 per month. We should be able to do this if we keep our mind on the prize (NO CAR PAYMENTS!!! and then $$$ just going into savings and nothing needing to come out).
This was paid off in 2009. We do have the motorcycle note and Adam is wanting a new car... but that would be paid off in 2011 as well.

Spiritual goals
*Read the scriptures
We were doing great for like 4 months - really studying and learning things. Need to get into the habit again.
*Read lesson before class
Ummm. Sorry teachers this I did not do. 
*Temple 4 times this year
We made it 2 times. Will continue to work on this!
*Family prayer - when ever we are all together as a family -- even if it is only for 5 minutes (when we swap the kids)
We are about 98% on this one. Adam joins us in the van when I am going to work so we can still say prayer together. Rachel is really getting big and says great prayers.
*Husband wife prayer - Each day we see each other awake
This has been about 80% of the time. Have been making progress!

Fitness goals
*Lose 60 lbs. By June (Krisi)
These were 2009 goals. But in 2010 I gained some before I lost some but from 1.1.10 to 12.31.10 I went down 58.6 pounds. Seeing as I gained some in there I actually lost more than that but ... it is just a number right!
*Lose 20 lbs. by June (Adam)
Not sure for him - and he is sleeping right now!
*Be more active - include being active in family activities
We have been working on this. We went to Rock City a couple times at Mt. Diablo and hiked around the rocks. We all got bicycles during this year and we love going for rides.

Food Storage goals
*Water storage
Filled our water barrels. We had them for awhile but they were empty - what good that is!
*Continue to stock up as we have in the past years
This has been so fun with us being consultants for Shelf Reliance these last few months. The food is fabulous so it is fun and yummy to cook with. 
*Continue to make bread from scratch -- and use the wheat grinder more.
I do and can make a good loaf of bread. We also have been making homemade pizza dough. This has not really happened since I had surgery though. We do have homemade pizza on the menu for this week. We are using everything from Thrive to make the pizzas. I hope to be able to roll a small piece of dough out really really thin so I can eat it as well.

Krisi's personal goals
*Complete 365 scrapbook pages
I did talk about this in the 2010 post. I was planning on P52. I didn't even get the first week done. But I did get some pages done. I will be showing off my favorites during the month.
*Learn about camera - and take pictures using what I learn
I have been learning more but there is still so much more to learn.

There... even though my goals were not posted on the blog in 2010 I still recapped the things that usually make the list each year anyway!

I am working on getting my 2011 goals blog post ready. Seeing it this way makes me want to reformat how I have it written out right now.

I have also been working on my bucket list... what is on yours?

a reflection of 2009

A little delayed doing this but last year we posted our goals for 2009 - as a way to make us feel more accountable for them. well lets look at how we did.

Financial Goals
*Be a 0.7 by end of year (means I would work 7 days a pay period) ACCOMPLISHED - in June
*Max $125 month on out to eat  - Tracked only the first few months and usually was closer to $150 (but much better than years past)
*Pay off van (we owe $9983.61 -- so that means to pay it off by next December is only $100 more per month than we were paying). We want to try to do it before September -- so about $1200 per month. We should be able to do this if we keep our mind on the prize (NO CAR PAYMENTS!!! and then $$$ just going into savings and nothing needing to come out). -- PAID OFF in early November and the pink slip is in hand

Spiritual goals
*Read the scriptures  - I always struggle with this
*Read lesson before class - I did do this most weeks; during the first part of the year I was teaching Primary to the Valiant 12 class and then obviously I had studied and prepared my lesson
*Temple 4 times this year - Well we went through the temple once and went to the temple 2 other times - with the girls to the grounds
*Family prayer - when ever we are all together as a family -- even if it is only for 5 minutes (when we swap the kids)  - We did family prayer everyday - although not when we swapped the kids when I had to work - those days I got the prayer via my phone
*Husband wife prayer - Each day we see each other awake -- Something we need to continue to improve on

Fitness goals
*Lose 60 lbs. By June (Krisi) - well I was almost there and then got ummm what is the best way to describe it ... preoccupied with other things! Since then it all came back on - between being sick then a back injury and then the holidays.
*Lose 20 lbs. by June (Adam) - he reached his goal by about August
*Be more active - include being active in family activities - we did do more activities that involved going and doing rather than going and sitting

Food Storage goals
*Water storage - while we don't have the water itself (I know don't ask!) we did get two 50 gallon barrels that we will be filling soon - want to make a little hut to put over them.
*Continue to stock up as we have in the past years  - our everyday food storage supplies grew as did our long term storage. The pantry room was organized and we got a food storage rotation rack from Shelf Reliance
*Continue to make bread from scratch -- and use the wheat grinder more. -- I did this - but this is probably part of the reason I gained some of my weight back (home baked bread is very good!

Krisi's personal goals
*Complete 365 scrapbook pages  -- I did it!!!!
*Learn about camera - and take pictures using what I learn - I have learned so much this year about my camera and there is still so much more to learn but I have definitely grown in this area.

One problem we have identified is that we did not frequently look back at the goals and monitor how we were doing.  - Something to work on for 2010.

So much to learn, grown and do each day!

blog goals and thoughts for 2010

Last year I posted this schedule and partway through the year I changed things up a little. then as the year went on farther things changed more and lately I just have not had the time to update "on schedule".

This year I am going with no schedule (with the exception of menu plan Monday) and posting more frequently but smaller posts. you may have noticed this has already started.  So no more family Fridays (they ended mid year) and no more mom's Monday memories. This does not mean no more pictures... absolutely not - that is the purpose of my blog but it does mean that things may be out of order but that's ok. I hope to be able to post more stories or funny sayings with the posts that will actually mean something to my girls in 15 years.

One thing that I do hope happens is my photography skills get even better.  I really want to use my camera to its full potential and try new things with it.  With the better photography I think there may be a shift in the way my scrapbook pages are done. I have really come to the realization that one picture and the story may be better than multiple pictures and a short little blurb.  We will see how that goes this year.

I will still post my layouts that i do but i don't have a goal of 365 this year. I do plan on doing P52 (project 52) which is scrapping one picture a week. My goal with this is to scrap the daily blessings of life - some things that we don't think of daily as well as those which may be obvious.  These pages will be 12x12 so will look a little different than my "regular" pages.

To see what the creative side of me comes up with each week in my store at ScrapMatters you can check out my design blog here.  This is where I will be posting what new product(s) I have come up with and what my creative team (a group of gals who get my products for free in exchange for posting them at various digital galleries for others to see and then hopefully purchase) has created with them. These posts occur on Fridays.

One other thing - you may notice there is no signature at the end of each of my posts. Let's face it - Adam is not going to posting things so ... you just know it is from me!

Our Goals for 2009

Financial Goals
*Be a 0.7 by end of year (means I would work 7 days a pay period)
*Max $125 month on out to eat
*Pay off van (we owe $9983.61 -- so that means to pay it off by next December is only $100 more per month than we were paying). We want to try to do it before September -- so about $1200 per month. We should be able to do this if we keep our mind on the prize (NO CAR PAYMENTS!!! and then $$$ just going into savings and nothing needing to come out).

Spiritual goals
*Read the scriptures
*Read lesson before class
*Temple 4 times this year
*Family prayer - when ever we are all together as a family -- even if it is only for 5 minutes (when we swap the kids)
*Husband wife prayer - Each day we see each other awake

Fitness goals
*Lose 60 lbs. By June (Krisi)
*Lose 20 lbs. by June (Adam)
*Be more active - include being active in family activities

Food Storage goals
*Water storage
*Continue to stock up as we have in the past years
*Continue to make bread from scratch -- and use the wheat grinder more.

Krisi's personal goals
*Complete 365 scrapbook pages
*Learn about camera - and take pictures using what I learn

So there they are -- nothing not completely achievable. Check back in at the end of the year for a major update. But I will periodically update how we are doing with this.