2012 goal - See family in Pennsylvania

Goal #3, Seeing family in Pennsylvania. PA for short. Jimmy was raised in PA til 9th grade when his mom moved him and his siblings here to Michigan and where met me *Grins Really Big* But in coming here he left behind some very important people. His dad, grandparents, and some great friends.

I am happy to tell you that in Jan or Feb of 2010 Jimmy, Caleb, and I were able to travel over to PA for 5 days to see and meet everyone. And what a grand time we had! Caleb and I met as many of Jimmy's friends and family members as we could in our short 5 day trip and we were welcomed with loving arms into their homes and their lives.

Another happy story to tell of is when we had several people fly from PA to Michigan for our wedding! Jimmy's dad and his wife came and brought along grandma and auntie. Along with that, we had a very special long time friend and his parents drive all the way over. What a joyous time we had seeing them during our crazy some times stressful week before our wedding.

Because Christmas and New Years Day both landed on Sundays this year, and Jimmy would typically have a paid holiday those days, Jimmy's work granted him an extra 2 days paid vacation that he can take anytime before April. What a blessing those two days are! So now it's our turn to go to PA again and boy, are we ready or what!

Here's what we need to do to get going to see everyone:

-We still need to find a date but have to consider a few things when doing so. Joel's 1st Birthday party, and Caleb's school and field trip schedule. We would like also like to go either either late Feb or early Mar in a sort of Birthday Celebration! Jimmy, his dad, Joel, and I all have birthdays within a few weeks of each other and what better way to celebrate than to see family.

- Jimmy needs to request the time off from work and I need to let my day care parents know what days I will be gone.

- We also need to get the A-OK from Joel's Doctors to travel that far with him. He sees some specialists and we need to make sure that he is healthy enough to travel.

2012 goal - Pay off and savings goals

My #2 (Pay off Lowe's credit card), #4 (Pay off Jimmy's student loan), and #6 (Save $2,000 emergency fund) goals are all financial goals that I would like to accomplish in 2012.

As I mentioned in goal #1, we need to finish my house and get it rented out. Well... we don't have any money because we are paying for the mortgage on the house right now and we can't fix it up with no money! That's how we got the Lowe's credit card. Part of fixing up the house meant buying and having new windows installed. With the old windows, we were not able to legally rent out the house. They were in such bad shape. We didn't have $4,000 dollars hanging around and we needed the windows in order to get it rented out so we got a Lowe's credit card. If you know anything about me, you would know that I HATE credit cards. I am very Dave Ramsey in that respect. Jimmy had 7 credit cards when we started dating and we had them all paid off a year and a half later! I swore we would never have one again but here we are with one. I am super bummed about it but we did get a no interest for the first 18 months card. Since we got the card in October, we should have til April 2013 to pay it off with out interest. That is why my goal is to pay it off in 2012. Then we will be no where close to April 2013 and no where close to all that CRAZY interest!

When Jimmy went to college, he didn't get any financial aid. I mean NONE. Not a penny. But Sallie Mae helped him out. Over $20,000 worth too. Since Jimmy was a young college kid with no credit, he was only aloud a few grand so his mom had to step in a put a loan under her name. Right now between the two we owe roughly $17,000. Our goal this year is to pay off the student loans that are under Jimmy's name. Which is the lesser of the two. We are hoping to get some forward momentum with paying these things off and get our debt snowball rolling! We have roughly $3,700 left to go on this one.

By this point you all should know that we have 2 houses :) With that, we need two emergency funds. That is why we are going to build up to a $2,000 emergency fund. $1,000 for my house, $1,000 for Jimmy's house. God forbid the water heater goes out at the same time in both houses, or something happens with ours (Jimmy's) and we don't have time to build it back up before something happens to the rental (mine). We are hoping to get it rented out and put the difference between what the renters pay and what we pay for the mortgage into this emergency fund along with other stuff.

For these three goals, getting the finances is our obvious first problem. And budgeting is our second. I have started a new job at McDonalds that we are hoping will help out a little, I am also trying to get in contact with DHS to get payments for my child care kids going (I still haven't gotten paid for most of my kids and DHS is roughly $1,000 behind!) As for the rest of the year, we will have to see what God has in store for us. My husbands bonuses will also go towards these goals along with any money made on craigslist from cleaning out the basement. I am hoping that goal #20 (make and keep budget) will assist with this also.

2012 goal - Finishing my house so it can be rented out

These last few days have been busy for us, Joel was in the hospital. So I haven't been able to blog. But I have had some time to think and reflect over my goals and figure out how I am going to achieve these goals in 2012! So here goes.

My husband and I each had a house before we got married in June 2011. We moved into his house and had some friends stay in mine. We gave them a good deal on rent and in return they would help fix up the house. Well, we all know how renting to a friend is going to turn out. We thought our friends were different though.... Yeah, not so much. They half did some stuff and ended up moving out on bad terms. Now I hope we have learned our lessens. No renting to friends, family, or just plain any one we know!

Now we are left with a house that is in worse shape than before. So our plan in 2012 is to fix-er-up. Nothing fancy. We just want to make it livable and clean so we can get it rented out. We are hoping to get it fixed and rented out sooner than later because this is a $500 a month burden in our budget. If we ever want to even think about accomplish our other goals, this needs to get rented!

We need to get the upstairs finished up, outlet covers on, the roof finished, baseboards. window coverings, some walls painted, and a good heavy cleaning done. Along with those things, we need to do the legal stuff too. It has to be inspected, filed as a rental house, insurance changes, and we still need to find a good contract.

Right now our main problem is not the motivation to get everything done, it is the time with out the kids and the money to buy the things we need to fix. I am going to be asking my parents to take the kids a little more on Sundays so that we can have a few hours then. And I am hoping that goal #20 (make and keep budget) will help with the financial side of our problem.

2012 Goals

Even though it doesn't seem as though my weekly goals go as planned and most of the time I don't get them done, I do feel as though they are helping me tons! I am no over achiever by any standards. So that is why I made some 2012 goals. I am hoping this will help me keep on track with everything. These goals are in no particular order as I type them out but they are certainly things I feel as though we need to get accomplished. Here goes:

1) Finish my house so it can be rented out

2) Pay off Lowe's credit card

3) See family in Pennsylvania

4) Pay off Jimmy's student loans

5) Clean out the down stairs

6) Save $2,000 emergency fund

7) Develop 12 new habits

8) Read 1 book each month

9) Exercise increasingly

10) Freezer meals once a month

11) Make cleaning the house more of a priority

12) Date night 1 time per month

13) Record meal and times daily

14) Plant and maintain garden during summer

15) Devote 1 night to family game night

16) Get together with friends 1 time per month

17) Write down birthdays and send cards

18) Blog increasingly more

19) Read with kids at least 3 times per week

20) Make and keep budget

21) Learn to knit and FINISH a project

22) Lose some weight

I will be breaking these goals down in the next few weeks and sharing my plans

Weekly Goals

Last weeks goals and updates:

Family/Mothering Goals

1) Get back and finish reading Caleb's Story By Patricia MacLachlan to Caleb
We didn't get this back til the end of the week. But it is a library book so we do need to finish SOON!

2)Make ornaments with Caleb and Jimmy

We made reindeer and mosaic Christmas tree's.

3) Go to Caleb's winter party at school!

His winter party went great! I actually volunteered for this and his field trip to the Children's Museum.

Personal Goals


1) Finish reading Animal, vegetable, miracle By Barbara Kingsolver
2) Drink 5 glasses of water each day.
Rocked this one! Some days I drank up to 8!
3) Go to bed by 8:30pm Sunday thru Thursday for new job.

Home Management Goals


1) Taking putting our house together slowly. Put Dressers back together.
2) Fold all laundry.

3) Put food racks back together and get food on them.

Business Goals


1) Try entering times and meals daily.
I am completely caught up.
2) Do a Fire drill.

3) Remake daily schedule if I can get the info I need from a parent.

Found out my parents are clueless... Didn't even know it was Christmas Break and there was no school! Ugg... I may just have to do my own research and figure some stuff out. :(

This weeks goals and updates:

Family/Mothering Goals

1) Finish reading Caleb's Story By Patricia MacLachlan to Caleb. We have to do this otherwise the book will be late!

2) Survive a crazy Christmas schedule between my husband's family and mine.

3) Remember Advent Calendar every day! Caleb really enjoys this but I keep forgetting about it.

Personal Goals


1) Finish reading Animal, vegetable, miracle By Barbara Kingsolver Must do this week! It's due back to the library too!

2) Drink 5 glasses of water each day.

3) Go to bed by 8:30pm Sunday thru Thursday for new job. Although I did really good with this last week, it was really hard and tempting to go to bed later. So this will stay on my list.
4) Ride my stationary bike every day for 1/2 hour.

Home Management Goals


1) Go through the dressers and take out ANY clothes that aren't just quite right and get rid of them! Stop keeping clothes that I might wear some day.... sometime....
2) Fold all laundry.

3) Put food racks back together and get food on them.

Business Goals


1) Continue entering times and meals daily. Doing this made my world so much easier!

2) Do a Fire drill.

3) Do some poking around of my own to remake daily schedule.

Weekly Goals

Last weeks goals and updates:

Family/Mothering Goals

1) Finish reading Caleb's Story By Patricia MacLachlan to Caleb

The book got left at his dad's house so we didn't get to finish. 
2)Even though it's crazy cold. Get Caleb outside at least twice. (Hard with Joel!)

Done. He actually went out 4 days this week!
3) Print off some school activities for Caleb that he's been begging me for.

Our computer re-set and we lost the pages we wanted to print. But I did finally get the ink to print them :)

Personal Goals


1) Finish reading Animal, vegetable, miracle By Barbara Kingsolver
2) Get Black shoes for new Job.

Got them and got a rockin' deal on the ink/shoes combo!
3) Go to bed by 8:30 to start preparing for new job.

All but one night. But how can I deny my husband a date/movie night.
4) Drink at least 5 glasses of water each day.

I drank lots of water. Sometimes more than 5 glasses.

Home Management Goals


1) Get Joel's room and master bedroom put back together after last weeks carpet cleaning. (We are still sleeping on the pull out couch and it's been a week!!)

Although we haven't totally gotten them put back together we did reclaim our bed. No more pull out couch!!
2) Put up Christmas tree.
3) Laundry washed, dried, and folded. All of it!

Our dressers still aren't put back in our room. So although it's all cleaned and dried, it's sitting in a pile on the floor...

Business Goals


1) Turn in food program paperwork.
2) Enter 5 receipts a day til they are all in.

I entered a ton this week but I still have more to process.
3) Turn in times to DHS.
4) Remake daily schedule.

I wasn't able to make one because of some unsure changes in the near future. 

Last weeks goals and updates:

Family/Mothering Goals

1) Get back and finish reading Caleb's Story By Patricia MacLachlan to Caleb

2)Make ornaments with Caleb and Jimmy

3) Go to Caleb's winter party at school!

Personal Goals


1) Finish reading Animal, vegetable, miracle By Barbara Kingsolver
2) Drink 5 glasses of water each day.
3) Go to bed by 8:30pm Sunday thru Thursday for new job.

Home Management Goals


1) Taking putting our house together slowly. Put Dressers back together.
2) Fold all laundry.

3) Put food racks back together and get food on them.

Business Goals


1) Try entering times and meals daily.
2) Do a Fire drill.

3) Remake daily schedule if I can get the info I need from a parent.

Weekly Goals

I forgot to post an update from last weeks weekly goals! So here it is.

Goals for last week :

1)Exercise daily. No time requirement just do something!!

Not even close. This cold air is really turning me away from exercising. Any suggestions on what I could do instead?

2) Make fire and tornado drill sheets
3) Do a tornado drill

4) clean stove
5) Limit computer time to 2 hours per day. Find a reliable way to track this.

I feel really great now that I am on the computer so much less. My family is really benefiting from it too!

6) Flip mattress and put new sheets on

7) Get everything downstairs so our carpets can be cleaned! :)

Our stuff is still down stairs! lol

8) finish Christmas presents
9) Rake leaves AGAIN and get them behind the back yard

Did not get all of them but my husband did a huge chunk of them.

10) Do my habit 7 days this week! (Brush my teeth at night time)

How did you do on your weekly goals? I would love to hear! Please post below.

New opportunities

This child care thing is not panning out to be what I thought it was going to. I STILL haven't gotten paid for over $600 worth of watching from one child. DHS is very far behind.

I went out the other day to just ask about a part time position at McDonalds. I was looking for something in the morning from 4am to 7am Monday thru Friday. I know. Not really great hours and I didn't expect much to come out of it but by golly, they hired me on the spot. No filling out an application. No doing an interview. Just hired! I hadn't even told Jimmy I was going to be looking. They set me up for an orientation and now I got me a job! :) Although I really didn't want to ever get back into fast food, I am thankful for the opportunity to earn some extra cash. I will be working the exact hours I was looking for. Monday thru Friday 4am to 7am. What are the odds that is what they were looking for? I think it was God's Grace that helped me! He knew we were running into a tough spot and he provided. He has a plan for us.

Weekly Goals

Family/Mothering Goals


1) Finish reading Caleb's Story By Patricia MacLachlan to Caleb
2)Even though it's crazy cold. Get Caleb outside at least twice. (Hard with Joel!)
3) Print off some school activities for Caleb that he's been begging me for.


Personal Goals


1) Finish reading Animal, vegetable, miracle By Barbara Kingsolver
2) Get Black shoes for new Job.
3) Go to bed by 8:30 to start preparing for new job.
4) Drink at least 5 glasses of water each day.


Home Management Goals


1) Get Joel's room and master bedroom put back together after last weeks carpet cleaning. (We are still sleeping on the pull out couch and it's been a week!!)
2) Put up Christmas tree.
3) Laundry washed, dried, and folded. All of it!


Business Goals


1) Turn in food program paperwork.
2) Enter 5 receipts a day til they are all in.
3) Turn in times to DHS.
4) Remake daily schedule.