December 2015 Goals

I am 33 weeks pregnant, which means this will presumably be the last month I’m writing goals before our girl joins the family.

Holy moly.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially coming off the busy busy month we just finished up. Feeling overwhelmed is a choice, though, and this month my biggest goal is to keep breaking the seemingly insurmountable to dos down into little steps, to keep taking those steps, and to otherwise enjoy the season of Christmas.

This weekend definitely helped. I’d been hoarding planned purchases like a fevered squirrel and finally acted on them all in a torrent of Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. To make so many purchases in such a short amount of time was a bit of a shock to the system for this infrequent spender, but they were all carefully considered and make me excited. And let this be a reminder to you: if you’re not using EBates for your online shopping, you’re missing out!! I bought a pair of boots I’ve been eyeing for a year for 20% off, then got an additional $10 back by shopping through EBates! We also were able to purchase several things for our girl, including a monitor, bedding, and a cover.

But the reason it was a good weekend was not only because of the money saved, but because of the amazing weather, the hikes we took, the early evening spent decorating our porch for Christmas, the projects finished and started in the nursery — and, of course, our actual Thanksgiving dinner, which was spent with dear friends and their parents. I think December will look similar, which makes me very excited.

Revisiting my goals for November:
Take rings in to be cleaned
Take knives in to be sharpened
Frame and hang our NC BBQ print (explored options but couldn’t find the supplies I needed… yet)
Make a pelmet for little lady’s room (this was basically THE WORST project ever, but we finished!)
Choose and order twin bed bedding
Choose and order Minted Christmas cards
Design and print Christmas card newsletter
Vote!
Host the first Articles Club
Purchase half of our Christmas gifts for friends and family (I think I checked off a third or so)
Start filling out our girl’s baby book

December goals:
— Make and freeze four soups for after our girl arrives
— Deliver homemade toffee to my favorite post office peeps
— Send out our Christmas cards with a personal note on each
— Plan well for Christmas at our home with John’s family
— Give away as much as we spend on Christmas gifts in our church’s Christmas Eve offering (this year going to Imagine No Malaria and local missions)
— Start Life Handbooks for the cousins and our girl when John’s family is here
— Finish shower thank you notes
— Go out to dinner with John for our 2015 review + celebration!

I could add so many more things to this list, mostly related to our newest family member, but I’ll leave it there for now. If you’ve posted your goals somewhere, I’d love to see – or just drop them in the comments!