Sunday, January 4, 2015

Catching Up to 2015

I can hardly believe that Christmas and New Year's is past.  There was no snow here for Christmas and although I dislike snow, something about not having a white Christmas makes it almost not quite seem like Christmas.  Our holidays went pretty well.  The kids were all happy with their gifts despite there being not too many of them, at least not from Santa/their parents.  The grandparents are always a bit of another story.  New Year's Eve was a bit of a bust, in part because I had a very bad headache, and in part because I am so tired these days that staying awake until 10:00pm is a challenge, much less midnight.  Maybe next year!

So, it's 2015 and we're hoping for some really great things this year.  Namely, the birth of our fifth child.  I'm 23 weeks come Wednesday and can hardly believe that I'm close to only being about three months away from having this baby.  It just doesn't seem like enough time.  Not enough time to enjoy my last pregnancy, not enough time to get everything ready at home and not enough time to get everything done at work that I need to get done.

With time in mind, I need to really stick to planning out my days, weeks and months so that I can get things accomplished.  I've been doing a pretty good job, but just not good enough.  Big plans for 2015 requires big planning.

What are these plans?  First and fore most I want to get our budget under control this year.  It's a really big task that I am trying to stay motivated to keep up with.  A few months back I signed up for You Need a Budget (YNAB) and have been using the program going on three months now.  Keeping track of all of my spending has been a real eye-opening experience.  There were some things I was way underestimating my monthly spending on, like groceries and kid's clothing, and things which I was overestimating, like gas.  Something I already knew, but which has been reinforced, is that I spend too much money on unnecessary wants vs spending on needs.  With the baby on the way, I feel a stronger need to get that under control.  Less spending, more paying off debt and more saving.

Other plans, or really goals, are to stay better on top of things.  It takes a lot of organization to keep track of six schedules so adding in a seventh will be a challenge.  And, of course, the older the kids get the more scheduling there is to keep track of.  I also want the house to be better organized which means getting rid of a lot of the clutter.  That is something I manage to do in spurts but the spurts just never seem to last long enough to make a really big dent.

Combining the two, better budgeting and organization, means meal planning.  I've been doing better with this the last few months, but still find myself switching up the plan a little too often.  Either I'm just not in the mood for whatever I have planned, or I simply don't have the energy to cook something.  I understand that flexibility is a key word for parents but I think I can still plan some flex nights while sticking to the plan more often than not.

More goals for not just the next year but life in general?  Read more, play more, yell less, oh yea, and eat less.  Sounds simple, right?  We'll see.