My Goals for 2013 {and free printable}

In 2012, I decided to have New Year's Goals broken down into specific priority or focus areas of my life.  I really liked doing this and believe it helped me stay focused and motivated for most of the year.  I'm attempting it again this year.  I've modified the monthly goal printable I created, and wrote out my specific goals for 2013.  See last years post about goal setting for more info!

Click here to download a FREE blank copy of the Goals for 2013 worksheet.

Click here to download a FREE blank copy of the MONTHLY goals worksheet.

Click the link above to download a blank copy like the one below to plan out your own goals for 2013.

Books to Read in 2013

I always like to start in January with a list of books to read in the coming year.  (See my list for 2011 and 2012).

2012 has brought many many changes in our lives.  Life happened and I just didn't get to read all of my 2012 reading list.  You know, starting grad school, becoming a teacher, and getting pregnant took up a lot of time :).

This year, I know that I'll have issues making time with a new baby arriving, more grad school, and continuing teaching.  I'm trying to be more realistic with my reading goal.  I don't like not meeting goals, so I'll only have 6 books on my list for this year.  I think that will be manageable and realistic for this season of life.

1. Loving the Little Years
2. The Ministry of Motherhood
3. Shepherding a Child's Heart
4. What to Expect When Your Expecting
5. Margin
6. A fiction book that I've yet to decide on :)


These are the books that I successfully read in 2012-
1. Made to Crave
2. Women Reaching Women
3. The Money Saving Mom's Budget
4. Total Money Makeover (Re-read sections that we are currently working at on our journey towards becoming debt free)
5. The Hunger Games
6. Catching Fire
7. Mockingjay


Reading Now- (All re-reads)
1. The Family
2. A Wife After God's Own Heart
3. A Lineage of Grace

Compare to my to-read list for 2012

Monthly Goal Printable

Have you started planning your goals and resolutions for 2013?  I've made another monthly goal printable to use in 2013.  The printable breaks down into several different specific areas that I will have goals for in each month.  It may or may not work for you according to what your specific goals are for the year, but I thought I would share in case you find it helpful!

Click on the picture below to download your copy!

Christmas Home Tour 2012

Welcome!  I'm so excited for this year's Christmas Tour of Homes!  I love simple, natural Christmas decor and have tried to incorporate that into our home.  Our decorations are very similar to last year's- take a look here.

Our tree is decorated with homemade wax paper garland, many homemade ornaments, and cheap finds.

And one of my "older" favorites...

I've kept our gift wrapping simple as well- natural color scheme and as low cost as possible.  I found the kraft paper with white flowers at the Dollar Tree, the gold and the cream paper at a local shop called Sandy's Country Christmas for .99, and am also using a roll of butcher paper from Lowes that is normally used for contractors.  I got a HUGE roll that will last years for about $7. 

I sewed little pouches for some smaller gifts using an old music book.

And made gift tags using this font

Another favorite is our handmade drop cloth material stockings.  We had to add a new stocking this year for our Savannah- due in May!

My stocking has my great grandmother's pin on it that I wore on my wedding dress

Savannah's stocking has a fabric flower I made from scrap material from my wedding dress (from where it was hemmed)

And Jeremy's stocking is laden with a simple wooden button.

Here are a few other decorations around the house

pillow cover from Dear Lillie

I have linked up to

http://cottagemagpie.com/christmas-parade-welcome/

16 Weeks

16 weeks and I'm starting to really look pregnant :)

I'm loving some hand me down maternity clothes that a friend gave me!

Her Name

This Thanksgiving, we are so thankful for our little girl on the way.  We've chosen to share her name with family and friends today!  

We have chosen the name Savannah Leslie Jenkins.  We love the name Savannah for it's southern charm and because that is the city we visited for our honeymoon.  The middle name, Leslie, is a family name from Jeremy's side.  It is his dad's middle name, was his grandfather's middle name, and was his great-grandfather's first name.  We are glad to be able to pass it to a fourth generation.  

Genorous Friends

Today I'm thankful for generous friends who have gifted us with a new-to-us crib!  This will save on the cost of setting up the nursery and we feel blessed to received it!

Now to set it up- the fun part :)  Today I'm attempting to get our office space cleaned out so we can begin moving baby stuff in.  It is a disaster right now... hence the pictures below.  But hopefully by the end of the day I'll have it nice and neat!

Free Ebooks- eReader Girl

Have you heard about Money Saving Mom's new site?  eReader Girl is a new site that tells you about free ebooks available each day as well as discounted ebooks.

Jeremy has a Kindle and I use the Kindle app on my iphone.  I love adding free books to our collection, plus they don't take up any space on the bookshelf or cause clutter in the house!  If you don't have an eReader but would still like to enjoy these free books, Amazon has free programs that you can download, including Kindle for Mac and Kindle for PC, to use for reading ebooks.

Hope this site is a resource you can use to find free and affordable ebooks!

Nursery Inspiration

I am already planning and dreaming of our baby girl's nursery.  I would like to get the nursery set up early so that I don't have to worry about it in the later months and weeks of pregnancy.  Here are some ideas I'm throwing around.

Oh course I love blues and teals and neutrals, and the baby's room will tie in with the rest of our home well using this color scheme.

via

via

I love the fabric used for these cribs- but the premade sets are just too expensive for our budget.  I did some research and found that the fabric is from the Suzani collection in blue and have found it for around $8/yard online.  I think I may just buy the fabric and attempt making a crib skirt, accent pillows, and possibly a bumper myself.  I've been told that the crib comforters are mainly for mommy to look at and not for baby to use, so I'm going to opt out of buying/making one to save some money.

I'd like to add a big glider chair with some pretty pillows to accent.

via etsy

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via Toys r Us

Our duplex is 2 bedrooms, and we have used the second bedroom as an office/craft room/catch all room until now.  It is a small room, and we can't paint, so we're working with what we have and starting to clear out all the extras to make room for baby!

Here is what the room looked like when we first moved in.  (It has changed a lot since then- we've added a desk, moved out the chair, moved in junk, etc.)

Soon it will be baby-friendly and cute as can be :)

15 weeks and sick

Well, there isn't a baby bump photo for 15 weeks, I've just not felt up to it.  I started feeling sick early this week and finally went to the doctor Saturday morning.  I found out I have strep throat, bronchitis, and an ear infection.  Not good for mommy and baby!

I was put on amoxicillian and told to get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids, and assured that the medicine was safe for baby.  Maybe I'm just being a paranoid first time mom, but I don't like taking ANY medications during pregnancy.  But strep throat can be very bad for the baby if left untreated, so meds it is.

That is about the sum of this week- sick and pregnant, not a fun combination!