Reflection on 2017/Life

We accomplished quite a bit in 2017. We started off the year with a new baby and the Hubs worked several days a week on turning our 2-car garage into a pantry plus master suite. Our bedroom is much quieter on the west end of the house since it is farther from the highway and I think we have more insulation in the walls and ceiling than the main house. 

I finished my 3rd and 4th masters classes, and earned As in each class.

A turned 3 in September and after introducing her to the potty chair over a year ago, she finally potty-trained Thanksgiving weekend. She still wears pullups overnight and during naptime, and if we have a long trip to town planned, but is mostly in undies. 

C has 6 teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom). It seems like she ALWAYS has a cold. She's back on antibiotics again as of yesterday because her runny nose and cough that started 2+ weeks ago hasn't gone away on its own yet. A came down with another cold, too, but has only had it for 2 days or so. (But I'm home with her today because we thought she might have pink eye; her eyes cleared up after she was awake for a bit this morning though) 

When I laid out my goals for 2018, one of the items was budgeting. I may have found a solution. I was using Mint.com, and while I love seeing all my accounts in one place, it wasn't helping me budget. I switched over to You Need A Budget (YNAB). There's a free 34-day trial, and since I'm a student I was able to request an additional year for free. So I'll try it for this year and if it works, I may purchase it next year. I daresay after stressing over money my whole adult life, YNAB makes budgeting fun. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy. 

For the last two weeks I've meal prepped for lunch. This week I focused on packing more veggies, and actually packed so much I couldn't eat everything. I'd have to look back at my planner for last week's lunches, but this week I packed:

morning snack: red grapes, coffee

lunch: carrots, cherry tomatoes and sliced bell peppers with hummus; a wheat wrap sandwich with cream cheese, pesto, an arugula/spinach blend and roast beef; ramen/cabbage slaw 

afternoon snack: Greek yogurt (Aldi has a delicious toasted coconut flavor...) and a piece of good dark chocolate

And I've been tracking my water intake again. It's difficult for me to drink water when it's cold outside. 

Breakfasts this week were wheat pancakes with peanut butter, and strawberries. and of course coffee. (a necessity with sick kids)

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Goals for 2018

As I indicated in my last post, I would like to blog again and I would like to set and achieve some goals for 2018. If I share them here, maybe I'll be more likely to achieve them all...

Financial goals:

1. Pay off house renovations. This should be complete by March

2. Pay off appliances. This should be complete by July 

3. Save toward a down payment on a new-to-me car. I love my Mazda 3 hatchback, but it doesn't have enough leg room for A, and all four of us can't ride in my car anywhere. My tags are due in July, but because of items 1 and 2, saving for a car isn't in the cards for the first half of the year. I would like $5,000 saved plus whatever I get for trading in the Mazda (or selling it outright). I think this is doable by December. 

4. Budget. I started using Mint.com last year but stopped while I was on maternity leave. Then it was hard to pick back up because I hadn't stayed on top of categorizing expenses. 

Personal goals:

1. Garden. With the kids this has been difficult the last several years. Even if I need to take several vacation days to put the garden in and harvest, I need to commit to it for my mental health. Between work, school, the kids and the hubs I don't get any "me" time and I often feel I need to recharge. 

Subgoals: a. Add 2 more garden beds

                 b. plant 3 more spruce trees

                 c. Plant the 2 replacement apple trees and 1 apricot in March

2. Blog or Journal. At least twice a week. This may be here, or it may be in handwritten journals. I started journals for A and C earlier this year and every couple months I try to write down funny things they've said or done, and milestones they've hit. 

3. Complete at least 4 Master's level classes. If I can take a summer class, and then two classes in each winter and spring semester, I'll be complete Summer 2019. Then I'll only have the thesis/internship paper and presentation to complete. So far there aren't any classes posted for summer 2018 so I may have the summer off. I'm flipflopping between "yay" and "well, that sucks" haha
4. Be a planner. This year I've used a planner for keeping track of meals, errands and tasks. I would like to be better at planning things in advance.
Subgoals: a. plan breakfasts, lunches and snacks to assist with goal b.
                 b. Lose weight. According to my height and weight, I have another 15 pounds to lose. Once I stop breastfeeding in January, after C turns 1, this should be easier. I'm down 10 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight with her, but I am ravenously hungry all day because I'm still pumping at work.
                 c. Exercise. Not sure where this will fit in with work, 2 classes and the kids, but it needs to be a priority, too. 

Oh, and I'm posting in the middle of the day today because the Hubs had 2 wisdom teeth removed this morning and I'm home baking Christmas cookies. Except in my infinite wisdom I remembered to buy flour, sugar, brown sugar and chocolate chips but forgot about oatmeal and eggs, so I have to make a trip to Dollar General...

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