2025 goals: January

 As inspired by Ashley, over at The Big White Farmhouse, I would like to try to collect my yearly and monthly goals to keep me accountable and to keep a record. This is my first month trying it in this format, so who knows what I will be able to keep track of lol.  Check out Ashley's blog to see her January goals and if you want to try to keep a record of your goals this way, just leave a link to your blog for others to visit. 

Now, let us look at my Jan 2025 goals.   

FIVE TOP PRIORITIES

1.  family: make and purchase the items needed for my sister's baby shower this Saturday. We are having a brunch theme so I need to make a breakfast casserole and hard boil some eggs.

2. :financial: try not to make any other purchases this month other than groceries and necessary house items

3. creative: keep stitching on my embroidery projects (something I do when watching tv, sitting as a car passenger, or in a waiting room)

4. prayer: my daily Rosary

5. clean baseboards, bathrooms, vacuum, and cabinet fronts

FIVE "WOULD BE GREAT TO DO" TASKS

1. meal plan weekly with 3 main meals, 1-2 lighter items and 2 leftover nights.

2. follow along with a daily declutter plan to thin some spaces and make the house feel a little lighter

3. look through seed catalogues for this year's garden

4. clean up the filing cabinet and closet -- it is a bit of a mess. I had started to thin files a few months ago, and got sidetracked. There are piles but nothing much was done with anything. I need to find a shred event somewhere for the spring. 

5. creative: cut more small scrap fabric into 'precut' pieces --  I made some decent progress on this last week. My goal is to take fabric that is a fat quarter or less (occasionally a half yard) and cut down to a variety of these sizes: 3" strips, 10" blocks, 5" blocks, 4" blocks. I do keep 1-2" pieces in a different container for crumb quilts but not odd sizes or shapes. 

FIVE LITTLE STEPS TO GET AHEAD

1. financial and home decluttering: sell books via Pango

2. financial: pay a little extra each month on the mortgage. For the past 6 months, we have been able to pay an extra $200/month on the mortgage principle.

3. mother academia: read a little each day -- even if that is just a few pages. I have a 5x5 book challenge this year which consists of mostly books I own and some library borrows. I hope to buy a few, but very little new to me books this year.

4. health: make a list of things to replace that are plastic with healthier alternatives (any leads on a wooden or metal pasta fork/scoop?)

5. garden: buy some bags of soil this month to improve small sections of garden each month or season. We don't have one large garden, but several smaller garden beds around the house. Most of the beds are just flowers, not herbs or food crops, but 2 beds host garlic and herbs.