This Week's Goal: Wake Up Before the Kids

Hello, everyone and Happy New Year!

This week's goal is to wake up before the kids. Before I moved back in May I used to wake up at 5:30 every morning. I miss having that time to myself, and while I don't think I can jump right back into waking up that early, I want to try to be up this week by 6:45. That should give me a few minutes to enjoy a cup of coffee by myself before the kids wake up. As time goes on I would like to slowly adjust myself to waking up earlier and earlier. 

What is your goal for the week? 

Have a great week.

-Jess

This Week’s Goal: Limit Sweet Treats To 100 Calories Per Day

I am a pretty healthy eater. Not perfect, (I’ll sometimes throw a “couple” of potato chips on my plate at lunch) but good enough. My biggest weakness on my quest to eat healthy are sweets, and lately I can’t resist them. This week’s goal is to limit the sweets to 100 calories per day. I am going to the grocery store today and I am going to buy a box of the 100 calories packs. I need to do this before I start gaining weight.

Do you consider yourself a healthy eater? What kind of foods do you find hard to resist?

This Week’s Goal: Be More Direct

I wouldn’t say I am the type of person who tells people what they want to hear. If a friend or family member asks me for my opinion, I will be honest with them. Too often however, I choose to keep my mouth shut and politely nod even when someone is saying something I don’t fully agree with. It’s a way of simplifying life and relationships. While I don’t want to be confrontational or be overly opinionated, this week’s goal is to do a little less of that, specifically with closer friends, and be more direct about what I think or how I feel.

How would you describe your personality in situations where you don’t agree with someone?

This Week's Goal: Go for a Hike Without the Kids

Before my kids were born, my husband and I did a lot of hiking. We still do hike a lot. We probably go once a week, but we are confined to flat hikes because we have to carry the baby on our back, and my four year old daughter isn't ready for a steep hike yet. I am really in the mood for a more challenging hike, so this week's goal is to do a hike without the kids. Just me and my hubby! I am hoping we can make the time to head upstate NY into the mountains, but I am not sure we will have the time for that journey this weekend. Even still, there are steeper and longer hikes here on Long Island. 

What is your favorite walking/hiking spot?

What is your goal for the week?

This Week's Goal: Get Organized!

Last week we made the decision to move. We've outgrown our nice, little house in Oyster Bay and are moving to a bigger house the next town over in the same school district. Our move-in date is one month from today! With that said, I have a lot of organizing and packing to do. My goal this week is to organize something everyday, whether it be a draw, cabinet or a closet. I figure if I do a little something everyday, it will make the move a little less horrible.

Wish me luck!

Spring is such an inspirational time of the year...what is your goal of the week? 

This Week's Goal: Read or Watch the News Everyday

I can't believe that this is my goal because before my son was born in June, I was such a news junkie. I read all the world news headlines and knew everything that was going on all around the world. Child number two came along and I found myself with zero extra time on my hands. Well, I am tired of being out of the loop with the news, so this week's goal is to read or watch the news everyday. I am hoping that I take this goal beyond this week and make reading the news a part of my everyday life again. 

What is your favorite news source?

I am looking forward to hearing everyone else's goals for this week. 

This Week's Goal: Plant Seeds In Pots and Make Homemade Natural Cleaner

Last weeks goal was a bust. We never ended up going to the museum or going anywhere for the matter because the kids and I are sick. We are still sick so this week I am doing two light goals: to plant some seeds in a pot and to make my own homemade natural cleaning spray.

Weeks ago, my husband and daughter went on an outing to Home Depot, and while they were there they bought some chive seeds to plant indoors. The pack of seeds have been sitting on my windowsill since. This week my goal is to plant those seeds in a pot, and then the pot can sit on the windowsill rather than the packet. I just need to go out and buy some potting soil...that is what has been holding this whole thing up. 

My second goal is to make my own homemade all-natural cleaner. I don't consider myself an "all-natural" person, but recently I was wiping down the kitchen with my usual cleaning spray, and shortly after the kids and I starting coughing a little. My throat was irritated from the cleaner, and I believe theirs were too. I found a recipe for an all natural cleaning spray which I shared below for anyone who is interested. I am going to make it this week and see how it works and I will let you all know. 

I am confident that even being sick with this horrible ick I can accomplish these goals. I just may need my husband to pick up the potting soil for me. What is your goal for the week? 

Recipe for all-natural cleaning spray found at http://ecocrazymom.com/eco-home-homemade-cleaning-products/:

5-10 drops of Tea Tree Oil
5-10 drops of essential lavender oil
5-10 drops of essential lemon oil

Update: I made the homemade natural cleaner but did not plant the chive seeds. I did buy the potting mix for the seeds and the weather will be nice this week, so I hope to complete that soon. The homemade cleaner came out nice. I've been using it to wipe down the highchair, table and any other surfaces the kids come into contact with a lot. I recommend it. 

This Week's Goal: Go to a Museum

This week is Spring Break for my daughter. I want to take the extra time I have with her and do a few special things, but one of my ideas was to take her to a museum. A year ago my husband and I took her to a small, local art museum. She was only three years old at the time, but she really enjoyed looking at the art work. Her attention span was short, but she was well behaved and enjoyed the trip. 

I was thinking of taking her back to that same museum, but since we live in an old town on Long Island, there are many historical places to take her to as well, so I may consider that. My library (and probably yours) has a variety of free passes to local museums, so even if the trip is a bust, I didn't waste any money. We've tried so many new museums this way. I highly recommend checking out your local library to see if they offer free passes.

What is your goal for the week? I will check back and let you know how I did, and maybe post a few pictures from our trip. Please reply with any museum trip ideas you may have for me too! 

Have a wonderful week!

This Week's Goal: Write a Haiku Everyday

Recently I've been interested in writing Haiku. I don't have a lot of free time to write, but its short, simple form usually allows me to sit for a reasonable amount of time and finish a poem, which I find very satisfying. I would like to take the time this week to write a haiku poem every day. I even joined a Haiku group on Google Plus where I hope I will be brave enough to post my work. So far I am off to a good start. Here is a haiku I wrote yesterday:

Piercing the brown ground
sharp, green leaves! A false fragrance
drifts by like a ghost.

What is your goal for this week? 

This Weeks Goal: Have Family Time Every Day

You would think as a stay-at-home mom that I would not be making goals like this. I am home with my kids all day and I do countless fun activities with them. Because I spend more of my day engaging the kids, I get behind on my other tasks such as cleaning, finances, shopping, etc. I started catching up with these tasks after I cleaned up dinner and my husband would entertain the kids. I realized that by doing my other work after dinner, I was missing out on the time we had to spend as family. I want my kids to have time every day with just my husband. I think its important for them to have that time alone with their daddy. However, I think its equally important to do things together as a family as well.

This week my goal is to set aside 20 minutes every day after dinner to do a family activity. Some ideas I have are playing a board game, going for a walk around the block if the weather is nice or just sit on the coach and talk. The dishes can wait, and the mess in my house will still be there to clean after my 20 minutes with my family. 

What is your goal for the week? Also, do you have any after-dinner family activity ideas for me? I would love to hear your ideas. 

-Jessie B. 

Update: I ended up working on this goal for two weeks. The first week I did splendidly, the second week not as well. I once again became distracted by housework or errands. I decided that if I can set aside these tasks just a couple of days a week that I would be pleased. 

This Weeks Goal: Less Facebook

This weeks goal of the week is to be less distracted by Facebook. I think its great to have an online forum where I can easily keep up to date with friends and family, as well as share what is happening in my life with them. However, lately I’ve been finding myself logging in whenever I have a short moment of downtime. While I love knowing how everyone is doing, I don’t need to know every hour, and though I only check-in for a one or two minutes, I could use that time better. So this week I am setting out to only log onto Facebook no more than three times a day. I am not going to set what time of day I log on, so long as its not more than three times, even if I get notifications on my phone throughout the day. I will let you know how I do. What is your goal for the week?

Update: I think I over did it with this goal. I completely stopped going on Facebook for the majority of the week. Whenever I was about to use one of my turns to log in, I thought to myself that it is a waste of time and I should check the headlines or write an email. 

This was a very effective goal and I am going to try to incorporate it into my daily life for as long as I can. I found that I was more focused on the things I was doing and I completed more tasks in a day. I guess those minutes on Facebook every day really do add up!