New Years Resolutions and Meal Plan Week 41 and 42

Today is the first day of the New Year and I have seen a lot of people post this photo on Instagram. There is something so refreshing about a new year.

SO, first… lets review the resolutions I set for myself in 2014.

I only set 3 resolutions for myself in 2014 and I actually called them 3 goals instead of resolutions. I really liked having only 3 goals instead of 15+ like I used to do (total overkill!) and plan to continue with only 3 goals in 2015.

Here were my goals and in italics after each goal I will write out what I accomplished in 2014.

1. Spiritual. I have been wanting to do a bible study for quite some time. I actually put joining a bible study on my goal list for last year and I didn’t accomplish that goal. I think my main problem is I have a really difficult schedule, so meeting up for a weekly bible study is difficult for me. I think later in my life this will be possible, but for now I am excited that I heard about Good Morning Girls. It is an online bible study group with different themes throughout the year and most of them last a month. I would love to participate in at least two of these bible studies this year! The best part is that its FREE and they email you a study guide each week with daily bible verses, lessons, memory work, etc. I am so excited to do this and I hope to do it in the morning with a nice cup of hot tea, before I get too tired and weary by the end of the day. If any of you decide to sign up for any of the bible studies, let me know and we can discuss! 
I completed three bible studies this year, two of them were with Good Morning Girls (one was even a book study!) and I did one bible study with our church this year. Sadly, I am not sure if I got out as much as I wanted from these bible studies, so I need to think about what may work better for me in the future. I am not saying I’m throwing bible studies out the window, I do learn from them… but, I didn’t learn as much as I thought I would. I really think in the future I may consider a small church (home) group in my same age range that Brian and I could join… I know a few people that do this and rave about their small church group.

I also want to get better about praying… I want to make a prayer list so that I can get better about praying for others, too. 
I didn’t get better about praying in 2014, so this is one of my main goals for 2015 that I plan to work on.

Some other ideas I have is I would like to visit a few ‘different’ churches as a guest, we go to our regular church A LOT and I would love to hear a sermon from a different pastor/priest/etc. I sometimes think a little change is good… although, I have no plans of leaving our current church.
We didn’t visit any other churches… this is hard when our church is also the kids school. I think this may be something I may revisit later down the road.

I would also love to check out some more religious books for me and for the kids. Currently I am reading Jesus Calling every night, but I feel I need more.
I did read a couple of other religious books this year besides Jesus Calling. I would actually like to read Jesus Calling (its a daily devotional) again later down the road. I would like to read a couple religious books this year, but don’t have any planned out yet… I think I have some tagged on my Goodreads ‘to read’ list.

2. Clutter. I have really let the clutter take over our house. Our rooms in the house are clean and orderly, but it is when you open the cabinets, closets or venture down into the basement or garage… when you’ll see a huge stinking M.E.S.S.!!! I need to sell or give away a lot of the toys the kids have outgrown. I need to sell, give away or decide which to keep of their clothing. The finished part of our basement has turned into a huge messy play room that is NOT picked up. I haven’t vacuumed down there in… oh… I can’t even say it, its so embarrassing… because there are too many toys all over the floor! Then you go into the unfinished part of the basement (the storage area) and it is a big pile of poo, too! I need to do a BIG purse on my master closet… I need to scrub down our family room couches BIG TIME (they are micro fiber and white and they are NOT kid friendly couches!!)… Ok, I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here.
Since I am not working and the kids are in school full day, I have had some time to make progress on the clutter in our home. In 2014 I was able to clean out all of our walk-in closets (yes, we all have HUGE closets in this home!), cleaned out the garage, cleaned out all of our kitchen cabinets, cleaned out the family room coffee table (it has a lot of storage) and organized our DVD’s. In 2015 I plan to clean out my desk downstairs and the basement… I also need to revisit the kids closets and pull out clothes and shoes that no longer fit them. There is also some painting I want to do, such as our Master Bathroom vanity, Autumn’s room, the master bedroom and hallway bathroom. I doubt we’ll paint ALL of these in 2015, but if I get half of these painted I’ll be perfectly happy. I hate painting, btw. 🙂

3. Meal Plan. In mid-February, I am going to start weekly meal plans again. ANNNND, Nathan and Autumn may not like this, BUUUUT. I am going to cook things they normally wouldn’t eat and I am going to tell them to try a bite or two, before asking for chicken nuggets or mac and cheese. I made pumpkin chili last weekend and Nathan was awesome, he tried 12 whole bites of it! And, he ate all of his cornbread. That is a success in my book… and, then he asked for chili on his hot dog the next day! I also want to try to get used to the meal plan at first, so there may be a mix of healthy/unhealthy foods… but, by the end of the year I hope that we are eating cleaner and healthier as a family.
This is a goal that I’ve done AWESOME at this year!! And, it really has helped cut down on the cost of eating out… except, when mom gets sick, the eating out costs increase! lol! I would like to maybe work on healthier meals for next year…


AND, dum de dum… Here are my 2015 Resolutions (Goals):


1. Prayer Notebook. I’ve decided to make it one of my big goals this year to keep a prayer notebook. I want to be better about praying and not just for myself, but for others, too! I was thinking about doing it in my Notes on my iPhone or I even wondered if there were some nifty apps out there for it… but, I decided I wanted to do my prayer notebook in a REAL LIVE notebook (with gold polka dots, of course!) with some fun pens. I never write anything out anymore and I thought this would make it a little more personal for me. My goal is to write in it every morning during the week and weekends are a bonus. I feel that prayer is important in having a personal relationship with God and I have fallen astray on this… I don’t want to pray only to God when I am really excited about something, or when I’m asking him to help me get through a half marathon… or only when I need him, because I am going through a hard time… but, I want to make praying to God a daily and consistent process. SO, I’m going to work on that this year.

2. Be a More Present Mother. I feel quite often I let my to-do lists run my life. I had SO much going on during the weeks leading up to Christmas that I didn’t attend either childs Christmas rehearsal for their play during their school hours. Of course, they noticed and asked me why I wasn’t there! I stopped working last year so I could spend more time with my kids and so I could attend these special little events in their lives while they are still little. Of course, I had SO much to do that I let my to-do list win over their needs. So, this may not be a perfect example… but, I feel there is always something I need to do… make dinner, the never ending laundry… wrap gifts. Check my Instagram feed. There are a lot of times the kids ask me to do things, such as play a board game or to just listen to them when really I just want to shut them down so I can check off the next item on my to-do list. I think there is a hard balance of being a mom and running a house… SO, I want to try to be better at balancing. Sure, I can’t always be present, but when its something that means a lot to them… or, if it means not going on Instagram on the weekends, so I have more face time with my kids (and not my phone), it is what I plan to do. I want to have strong relationships with my kids and I feel the biggest way to do this is by being present in their lives… by talking to them about their day and doing little things with them that may not seem important to me, but that are important to them. (Such as when Nathan wants to tell me all about his Minecraft world. lol)

3. Blog. I really enjoy blogging and I have a long list of items that I want to work on with my blog. I need to work on going through the list and actively working on activating these goals. I think I am going to maybe give myself one bullet item a week and go from there. I have also been wanting to start an Etsy shop for awhile and I do have a few ideas, but haven’t taken the time to work towards it. I might do a separate blog post later down the road once I get my blog goals organized into a plan. So, sorry if this sounds sort of etchy… but, I have a whole Note page on my Mac Book Pro with ideas and I just need to clean it up! So, I would say that my 2015 goal for my blog is to get through this list of blog to-do’s!!

So, those are my 3 goals for 2015! I feel every year I accomplish something and then I just ‘keep’ doing it. Such as in 2014, I’ve finally gotten to cooking for the family again and meal planning… in a previous year I started reading again and I’m still reading! After Autumn was born I had trouble losing a lot of my baby fat and suffered from major muffin top and started running and counting calories… I still run and I do keep track of my diet and stay around a certain weight-range that I am comfortable with. So, I am hoping that in 2015 that I will stick to at least one of these goals! If I can stick to one of them for many years down the road, I will consider it an accomplishment. 

Ok, so now moving on to the Meal Plan part of this post… Whew, I know this is getting LONG!

Once again… it has been a little busy around here, so I am combining two weeks of Meal Plans… I was really sick during Week 41 of meal plans, so I was confined to the couch and not doing ANY cooking… so, Week 42 picked up some of Week 41’s meals. It happens 🙂

Meal Plan Week 41:

Sunday – Order In

Monday – Spaghetti with Salad and Garlic Bread

Tuesday – Simple Crock Pot Potato Soup with Salad, recipe HERE

Friday – Tacos

Saturday – Pancakes, Eggs and Bacon
Brian’s Fixings!



Meal Plan Week 42:

Sunday – Spaghetti with Salad and Garlic Bread

Monday – Tacos

Tuesday – Simple Crock Pot Potato Soup with Salad, recipe HERE

Friday – Breaded Pork Chops with Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans
This is a simple recipe where I layer pork chops with milk, butter and bread crumbs and throw them in the oven.

Saturday – Wedding Reception (Aut’s a FG!)