February Mini Goals Update

New Years Goals that will be included monthly:

1. Write in a journal every day: I have consistently journaled every day since Christmas. I am loving it! Same as last month, I am still learning that it is okay to not have a lot of profound things to say every single day. Some days I write about something that's bothering me, most days I brag about what I'm accomplishing. It's been nice to see the journal slowly fill up. The OCD side of me is starting up with the voices of needing to start over and rewrite what I've already finished because there are certain pages that are messy almost to the point of illegible, but I am fighting that voice and realizing that it doesn't have to be perfect and that it gives it character. Or something like that...
2. Take at least one picture a day: I am still on track with this one, however I am finding that most days I am taking a picture for the sole purpose of getting a picture in for that day. Nothing fancy or creative happening for the most part and that's not as much fun for me. I may think about loosely following a photo challenge for the month of March to strike some creativity in the photography department. I really need to stop being lazy in this regards and take out my actual camera instead of depending on my iphone.
3. Run and/or walk 105 miles: I am doing well on this goal. I am still trying to get in two walks at work Monday-Friday as well as a run every day (some days I run farther than others). It definitely helps to be training and my long weekend runs are the main addition to my mileage. So far I am at 63.57/105.
4. Run at least one mile every day to continue running streak: Still streaking! I was just thinking the other day that my goal is 500 days in a row. What happens after day 500? Do I keep going? Do I take a break and start a new streak? Do I make a goal of 1000 days? What's next? Obviously I still have a ways to go to think about this, but I am pretty sure that if I get to day 500 I'm not going to stop. Yesterday was day 116.
5. Track on MFP: I have been consistently tracking for almost 65 days. Just about 300 days to go before I reach my goal of tracking for a year! Granted, some days are better than others and a lot of the time I forget a thing or two, and don't even get me started on tracking things like water or exercise... I think the main victory is that I start each day with the best intentions and that's going to have to be good enough. I know that if I want to be better then I'm going to have to stick to it and track every little thing, but as long as I'm doing that most days then it's a win in my book.
6. Read two books: I have finished one and have started the second one. It's taking me a little longer to get through this one, not because it's not interesting (because it is), but because by the time I go to bed at night (which is when/where I do most of my reading) I only make it through a couple pages before I'm zoning out and falling asleep. Then I have to reread it the next night because I forgot what it said. Since I'm already a relatively slow reader I need to set aside some time to get through this book and start a new one before the end of the month.

February Goals:

1. Have at least one child free date night with Patrick: The plan is to go out tonight.. Pretty cliche because it's Valentine's Day and what not, but we have only actually celebrated Valentine's Day by going out once in the past 4 years and we ended up going on the 13th. We do the whole card thing (and normally Patrick gets me roses and chocolates), but this year we decided to skip the flower/chocolate thing and use it as our date night. We are going to In-N-Out for dinner and MB2 Go Kart Racing afterwards.
2. Take Isabel bowling: We have not had the chance to go bowling yet this month, but I still plan on taking her. We have been able to do a few other mother/daughter things (including going to see The Fresh Beat Band concert), but I would still like the family to go bowling sometime soon.
3. Plan Isabel's birthday party: It is definitely in the works and a lot of items have been purchased already. She is having a Frozen themed birthday party and I am really excited for all of the ideas I have (most that I have found online). I think she's going to have a blast and it's the first year that we are inviting friends from school. Once I get over the panic of that idea I can focus more on the decorating and fun we will have.
4. Cook dinner at least once: Have not done this yet, but will start looking for a new recipe to try.
5. Have taxes done: done, filed, refund deposited in our account, half transferred to savings, two bills paid off, waiting for two more to come in to pay off. Patrick and I discussed this and agreed to splitting our tax return right down the middle and putting half towards our house savings and half towards our debt. By doing this we should be on track to get out of debt by July and we are now more than halfway towards our goal for beginning the process of looking for a house.
6. Spend less time on my phone: I am trying to be more conscious of this, especially when I am around other people, but it doesn't always work that way. I need to be less dependant on using it for everything and start focusing on spending a small amount of time here and there catching up on my to-do lists, tracking on MFP or adding mileage to runkeeper. I need to spend less time on emails and facebook.
7. Set up and stick to budget: This is the one I am most excited about. I sat down and looked through our budget for last month and used that as a guide for this month. I think we are doing a much better job of sticking to our budget and focusing on where we are spending our money. These first few months of the year are a little difficult to budget based on tax returns and birthday parties, but we are making it work and I am doing my best to spend wisely in regards to Isabel's birthday. I am really excited to look and see where we are at at the end of this month, and even more excited to see how debts go down and our net worth go up.