12 New Year Goals & Reading List

I have decided to stick to my top 12 (big) New Year Goals for 2020 that I first wrote about in 2018 because they continue to make sense in my life (with slight tweaking). Let’s help each other become healthier in every way this year!

Some of these goals require just a few minutes of my time every day. Others are habits that I will be working on mastering throughout the year.

These are applicable to my life, right now, so please don’t use them as a measuring stick for your life. Come up with goals that are doable for you!

12 New Year Goals For A Busy Mom

1. Read The Bible every day – Starting in 2018, I have cultivated a habit of reading the Bible in some capacity every single day. Not just to/with my kids as part of our morning time, but also for myself on a personal level. In 2018 I simply read through the Bible front to back, in 2019 I used a Devotional Journal with a scripture text to read every day, and for 2020 I may do a combo of both. Read: How To Choose A Devotional Journal
2. Read (non-fiction) Books For Myself – I read quite a bit to my children, especially for history, but I rarely read for my own enjoyment. I honestly only read 1 book completely through in years and parts of other books. I don’t have much free time and I gave up reading fiction years ago, but I have several non-fiction books on my reading list this year. I hope to read 12 nonfiction I have had on my shelf for a long time. Check out my reading list below. My plan is to read for several minutes in bed each evening (instead of checking my phone and staring at a screen!). Read: Favorite Authors For Christian Women
   

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   This Year’s Reading List

   Keep a Quiet HeartDiscipline: The Glad SurrenderLet Me Be a WomanThe Path of Loneliness: Finding Your Way Through the Wilderness to GodEvidence Not Seen: A Woman’s Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War IIBruchko: The Astonishing True Story of a 19-Year-Old AmericanHearts of Fire: Eight Women in the Underground Church and Their Stories of Costly FaithNo Longer a Slumdog: Bringing Hope to Children in CrisisRevolution in World Missions: One Man’s Journey to Change a Generation

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3. Exercise Daily x15 Minutes – Other than the act of caring for my children, I am not very active. I want to do 15 minutes of exercise every day. I plan to do 3 sessions of 5 minutes each. It works well for me to tag my exercise routine onto my meal times, so I will do a quick session before breakfast, lunch, and supper every day. I will use techniques learned from my favorite online exercise site or simply go for a walk around our property.
4. Stay On Trim Healthy Mama – I have been doing THM off & on since 2013 when I lost down to my lowest weight post-children! I then gained up to my highest weight (not pregnant) that I have ever been to. I feel so much better when I stay 100% on plan. My husband & I are both motivating each other to be healthy and that really helps! As of August of 2017, we replaced fast-food date nights at-home with cooking a healthy dinner together on Friday evenings. We replaced evening runs to pick up milkshakes with snacking on fruit … or for a little less healthy option, we’ll have tortilla chips with salsa and cheese slices. I need to manage my autoimmune disease, have more energy, deal with skin issues, and lose around 10-pounds. I know I will get the best results from the THM lifestyle – if I stick with it. Read: Best Ways To Support Female Health
5. Go To Bed By 9 pm Sun-Thu – I don’t get great sleep because of waking with multiple kids at all hours of the night, but I could improve my sleep if I just went to bed earlier. This is another goal that my husband & I have together. We want to get back to our bedtime routine that got totally messed up with the last time change. We plan to put our kids to bed by 7-8 pm (they are allowed to read quietly in bed for another hour or so), spend some time working online together or just relaxing, then go to bed at 9 and read for several minutes before lights out. We will give ourselves Friday & Saturday nights to stay up a little later with or without the kids.
   
6. Get Up For The Day By 6 am Mon-Fri – This will be hard for me since my sleep is interrupted several times in the night by various kids. I rarely get out of bed for the day before 8 lately, but I really want to get up earlier and be ready for the day. I want to start our homeschool day at 9 am. Between caring for my two kids’ medical/special needs, getting myself breakfast, and all that comes with having 7 children I need to give myself more time. Hopefully, if I get to bed by 9 I will be able to get myself out of bed by 6. Get my favorite printed planner HERE.
7. Get Outside More – We now live in the country on 1-acre of land and getting outside is easier than it was while living in the city. I still need to be intentional about it, though, because I can so easily stay busy inside the house. I have the excuse to go outside and visit the animals on our mini-farm now! My husband and I often enjoy walking around the land while drinking our afternoon coffee (on the weekends). Read: Our Journey Back Home To The Country
8. Purge, Declutter, & Organize Routinely – I hope to do this weekly on Friday afternoons and also more deeply during the last week of each month. Whether it is just one drawer, a closet, or an entire room — I just want to purge, declutter, and organize something often! Read: Top 5 Decluttering Tips
9. Stay Off The Internet – I am going to stay off my phone and computer during our school and family time.
10. Set Online Work Hours – This goes hand-in-hand with the one above… I am setting computer work hours for each weekday afternoon.
11. Create More Products For You – You already love my garden journal/planner, mom planner, homeschool ebook, and Advent guide … but there is so much more to come! Yay!
12. Grow – in my faith, as a wife, as a mom, as a friend, as a homemaker/homesteader/family-farmer, and as a business (referring to this website, Lilla Rose, Norwex, & Usborne, etc.).

So, those are my main new year goals. Of course, many of them will be broken down into smaller steps to accomplish them easier. I’d love to hear about your goals for the new year!

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