I wanted to keep my actual goals list for 2013 separate, so I can link to it in the navigation bar.  But I have more to say about getting started for the year.

Girls’ Goals

First of all, in addition to the one or two goals we set for each of the girls, we encouraged each of them to also set a couple of their own.  (Well, not Livia.  Yet.  But Ariel and Sophia.)  We encouraged a spiritual goal, a learning/skill development goal, and one other thing completely of their choice.  (They chose these others, too, but the third wasn’t necessarily in a given category.)  As it turned out, Sophia actually kind of picked the “washing dishes”  thing, so she ended up with only two others of her own.  And Ariel ended up with four.  (We wanted them to keep it small and manageable.)

Ariel chose:

• Remember to have quiet time 5+ x’s/week.
• Read the New Testament.
• Complete a “fashion drawing”  course or similar.  (She wanted to ” learn to draw clothes better.”)
• Read 50 books [that aren’t for school].

Sophia chose:

• Read Colossians and The Jesus Storybook Bible.
• Learn to crochet.  (We are defining this as having learned four stitches to some degree, and being able to complete a small project in single crochet.)

They did have some guidance here.  They decided what they wanted to do, and we helped them determine how to make it measurable and attainable for them.  Ariel, for instance, wanted to “read the whole Bible.”  My experience — with reading the whole Bible myself, and with her, tells me that she would quickly become overwhelmed by this.  So we guided her to start with this, and pointed out that in a year or two the whole Bible in a year will be more doable.  Sophia’s then came about in a similar manner.  There is no way she could read the whole Bible this year — she’s just learned to read!  But she can read a whole Bible storybook, and a smaller passage of the actual Scripture.

The (non-Bible) reading goal is a good example of one where we somewhat randomly chose a number.  She wanted to read a specified number of books — but didn’t know what number.  I suspect fifty may actually be a bit low for her right now, but we’ll find out and she can adjust for next year, if she wants.

January Goals

My next step was to begin breaking things down, and create goals for the month of January.  Some of these are either goals from the main 2013 list or steps toward goals on that list (depending on the specific circumstances).  And, as usual, there are a few other things tossed in that weren’t goals for the year but that I’m choosing to prioritize this month.  (Some of the annual goals don’t show up here at all; they’ll take a back burner until later in the year.)  My goals for January are:

• Set up procedures for menu/inventory/shopping process.
• Create menu for the month, including freezer plan. (Create overview freezer plan for next few months, as well, to stock the freezer for when the baby’s born.)
• (Include 3+ new recipes.)
• Check this month’s recipes for linkage, etc.
• Locate recipe collection files again and start on copying them over. [These are old files I had in text format that I need to get imported into my recipe software.]
• Try 2 GF bread recipes. [Tried 1.]
• Order curly hair conditioner with VitaCost order.
• Schedule 2013-14 school planning.  [Note that I am not doing this yet.  Just blocking out the time on this summer’s calendar.]
• Create content plan for blog.
• Create parameters to define which reviews to do.
• Create plan for products to work on. (Looking toward 1 major, 2 minor completed.)
• Write/oversee thank you notes. (Include last year’s, when mailing.)  [Embarrassing, but honest.  We wrote our thank you notes for Christmas last year, but mama apparently neglected to actually mail them.]
• Create “blank” Christmas list for this year.  [This is purely my list of people we will be buying/crafting for.  Not the actual items yet.]
• Set up procedures for blog/writing/social media.
• Set up new overall schedule.
• Brainstorm with Michael how best to rework/set up the house to utilize space. [Partial]
• Set up the playroom.
• Replace kitchen checklist. (Include Michael’s lunch needs on evening list.)
• Get all schedule stuff added to calendar – stuff I scheduled with Michael, holidays, etc. [In other words, prep the calendar for the year.]
• Choose first Scripture to memorize.
• Create a default cleaning supply/method list.
• Show the girls how to load the dishwasher.
• Choose recipes with Ariel. [Partial]
• Print & cut daily pages for planner. [Decided on a different way to go about this, so this became a non-issue.]
• Catch up on backlog of blog/email stuff (from illness, etc.)
• Sew baby gifts.