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.

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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!

14 Weeks...It's a...

This has been my favorite week of pregnancy so far- so much excitement.   

We went to Vision of Life in Greenville, SC this past Friday night to have a gender determination ultrasound done.  It was the most amazing experience and we are so glad we decided to pay a little extra to do it!   We were thrilled to find out that baby Jenkins is a GIRL!  

I've postponed the week 14 post (I'm actually 15 weeks now) because we wanted to wait a couple of days to reveal the gender to everyone.  

Our ultrasound lasted about 15 minutes and it was amazing to see our little girl moving around, bending her legs and turning flips.  It really made it real.  I praise Jesus that she is active and seems to be healthy so far, and pray that she continues to grow and develop properly.  I can't wait until I start feeling some of that movement!

We have a DVD of the ultrasound and I've watched it everyday so far since Friday.  I can't get enough of it :).  It's amazing to see how much she has changed and grown since our first ultrasound at 9 weeks. Here are some pictures of our little girl...

We got a little preview of the 3D ultrasound!  We have another appointment scheduled for right around 30 weeks for another 3D ultrasound.

Here's a little recap of how I've been this week:

Feeling/Symptoms?  I have been extremely emotional this week.  I can feel those hormones kicking into overdrive.  I'm glad Jeremy is patient with me- these mood swings can be crazy!  I have only gotten sick once this week, so that is starting to drop off.  I've also been in a get things done kind of mood.  I'm starting to get some energy back and I'm not taking naps every day like I was early on, and I cooked supper more times this week than I have in a while.  

Coming Soon...

Tonight we are revealing the gender of our baby!  I'll be posting it here soon. :)

13 Weeks

How Far Along?  I'm 13 weeks and 6 days

Feeling/Symptoms?  I was not nearly as sick this week as the past two.  I haven't been as sensitive or queasy.  Thankful!  I was feeling pretty tired again this week though.

Doctor's Appointment:  I went for my second doctor's appointment this week and got to hear baby's heartbeat again!  The heartbeat was 140 and I just loved hearing it!!  Next week we are going to a have a 3D ultrasound to find out the gender, can't wait for that!

Food Cravings/Aversions: I am craving juice like no other!  However, my doctor warned me that I have gained too much weight so far, and that I needed to cut out juice.  It is going to be very hard to do!

This week ends the first trimester!  Supposedly, the second is suppose to be smooth sailing compared to the first, so I'm looking forward to that.  I feel like I'm starting to show, and Jeremy and others are starting to comment on it.  We are so excited to find out the gender next week.  We still haven't decided when or how we are going to tell the gender and name, but we'll think of something.  

An Unknown Future

I've been reflecting a lot on how far we have come in the past year.  This November, I want to focus my attitude on thankfulness for all the blessing the Lord has provided us in the short time Jeremy and I have been married.  The first thing I thought of was how God has taken care of our future.  Last year we were so confused, we were stepping out on faith, we were counting pennies to make it by, and I see where he has brought us and I'm astounded.  This quote has been resonating with me, and I hope it will encourage you as well.

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Our God is faithful to provide!

12 Weeks

How Far Along?  12 weeks

Feeling/Symptoms?  Like last week, I have been getting sick again.  I am grateful that it is not as bad as some people get, but it is still unpleasant.  I feel like I am actually starting to show a little- according to what I wear mostly.  

Food Cravings/Aversions: -  In general, no foods seem appetizing.  When I try and plan our menu for the week, I just can't come up with things that sound good to me.  We've been eating out a bit too much because of this.  I need to get myself back on a more healthy track of eating!  Again, I've been craving lots of juice this week.  Cranberry Grape and Orange juice are my drinks of choice for the past two weeks.

11 Weeks

How Far Along?  Today I'm 11 weeks and about 5 days.

Feeling/Symptoms?  I have been getting sick quite a bit this week- but it has been mostly in the evenings instead of the morning.  Smells are the worst trigger, as well as just the sight or smell of something gross.

Maternity Clothes?  Nothing yet, but I did get some hand me downs of larger sized "regular" pants, it feels nice to have more room. My jeans with the hair tie extender are getting uncomfortable, and I can't find my belly band right now.  Need to find it!

Food Cravings/Aversions: -  I've been craving lots of juice this week.  Cranberry Grape and Orange juice are wonderful!  I've also been lots of crackers.

10 weeks

How Far Along?  Today I'm 10 weeks and about 5 days....again, I'm late on posting :)

Feeling/Symptoms?  I experienced my first morning sickness this week.  I was eating oatmeal for breakfast, and the last bite just didn't settle well with me.  Other than that, I've actually been feeling very good.  I believe the prenatal vitamins from the doctor are kicking in and I've had more energy this week than I have in probably a month and a half.  

Maternity Clothes?  Still nothing but the belly band and some hair ties to expand my pants.

Food Cravings/Aversions: -I can't say that I have been craving anything specific this week.  I've drunk a lot of orange juice, but I dont think it was really a craving.  Food aversions- I am not liking the look or smell of mayonaise right now.  Yuck!  

9 Weeks

How Far Along?  Today I'm 9 weeks and about 5 days....so this post is a little late

Feeling/Symptoms?  So far I have been feeling surprisingly well.  I have not been nauseous at all- so thankful for that!  I have been EXTREMELY tired for the past 3 weeks or so.  After I get home from work, I will usually take around a 30 min to one hour nap, and there have been several nights that I've made it to bed around 8:30pm!  This week specifically I've had a cold/allergies, so that hasn't been fun added with pregnancy.

Maternity Clothes?  Some of my regular pants are starting to get snug.  I have added a hair tie through the button hole to expand them a bit.  Last weekend we went ahead and bought a Bella Band- I've used it once so far, and it felt wonderful. :)  I have not purchased any maternity clothes yet though, and I think it will be a while before they are really needed.

Doctor's Appointment:  We went this week to our first doctor's appointment.  Things look good, they gave us our due date of May 6th, 2013 and I got a few questions that had been on mind answered. Our absolute favorite part was hearing our baby's precious heartbeat.  I'm so amazed at the miracle of life!

How long have you known?  We found out we were pregnant around four weeks.  We told only immediate family at first, and then told a few close friends.  We wanted to at least wait until our first appointment to share the news. 

Food Cravings/Aversions: If you saw Jeremy's announcement post on Facebook, you know that I'm avoiding Mexican at all cost.  The very thought of Mexican food is just really disgusting right now.  As far as cravings, this week all I've wanted is clementine oranges.  I think my body was lacking some vitamin C from the cold/allergies. I've also really taking a liking to carbonated water- Strawberry Kiwi flavor from Wal-Mart.

Announcing....

Jeremy and I are excited to announce that we are expecting our first little bundle of joy in early May!

Today was our first doctor's appointment, and it was such a joy to see our tiny little baby moving around and listen to it's precious heart beat.  What a miracle!  Praising God for His blessing and praying protection for our sweet baby.