Reflections and Goals!

I'm all about making goals and tracking progress, so this time of year is always exciting for me.  I was eager to check back to see what goals I'd made for 2014, what things were on my 'bucket list' and to see how I'd done.  Admittedly, I wasn't very good of keeping those things at the front of my mind this past year.  It seems that 2014 was full of changes for me and I know I spent a lot of time over the last year with my mind spinning with ideas and thoughts and I was just trying to make sense of it all.  It feels really good to have taken time over the past couple of weeks to reflect and make decisions about what I'm looking forward to in 2015.

That being said, first I want to go back to those four goals I made for 2014.  I vowed first to become a healthier person, and I think I nailed this one.  We definitely eat cleaner than ever before, Jarrod and I both exercise regularly and are active role models for the kids, and I even accomplished that goal of wearing a bikini in Cancun!  I took this goal further by starting up as a health and fitness coach with Beachbody and have been blown away by the amount of satisfaction I've gotten from helping others on their healthy lifestyle journey, too.  It's been so amazing to be someone's motivator.  Love it.

Goal #2 was to spend less on groceries, and while I failed to do a good job at tracking that through the year, I'm pretty confident I didn't succeed in that area.

It was hard to make goal #3 because it meant that I was admitting that I'd become a 'yeller' and I didn't like it.  I promised myself I'd be a kinder, gentler mom in 2014.  The dynamics of our family of course are ever changing.  Having a three year old around means a lot of aggravation, if you know what I mean!  But, we definitely have all worked on this goal and we're doing well...still have progress to make, so it will continue to be a goal in 2015.

And lastly, I wanted to be sure to connect with friends and family more in 2014.  Like #3, I know I could do even better, but I am happy with the progress I made in this area.  There are still friends I wish I had more frequent contact with, and I want to do more to initiate conversations with my siblings, but I am proud of my efforts in 2014.

Next comes my 'bucket list' for 2014.  I love making a list to check off through the year....but I didn't do great!  :-/

1. Road trip to Kansas City - YES!  And it was so fun!

2. Read 6+ books - I think so :)  This was one of those areas that I didn't do a good job tracking, but I can remember four books for sure that I read, and I'm pretty confident I made it to six.

3. Earn the consistency bonus every quarter with TS - NO...but that's because of changes I made...more to come.

4. Learn yoga - YES!  And probably one of my favorite things I did in 2014

5. Run a 5K - while I technically ran many 5K, none of them were organized races ;)

6. Make DVDs of my Flip/iPhone videos - NO!  And this will be on my list for 2015.  It's so important to me, but so overwhelming...

7. Overhaul my craft closet - NO :(  Will work on it this year

8. Sew something for myself to wear - NO...I didn't sew much at all in 2014

9. Promote to Team Mentor by the end of 2014 - NO, again because of those changes

10. Redecorate the playroom - Sort of...not as much as I wanted, but we did start

11. Paint something on canvas - YES!  And I loved our Santa painting as part of our holiday decor this year

12. Create and implement an allowance system for Gavin - YES!  And it worked great in the beginning, but he slacked off.  I'll be better about that this year.

13. Have family photos taken - YES!  And I love them.

14. Surprise the kids with a trip somewhere - YES!  Disney was amazing!

Like I mentioned before, 2014 was full of changes.  Jarrod got a new position that made his schedule different.  Getting home early enough for me to schedule parties flexibly became difficult.  Soon, my party schedule with TS became non-existent and I was keeping my business going solely online.  Because of my changes, my sales were not as high, meaning I didn't earn my bonuses, and not being in front of groups on people regularly at party made growing my team extremely difficult, so promoting was not possible.  It took a long time for me to be ok with those changes.  TS has been a part of my life for six years now!  It's hard to make changes.  But I've accepted that my path is taking a new turn and TS can still be part of my life, but in a different way.  I've officially 'retired' from being a party consultant.  I'm not stressing each month to try to get online events planned.  I'm simply going to help my current clients with their orders and continue to enjoy our favorite products at a discount. ;)  And it feels good to be ok with that and be able to breathe a little easier knowing I'm not disappointing my team.

So...after all those reflections, it was time to make some plans for 2015.  I thought long and hard about where I want this year to take us...and my focus on just being happy seems to come up in everything I think of.  (Hence my AIM for Happy adventure...happiness is so important to our well-being!)  Each of my goals will bring happiness into my life in some way.

Goals for 2015

1. Get back to blogging.  It was a sad realization when a friend called me out and made me aware of the fact that I hadn't blogged in months.  I'm promising myself to change that.  Why?  Well, I started this blog for one reason - to keep our friends and family involved in our everyday lives when we moved away from Ohio.  While that's why it started, it turned out to be an amazing way for me to document our lives!  I turned from scrapbooking to blogging and I love my blog books that I print and know one day, I'll cherish having these memories recorded.  So, knowing that I've slacked and missed a lot makes me sad.  Time to amp it up, and I'm going to be sure to schedule blogging time in my weekly plans.

2. Be better with our budgeting and saving.  Nothing stresses me out more than to feel overwhelmed with financial stuff.  We were doing a really good job and then Disney happened and the holidays and several other bumps in the road and I stopped working on our budget weekly like I had been and I feel like I lost control...so I need to get back.  Doing so will also help me work on that goal that failed on in 2014 - spending less on groceries.  I know this will also help us save more, use cash more, and overall, I'll be happier knowing that things are back under control.  Remember that happy theme!

3. Cook more with the kids.  I have a distinct memory of Jarrod and I cooking together in our little house on Carolyn Dr., music playing, and me saying to him that one day, we'd be cooking together with our future kids.  Well, fast forward to the future...we have those kids, and often times there's still music playing when I'm cooking, but that tends to be the time that I let the kids turn on the TV, mostly to keep them out of my hair while I'm trying to get dinner on the table. Better planning and starting to prep dinner earlier than really needed will allow me to include them more in the cooking and having us all in the kitchen together will be a happy time for us I'm sure.  Looking forward to this one!

4. Continue to be a healthy role model and a gentler parent - I think focusing on the type of parent I want to be is key to my happiness.  If I'm not healthy and I'm constantly raising my voice and getting frustrated with the kids, of course I'm not going to be happy.  Plus, when I'm modeling these behaviors, the kids follow.... win, win.

I'm also continuing with my 'bucket list' idea.  I really love these!  And I'm posting this list in my 'life notebook' that I've started using daily so they're always present.

1. Make a DVD of my Flip/iPhone videos (sound familiar?)

2. Overhaul craft closet (hmmmm???)

3. Complete a half marathon

4. Take a weekend road trip to a new place

5. Print another blog book

6. Grow Team AIM to at least 15 coaches

7. Make an effort to have two dates with Jarrod (outside the home!)

8. Back up all my photos and create a system for organizing them

9. Read 10 books (and actually keep track!)

10. Donate my hair to Locks of Love

11. Make a recipe binder/notebook

12. Put cash into my savings envelopes every week, no matter how small

Phew!  That felt so awesome to get all that out!  I'm so excited for this year...it's going to be outstanding.  Let's do it.

A little Jitterbug

We always said this kid would be our little performer!  She was eager to start dance this past fall, so we opted for the low cost option to try it out and see if she really liked it.  Jitterbugs is a program offered at her preschool.  They pick her up from class once a week, walk her down the hall, and she stays with them for 40 minutes of Jitterbug time before I pick her up.  They did a small performance this month for the parents, where they performed three songs they'd been working on.  It was super cute!

They went back to chance costumes after each song so even though the three songs were only a couple minutes each, the program lasted about twenty minutes with all the wardrobe changes.  I loved how she waved to us each time she got back on stage.

Of course we had to spoil her a little bit for her first time on stage, right?  She got some flowers from Gavin and we took her out to dinner that night.  Making memories!

And....the last few months definitely showed that she likes being on stage, so for Christmas we signed her up for ballet and tap classes.  They start in a couple weeks!  We're thankful for Miss Nikki for helping foster her love of music and movement the past few months.  She's such a sweet teacher!  And as you can see, dancing wore little Miss out!

P.S. The dances were recorded and are on our YouTube channel.  Just let me know if you need help finding them!

Just a bunch of random pictures...

Day 5: Exploring and Checking Out

Finally on Day 5!  This was our last day in Florida.  We woke up, finished all our packing, and headed out to have breakfast at the Polynesian Resort.  Since it was Halloween, the kids decided to wear their costumes for the day - I thought it would be cute to be on the plane home in their costumes, too! :)

Mickey Waffles are the best!!  {I actually tried to find a Mickey waffle maker to get for a family gift for Christmas, but the only one I found seemed to make more of a pancake than these amazing waffles.}

Then, we spent time walking around and exploring our own resort.  We'd had such a busy week, we didn't really get to take in the massiveness that was the Wilderness Lodge, and boy was it gorgeous! Both inside and out!  {They were renovating the pool area, so we didn't even get to see that area.}

And as you can see...the costumes didn't last long.

We took the Mickey Express back to the Orlando airport and were on our way back home!

Sweet girl took a nap while we waited, and the kids read books together.

And surprisingly, we never once had to get a movie out on the ipad for the flight to or from Disney.  The kids were so good on the planes, with just one minor meltdown when Riley was awakened on the plane ride home.  Luckily, we were sitting next to a sweet woman that understood.  We cheered her up by doing some selfies.

We arrived home just in time to trick-or-treat.  It was freezing in Arkansas, especially coming from Florida, and Riley decided to change her costume last minute, but we had fun ending our night with a quick trip around the block.  Thankfully, they enjoy trick-or-treating for just a short time and we're never out for more than 20 minutes. :)

And to officially end our Florida vacation, we woke up the next morning to 28 degrees outside and NO heat inside.  Fun stuff!  But at least I had my new coffee mug and some yummy creamer to make my morning more manageable.

To say we enjoyed this vacation is a HUGE understatement.  I cannot even begin to explain how magical the trip was.  I never thought I'd want to go to Disney multiple times, but I can't wait until we can go again.  Of course, it won't be for a little while...we have to pay off this trip first!  It isn't a cheap vacation by any means, but it sure was worth every penny.