Goals for the year

I won't call these New Year's Resolutions, because honestly, I don't think I have ever kept a single one past Jan 5th. But these are goals that I have for this year. Things that will hopefully make me a better mother and better disciple of Christ.
Religious Goals:
1) Really study my scriptures every day. I struggle with this so much. I feel 100 times better when I do it, and 100 times worse when I don't, and I still have problems actually getting it done. I've started reading the Ensign (church magazine) at night before bed, and that has helped me feel a lot better in general too, but it doesn't replace the scriptures.
2) Daily prayer- morning and evening. Evening is easy. Mornings are rough. I tend to get up when Claire does, and then she wants to eat right away and needs to be changed. So an hour or more goes by before I can even think about taking any time to myself.
3) Hold Family Home Evening and / or family scripture study. I know. We should be doing both. But we are starting from zero here. I'll be happy if we can do our FHE every week.
4) Go to the Temple monthly. This is always a goal of mine, and some times are harder than others. I think we went three or four times last year total. Not so good. This year, I want it to be different.

Personal Goals:
1) GO TO BED EARLIER! Sheesh, I cannot stress that enough. Going to bed at 11 just doesn't cut it for me. My goal is to be in bed by 10. This will hopefully lead to getting up earlier (as in before Claire) which will lead to a happier mommy.
2) Sew weekly. Sewing is really my creative outlet right now, and I am feeling a little stifled by not doing any. So I really want to sew once a week.
3) Take a picture every day. (I found this on another blog, but I'm not a regular reader of it so I don't know where.) It can be of anything. Really, I just want to get in the habit of taking more pictures. Sometimes a whole month or more goes by and I realize I haven't taken any pictures and Claire has changed SO much in such a short amount of time. So I am working on a daily picture.
4) Write in a journal. I tend to view this blog as my journal, which is and isn't good. It's good if the internet continues on and my grandkids can find my blog and read about me. It's not so good if the apocalypse comes and electricity and internet goes away. So I want to keep a paper journal. I guess a good place to start would be writing down these goals.
5) Read to Claire daily. At the moment, I end up reading to an empty room because she has run away from me. She won't sit still and look at the pictures. But I think that if I just keep reading, maybe she will get interested and come look at the book with me. I'm hoping anyway.

Household goals:
1) Donate 50 items to DI (Goodwill) over the course of the year. This is roughly one item a week. I got the idea for this from someone who is donating 750 items to Goodwill over the course of the year- that's 2 a day. Luckily, I don't think we are that cluttered, so I went a little more conservative. I did set myself some rules though- if I replace an item, giving away the old doesn't count. And 5 items of baby clothes counts as 1 item. We do have a good amount of girly clothes, and have been given some from friends. Some of it, I just don't dress Claire in and I honestly can't see myself dressing ANY of our children in it. So that stuff needs to go. I don't want to get rid of stuff just to get rid of it. But I want to purge our house of seriously unnecessary items (like the knife block that has been sitting on our counter for 5 years, that I haven't actually used in at least 3. I finally wrapped that thing up in plastic so nothing falls out and am giving it away. The knives are okay for amateur cooks, but I just don't see myself in that light. A girl can dream okay).
2) Keeping up with housework. I'm doing pretty good since I set myself a schedule, but with baby 2 on the way, I'm sure I will need all the reinforcements I can get. The kitchen is the place that I consistently try and fail at. Now that Alann is unloading the dishwasher for me, I am finding myself more able to keep the counter cleaner. Not clean yet, but cleaner. And I am really trying hard to do dishes daily, especially pots and pans. I am trying to at least get the day's pots and pans washed. If the dishwasher is empty, I can load the eating dishes in there right away. I am also trying to let go and put more things in the dishwasher. Now that we have a baby who eats real food, we do use more dishes, and the dishwasher needs to be run almost daily. If I can overcome my prejudices and do things like put the mixing bowls in the dishwasher, I can run it pretty much every day. I still won't run my pots and pans in there, because I love them and don't want to ruin them, and they specifically say to hand wash. My knives are the same. But other stuff can go in there. I say "it's easier to wash it by hand than put it in the dishwasher and take up the room" but not if it sits on the counter for days. I've also added a few things to my schedule that have been on a "as needed" basis which turns into a not done basis- sheets and bath towels specifically.

So those are my goals for the year.