2012 Goals

Back at the beginning of the year, I was asked to give a talk at my church on goal-setting and how it related to our gospel.  I put a lot of time and thought into it, and at the end I felt motivated to try and have each person in our family set some goals for ourselves for 2012.  Although Lyla probably won the award for most goals by getting through a LOT of milestones and changes this year, we all came out really successful and met our goals we set at the beginning of the year.

• Dustin's Goal - Read his scriptures by himself an average of 5 times a week.
• Ellen's Goal - Exercise an average of 3 times a week.
• Lyla's Goal - Read her illustrated scripture stories with her mom and/or dad an average of 5 times a week.

As more general family goals, we wanted to also get better at establishing and sticking to have consistent Family Home Evening lessons, as well as doing a better job at having a prayer as a family each night before Lyla goes to bed, while working with Lyla on how to say a prayer.  Family Home Evening is something our church has asked us to do, which means we set aside time each Monday night to spend time as a family and have a quick lesson, a treat (sometimes), family prayer, and spend some quality time together playing a game or just talking about our day.

We used a sticker chart system (my organization-craved idea) to mark our progress, and I'm happy to report that we met ALL our goals this year!  I don't know that I've EVER stuck to a New Year's Resolution, but I feel like we've grown so much as a family and individually from working on our goals.

Some unexpected obstacles popped up along the way, like Dustin traveling and being away some nights, including Mondays, all of us traveling and visiting family and getting off a routine, and me getting pregnant and not feeling like exercising BUT we worked through it and managed to see our goals through.  I'm so proud of our family, and I'm excited to start working on some 2013 goals!  Now, how to appropriately celebrate meeting our goals for 2012... I'm sure Lyla has some ideas. :)