Weekend Fun

I just realized that it has been a while since I blogged.  It was a pretty busy (but awesome) weekend and start of the week.

Friday night was the last game night at Emmanuel.  I got to hold a beautiful four week old baby and she fell asleep on me, and she was just so cute.  Even when she was crying.  All Adam kept telling me was “no.”  But she was so cute and precious.  They always play these intense games at game night, so this time I took Cranium and a couple other fun games that are not quite as intense, hoping to play some of them, but I didn’t get to.  So if anyone out there wants to play fun games, I am definitely ready for a game night!  After game night, Adam went over to our neighbors house to play another game and I stayed home and watched Unstoppable on television, which I always enjoy watching.

Saturday morning we got to sleep in and take it easy.  Adam recently decided that he wanted to start skateboarding over the summer, and since he had some entertainment money saved up, we went Saturday afternoon and bought him a skateboard.  The last couple days he has been trying to learn how to olie (I think I spelled that right…)  Around three we got in the car and headed to Ashville for the Relient K concert (our favorite band!)  We picked up our tickets from will call and walked around Asheville to find something to eat.  We found a Mexican restaurant to eat at and then we still had almost two hours before the doors opened so we walked around Asheville some more (in the rain) but it was fun to spend time together.  We got in line around 6:30 and waited for the doors to open.  The concert was at the Orange Peel.  We had never been there before but it was a really neat concert venue and we really enjoyed it.  Since we were already tired from walking around, we snagged a couple stools at the back of the room.  The concert started at 8pm and there were three bands that played before Relient K.  First was Mike Mains and the Branches, which Adam and I both really loved.  We thought they were the best of the opening bands.  Second was William Beckett.  And third was Hellogoodbye.  They all did a really good job.  Before Relient K played, Adam and I moved toward the front and ended up about 6 rows away from the stage.  Needless to say, Relient K was awesome.  We both had so much fun!  It was a great concert and a great date night for both of us.

Sunday we just took it easy.  It was a great weekend.

23 for 23 Update

March is done, and I did pretty well on my goals.  Check it out!

Daily Goals
1. Be content with where I am in life, don’t wish my life away, flourish where I am
I feel like I am doing pretty good with this one.  Sometimes it is hard, but when I remind myself of how good I have it, then it becomes a lot easier.

2. Be a good, supportive, encouraging, loving wife to Adam
I feel like I am doing well at this one.  I am trying to be really mindful about how I treat Adam.  But I guess you’ll have to ask him to see how I’m doing at this one.

3.  Do one thing to clean the house
My shoulder has been feeling a little better, so I am doing better at this one again.

4.  Keep a food and fitness diary to help me remember to be more healthy.
The fitness thing isn’t going too well.  I’m hoping to start walking everyday because that shouldn’t hurt my shoulder.  And I am doing better at making better, healthier, well-rounded meals.

Weekly Goals

5.  Call my mother
Still rocking this one, and it has been really good for my relationship with me and my mom.

Monthly Goals

6.  Write a thank you note to someone who I am grateful for Check.
I wrote a note to Adam.

7.  Have intentional date nights with Adam.
We went to LongHorn steakhouse (with a gift card) and saw Les Miserables at the Real to Reel.

8.  Find a craft or something creative to do
Super check!  Crocheted hats, art for the bedroom, and crocheted a scarf.

9.  Have someone over for dinner.
Amanda and Jarod came over for pizza, and then another night we had the Nicols and the Albrechts over for dinner.  It was super fun!  Oh! and I forgot, the Tomlinsons were here visiting for Easter and I made dinner for the family as well.  So I think that counts.

10.  Do something with my sister
We watched The Paperboy and The Lion King.

One time goals

11.  Finish Financial Peace University with Adam and save some money.
Check this one off my list.  We finished Financial Peace in March.  During the class we saved $800 and paid off $400 of debt.

12.  Take a vacation No progress made

13.  Finish my Best picture list I made quite a bit of progress on this one.  I watched 6 best picture movies in February, one was added to the list, and I only have 8 left to watch!

14.  Finish reading Anna Karenina
Check! Done and sooo happy about it!

15.  Plant flowers in the flower beds outside my apartment
The weather is getting warmer, so hopefully I’ll get to do this soon.  I’m pretty excited about it.

16.  Read through the whole Bible again
Working my way through.

17.  Play Eclipse with Adam
Done.  Pretty happy about it too.  It was actually pretty fun.

18.  Finish watching Prison Break
I have sadly not watched any Prison Break.  Maybe someday soon.  Maybe during my free time at the convention this week I can work on it.

19. Learn how to knit
I know how to slip knot, get started, knit, and pearl.  And my first knitted scarf is progressing nicely.

20.  Go to a sporting event or concert
Progress made!  Bought tickets to a Relient K concert in May!! So excited!!

21.  Take a cooking class
No progress made, mostly because I can’t find one near us.

22. Go one weekend unplugged
Not warm enough yet

23.  Read a biography of someone I don’t like to learn more about them
I have too much other stuff that I am currently reading.

I feel like I rocked March!  Checked four one time goals off, that’s pretty good!

Presentation

The time has come for me to present to you my 23 Goals for my 23rd Year.  I am really excited about these goals.  I have spent quite a few hours pondering this goals and making them better.  I really tried to make my goals actual things that I could attain.  There are only two “fluffy” “immeasurable” goals, which are: to be more content and be a good wife.  All the other goals I can actually see if I have met them or not.

I hope you will keep me accountable with these goals and maybe I’ll inspire you to make your own.  I also got so excited once I finished writing my goals that I didn’t want to wait until February 25^th to start working on them, so I’m going to start February 1^st, just to get a head start.

My goals are split up into separate categories: daily, weekly, monthly, and one time goals.  I figured that this would help make them more manageable and easier to keep track of.

So, here are my 23 Goals and a little bit about why I picked each one:

DAILY
1. Be content with where I am in life, don’t wish my life away, flourish where I am
I wrote this goal because of the blog post I wrote yesterday about a really good message I heard that really moved me.  I realized that I have been viewing this stage in my life as an “inbetweeen” transition stage and so I wasn’t investing here.  Click here to read more about flourishing.
2. Be a good, supportive, encouraging, loving wife to Adam
Even though I do not mean to, sometimes I take Adam for granted and I know that.  So this year I am going to try and not do that.  And I also want to be more supportive and encouraging of his work in seminary.  Even when I don’t get to see him because he has a bunch of homework.
3. Do one thing to clean the house
Too often, I come home from work and I make dinner and then I just relax the rest of the night, which means that by the end of the week our house is in shambles.  This year I want to try and be better about doing at least one thing a day to make cleaning the house more manageable and help it to look better more often.
4. Keep a food and fitness diary to help me remember to be more healthy
I don’t know how many times last year I said I was going to “be more healthy” well now I am going to keep track of everything I am doing and hopefully that will make me more mindful.  Here is an example of my food and fitness diary:
WEEKLY
5. Call my mother
My mother and I have never been “best of friends” but more and more I have come to rely on her advice and her support.  Something about growing older I guess.  I want to be more intentional about calling her just to talk and to make our relationship even stronger.

MONTHLY
6. Write a thank you note to someone I am grateful for
I am thankful for a lot of people in my life, but I fall short in expressing this to them.  I want to be more intentional in thanking the people in my life that mean a lot to me.
7. Have intentional date nights with Adam.  Start with at least once a month
This goes back to the being intentional with my relationship with Adam.  I want to intentionally spend time with him, doing something together, once a month.  This will be a time to relax and connect with each other because our lives can get so busy.
8. Find a craft or something creative to do
I thrive on being able to be creative.  I don’t want to lose time with myself because of how busy I get.  So this goal is two-fold.  One, I get to express myself through crafting and two, I get to enjoy some time by myself, relaxing.
9. Have someone over for dinner
Adam and I are always saying to each other how we would like to get to know a couple better, or spend more time with our friends, but then we never do it.  So this goal is to help both of us set time aside and focus on building relationships with people.
10. Do something with my sister (her coming over to do laundry doesn’t count)
My sister and I have not always had a good relationship.  You might say that we strongly disliked each other for most of our lives growing up.  But now that she is in college, we have become much better friends and I want to cultivate that relationship, not just when she needs to use our washer and dryer.

ONCE
11. Finish Financial Peace University with Adam and save some money
Adam and I are getting ready to start our third week of FPU tomorrow, and we are trying to really be committed to the principles we are learning and really do some savings.  We need discipline, quite frankly.  We need to learn how to save better so we can be ready when emergencies come up.  I am excited for the future peace to come in our lives.
12. Take a vacation–or have a weekend getaway trip somewhere we have never been
I just want to be able once this year to go on a getaway and relax with my husband.  I want us to be able to do something fun that we both enjoy and get some time away from everything going on.  So hopefully we can make this happen.
13. Finish my Best Picture movie list
I have been working towards this goal for almost two years now, and gosh darn it, this year I’m going to finish it.  As of right now, I only have 14 more movies to watch and two on my shelf at home waiting to be viewed.  To keep track of my list visist: Best Picture Movie List.
14. Finish reading Anna Karenina
I don’t know how it happend, but I got it in my head that I would really like to read this book.  Luckily, it was free on my Kindle.  So I have been reading it for a few months now, and it is good, but it’s just so stinkin long!  It will probably take me the whole year to finish it.
15. Plant flowers in the flower beds outside my apartment
I love flowers.  And I have always wanted to garden but have never had a place to do it.  Our apartment at Emmanuel has flower beds in the front and back and I would really like to plant flowers in them this year.  And I also think the process of weeding them, which is inevitable, will be rather relaxing.
16. Read through the whole Bible again
My freshman year of college I read through the whole Bible, and it was an amazing experience for me.  I have not been able to do this since then, so I wanted to do it again.  The last few years I have not been devoted to reading my Bible every day, and I really want to get back to that.  To keep track of my reading click here.
17. Play Eclipse with Adam
Eclipse is Adam’s new favorite game, probably in the whole world, but it intimidates me because it is intense.  And also because they tell you up front that it will take 30 minutes per person playing to play this game.  That is what I call a significant time committment.  So my goal is to play this game once this year so I know what all the fuss is about.
18. Finish watching Prison Break
 I started watching Prison Break sometime in December and I absolutely love it!  I haven’t even finished Season 1 yet, but in the next year my goal is to finish the whole series.
19.  Learn how to knit
I learned how to crochet back in my freshman year of college.  And this year I wanted to learn something new, and since I have never attempted to knit in my entire life, I thought it would be a fun thing to learn.
20.  Go to a sporting event or a concert (where you have to buy tickets)
It has been forever since I have gone to a concert that wasn’t a Milligan College concert, and Adam and I have not been to a sporting event that wasn’t at Milligan in a long time either.  So I thought it would be fun for us to seek out one of these this year, or maybe even both!
21. Take a cooking class
I have discovered that I really love to cook.  I want to get better at it.  So, this year I will have my eyes peeled for classes in the area so I can get better at cooking.
22.  Go one weekend (one with good weather) without watching TV, movies, or tygetting on the computer–a weekend “unplugged”
I want to do this to see if I can do this.  It seems that on the weekend I plop down on the couch and stay there for a majority of the days of my weekend.  That’s just sad.  Weekends should be for doing things I can’t do during the week or that I don’t have time to do during the week.
23.  Read a biography of someone that I am not a fan of so I can learn more about them
I was trying to think of one more goal and this one popped into my head.  I don’t have a person in mind just yet, but we will see who pops up this year.

Here’s to a year of checking off goals!
To keep track of my progress throughout the year, click on the 23 for 23 page on the side bar or click here.