a new year

January 3, 2024

Hello! Does anyone remember me? It’s been a while. One ​of my goals for the new year is to get this blog back up and ​running and to provide more things that are value to those ​of you who follow me in this space. I’ll start by sharing the ​rest of my goals and visions for 2024. If you follow my ​personal Instagram account, you may have already seen and ​read part of this blog post, but I go into more detail about ​my individual goals and couple goals with Jarom.

My husband and I sat down at the end of December to ​have a little reflection and planning time for the new year. ​One of the things we discussed was choosing two to three

words to describe 2023. all I could think of was “a lot”. We had so many memorable and big things happen.

• I turned 25
  
• We visited Wisconsin (flew with a baby!)
  
• We celebrated three years of marriage
  
• We found out we were expecting baby no. 2, unexpectedly
  
• WE BOUGHT A HOUSE
  
• We moved
  
• My family dog passed away
  
• We took three family camping trips
  
• Jarom turned 27
  
• My sister started serving an LDS mission in Ecuador
  
• Florence turned a whole year old
  

Milestones were hit, unexpected things happened, tears were shed, and fun times were had. We both grew a lot this year, and I ​feel like I especially started understanding my role as a mother. My biggest struggles came with not realizing I needed to stop ​breastfeeding, and an 11-month sleep regression that seemed never ending. but I was able to learn so much patience and feel like I ​can handle anything now.

When reflecting on the best times of this year, most of them involved Florence, and spending time with loved ones. Seeing my ​daughter experience so many firsts has been incredible as parents. It has also been so amazing to see Jarom step into his role as a ​father and have his support through Florence’s first year and this seemingly never-ending second pregnancy.

I didn’t want to go too much into detail on my Instagram story about my goals for the new year, but I want to share a little bit ​more about them in this space. Part of my husband’s and my “couples summit” was to come up with both individual and couple ​vision statements for the new year. Mine, fittingly, is “making more”. I wanted to carry that into 2024 since I didn’t really start ​having that whole mindset until mostly through 2023, and I want to truly “make more” in lots of different ways. (Though “babies” ​will not be one of those categories...)

Our couple vision statement for 2024 is “be present”. Screen time has been a struggle for both my husband and I in the past year, ​and so our goal is to be more present an intentional in the time we spend with each other and with our children.

I split up our goals into six categories: physical and mental health, spirituality, career, community, finance, and preparedness. ​Here is my goal(s) for each, as well as our couple goal(s):

P H Y S I C A L A N D M E N T A L H E A L T H

Individual: Stop biting my nails. This has been a bad habit of mine for as long as I can remember, and I’m confident that it’s one I ​can break in 2024. I know I chew on them more when I am bored or stressed, so I just need to find other, healthier ways to deal ​with those emotions.

Individual: Fuel my body better during postpartum and breastfeeding (more homemade healthy meals). One of the things I would ​specifically like to do wit this goal is to come up with some easy, staple lunches that work for both me and my children. I’ll be ​honest; usually my lunch consists of microwaved chicken nuggets and some leftover noodles. Leftovers are great, sure, but they ​need to also be nutritious leftovers. My husband gets free lunch at work, so I think really what I need to start doing is making a ​good healthy dinner for 4, and then having those leftovers for lunch rather than something more meager + chicken nuggets. If ​you’ve got great lunch ideas for stay-at-home moms, let me know on Instagram!

Individual: Limit screen time. I have time limits set already for certain apps on my phone, but I often ignore them. 2024 is the ​year where I stick to them, and continue to make them smaller. To be fully transparent, during Christmas break my screen time ​was between 5-6 hours. In the weeks before that (due to chair naps with my daughter and pregnancy insomnia) it was around 4 ​hours. My goal for the new year is to keep it between 2-3, but ideally closer to 2. If I can’t achieve that, I want to at least be using ​my phone more productively and making sure that I am being present with my children and husband.

Couple: Do a “cardio workout” more regularly. This one was worded by my husband, and it translates to “be intimate more often.” ​Intimacy is actually something that we’ve struggled with since we first got married, and being pregnant for almost two years ​straight hasn’t helped a ton. We are both hoping to strength that area of our relationship this year.

Couple: Be active (walks, hikes, bike rides, etc.). I have been really good about going on daily walks as often as possible ​throughout this pregnancy, and I’m hoping to continue that. It will be even better in the summer when it stays light and warm ​out in the evening and Jarom can come along after dinner or after he gets home from work.

Couple: No phones at the table. Don’t ask me why we don’t already implement this in our house. But we don’t, and quite frankly ​its embarrassing. If my husband is home during breakfast, we are both scrolling. And oftentimes at dinner, its me scrolling. I’m ​not sure if it’s because I think I need a mental break after the day and when Jarom gets home I can finally unwind? No matter, it’s ​ridiculous and it’s stopping this year!

S P I R I T U A L I T Y

Individual: Continue Personal Progress for my blog. It’s been a long time since I’ve touched Personal Progress and I want to ​change that because I feel like as much as I love studying Come Follow Me as a couple, it’s nice to have something in the ​scriptures that you can focus on for yourself.

Individual: Say AT LEAST nightly personal prayers. We kind of fell off the wagon with our spirituality in November and ​December, unfortunately. I want to start back up with saying nightly personal prayers, because I think that adding morning ​prayers is honestly too much for me to handle all at once, even though that might sound silly.

Couple: Do Come Follow Me study and nightly prayers. After some discussion, we decided that the best time for us to study will ​be after we put the kids to bed and before we spend our time together for the night. Jarom wakes up before 5:30 each morning, ​and where I am currently at in life, that’s not something I’m willing to do to study together. In the past, we’ve done a few minutes ​of study while laying in bed right before we go to sleep, but we both agreed that we don’t get nearly as much out of it as we ​should because we are half asleep. Doing it before we spend our time together in the evening will set us up for having quality time ​together, and ensure that we are both giving it all of our focus.

C A R E E R

Individual: Actually do my blog and try to monetize things pertaining to it on Etsy/TPT. I’m not really sure what I’ll end up ​doing with this one yet, but what I have in mind is to recreate things that might already be out there and put my own aesthetic ​spin on them. For example, worksheets, flashcards, infographics, etc. There’s got to be a niche for that somewhere.

Individual: Learn to sew. I got a sewing machine for Christmas and I fully intend to start learning small projects once I’m settled ​into some kind of rhythm with a newborn and a toddler!

Couple: Parenting - be more intentional about how we spend our time with our kids, and our time together after they go to bed ​(no phones, have a plan, be more present). This one is pretty self-explanatory. A lot of our time together as a couple in the past ​few weeks has been spent in separate rooms playing video games, or half-watching a show. Not that that’s all bad, but it’s not all ​good either. Sometimes we just need a mental break, but I’d like our nights to start in gospel-centered way and end feeling like we ​spent quality time together, even if that was by watching a show or playing a video game.

C O M M U N I T Y

Individually: Do my ministering assignment monthly. I got my assignment back in... October? I’m partnered with the first ​counselor in the Relief Society presidency and neither of us has reached out to the other yet. I was intimidated, but now I’m ​confused because I keep feeling like she should have stepped up at some point? I know that’s not the right way to think. I want to ​reach out and get something set up with our sisters ASAP.

Couple: Invite friends/family to dinner once a month. This was actually a goal we had in 2023, and I think we had someone over ​maybe 3-4 times? It was really great to connect with old friends and maybe spend time with family that we usually don’t get to ​see. Definitely something I want to continue to try to do in 2024.

F I N A N C E

Individual: Only spend money on things I want with money I make. This is something I came up with last year when I started ​babysitting for a friend of mine. I used that money to fund random trips to the thrift store so that it didn’t feel like I was ​spending too much of our money. I also use money that I make from selling things on Facebook Marketplace. It’s just a way for ​me to be able to shop if I want to, but also feel like I earned it!

Individual: Update register weekly. It was really bugging me that I don’t know where our money is going. To a certain extent I do, ​but I sat down and went through our spending for 2023 and broke it down into categories, and then created a 2024 budget for ​each of those categories. It turned out that we are spending less than I thought we were, which is great, but we could still be ​doing better. I plan to log our spending on an old-fashioned register (but modernized on Google Sheets) once a week so I can see ​how closely we are sticking to our budget and meeting our savings goals.

Couple: Open separate savings account for specific things (house, car, trip, etc.) I know we have money in our savings, and I want ​to keep that there for when we want to finally try and buy another vehicle. But I also want to make a separate savings account for ​any trips or big purchases we might have coming up, as well as an emergency fund.

Couple: Visit our budget monthly. I will be updating our register weekly, but I want to go over our budget together at the ​beginning of each month.

P R E P A R E D N E S S

Individual: Work on organizing pantry/food storage. I really love the look of the aesthetic pantries you see all the time on ​Pinterest and Instagram, but even more than looking beautiful, I want our pantry to be functional. Not that it isn’t right now, but ​I do think that containers for things like flour, sugar, and rice are nice rather than the packaging they come in. I also want to keep ​building up our food storage and make sure that it’s organized.

Couple: Set up emergency house and car kits. We do have a little emergency bag in our car that my husband put in there months ​ago, but I actually have no idea what’s in it. I want to go through that and add to it, as well as put winter supplies in our car. ​(Something about two under two in the winter in a car just makes me want to cover all of our bases). We also need to have a 72-​hour-kit ready to go with an emergency plan!

I hope that you feel inspired by my goals, or that you resonate with them. And if you’re not a goal setter or New Year’s resolution ​maker, I hope you at least take some time to reflect on the past year and make smaller goals for each week or month. There is ​such benefit to setting goals and working towards becoming better versions of ourselves! Let’s make 2024 the best yet.