2015 and some landmark to-dos

I have really gone back and forth about making resolutions for myself in 2015, but after some thought, I realized that I really like setting goals for myself. It is cliche to set these big goals for New Year's, but it just makes sense! I wouldn't be me without having a few things in mind that I would like to accomplish in the next year.

Below you will find my goals, concisely bolded for those that may not enjoy my rambling prose (is rambling prose an oxymoron? Ha.) Rambling is therapeutic for me. Don't judge.

Exercise consistently throughout the year. Consistently being the key word. For the past two years, I worked out very consistently 3-4 times per week from January to approximately October, then, after October, it all fell apart. In 2013, I was in my first year of teaching and from August to October, I was always training for something (Capital Pursuit 10 miler and then a half marathon in October). After the training was over, I let the stress of teaching take over. November is a stressful month in my building and then December brings about its own unique challenges personally and professionally.  I think everyone is just trying to get to winter break in one piece. I found that 2014 was no different. I worked out consistently until October and then, I just stopped. Last year I had a wedding dress to fit into and I knew I would be looked at by 200+ people, so that really motivated me to get in shape. In 2015, we hope to get pregnant, and honestly, for me personally, that might be more of a reason to drop some extra pounds and get into shape. I am terrified of putting on weight from being pregnant, and I know that if I am not in shape when I get pregnant, not only will it be hard to exercise throughout pregnancy, but it will be hard to lose the extra weight.

So, um, that naturally leads to another goal of 2015. Get pregnant. I am hesitant to talk too much about this goal of ours because my heart aches for those that struggle with infertility. I am not assuming this will be easy for us, and I realize that this goal is not controllable. Obviously, we do what we can to control it, but at the end of the day, there is a plan that I am not privy to knowing. I trust that plan. What I will do, all I can do, is take care of my body and be kind to myself.

My next goal is a financial goal. I have really, very willingly, given the financial reins to Bill in the terms of managing our finances, but we both agree that we need to be a team. We need to hold each other accountable to our spending and we need to continue building up our savings. Money stress is the worst kind of stress for me. It takes over my thoughts and turns me into a different person. I can feel my chest tightening up just writing about the stress over money. I hate it. When we have money saved for emergencies, I feel much better. I would love to take Bill Ramsey's course Financial Peace University this year so we can work on becoming better at taking care of our marriage and avoiding fights over money.

In the second year of teaching we are required to complete a portfolio. It is due before spring break and is a list of 10 standards, with several sub-standards underneath that. Each standard requires an artifact that demonstrates how you have met that standard. Overall it is about 43 artifacts, with captions. My goal was to finish my portfolio by the new year, but that is clearly not happening. My new goal is to complete my professional portfolio by the end of January. I. Can. Do. This.

In 2014 I read a measly 35 books. Much different from the 57 books in 2011 and 71 books in 2012, however, 2014 was BUSY. We planned a wedding where we did everything ourselves (except the cake. I thought about making a cake, but then realized, I don't bake well). We bought a house and combined two lives (and stuff. Lost of stuff). We were busy. I was busy. Reading for pleasure was a luxury that my scattered brain had a hard time focusing on. In 2015, I want to protect my reading time and will aim to read an average of one book week and read 52 books for the year. 

That's it.

What is one big thing you would like to cross off your to-do list in 2015?