So much has changed since I shared my goal ideas for March 2020, here is an update. See what I accomplished and what I didn’t. Don’t forget to snag your free copy of my goals printable at the end of this post, if you haven’t already!
If you’re new here, I’m a homeschooling mom of 6 little boys. My husband works full-time and we farm cash crops, hay, and cattle. I handle the marketing for the farm and help with the animals and the hay. I’m definitely more work-at-home mom than stay-at-home mom these days. I also enjoy riding and working with horses and connecting with other women through social media and this site. My husband and I follow Dave Ramsey’s principals, which you can read more about in our money story. These monthly goals ideas definitely reflect our lifestyle.
Family Goals:
- Do 1 “Boys’ Date” day where my husband and/or I spend time with some or all of the boys doing something that they want to do. So far this year we have done Splash Village and 4-H Winter Camp. This month it might be practicing shooting their BB guns, something they often ask to do. {We didn’t practice shooting, but Brian has been off work a lot due to the pandemic so we have been spending a lot of quality time with the boys. I just asked them what fun things we have done and they said playing down by the pond and making lemonade were their favorites. I filmed them making lemonade so watch for that on an upcoming Montessori Monday!}
- For homeschooling, complete 4 weeks of Sonlight Level B with my oldest two and stay on track with their Foundations and Essentials lessons and well as Montessori math. Also, complete 4 weeks of preschool with my youngest four. {I think we hit our goals with the oldest kids. We may have only gotten through 3 weeks of preschool, but we have been including the younger boys in the rest of our schooling more so I’m happy with that.}
- Have my sister and her fiance over at least one time. {Sadly, we couldn’t do that in light of the social distancing directive. 🙁 }
- Write and deliver or mail a few birthday cards. {We did mail some cards in March, and the oldest two boys also wrote notes and mailed them.}
Home Goals:
- Konmari – Bathrooms. This is the home organization method from the book The Magic Art of Tidying Up. I’ve been working my way through each category slowly. We did the whole list at our old house and it really helped create a peaceful mood in our home. Many parts of this new house are still not organized and the chaos stresses me out. I’d like to do the bathrooms this month and possibly work on our dining bench where I’ll be able to start organizing office supplies. {I did tackle the main bathroom that really needed to be organized. I didn’t do ours yet, but it’s not too bad. What’s even better is that we tackled the pantry! If you don’t already follow us on Instagram, you can see the pantry before and after in our story highlights. It took a whole week to sort through the madness but we had no choice because our stock up grocery haul wouldn’t fit as it was!}
- Start garden seeds that can be winter sown. I just got orders in from MIGardener and Gurney’s. Let me know if you’d like to hear more about what we’re growing this year. {Done! All the cold weather plants that we winter sowed are already up in their pop bottles!}
- Get camper ready for rodeo season – woohoo! {I haven’t been real motivated to work on this in light of the first rodeo (and possibly more) being cancelled. Kent and I did go out and look over what needs to be done. Maybe I should film a before tour for you.}
Marriage Goals:
- 2 Date Nights: One will be an upcoming banquet for our local crisis pregnancy center. Later on this month we’d like to do a date night to Menards for a new doorknob and some electrical supplies, and maybe peruse a hot tub store to keep learning about what kind will be best for us. If you have a hot tub, please tell me all about it! There are so many options. {We did get both of those dates in before the social distancing got serious. We were very unimpressed with the hot tub options we could find locally, and the lack of knowledgeable sales people. That sounds bad, but it was really comical how much they didn’t know. When we were in Texas we had seen some really nice hot tubs at the stock show, so it was a bit surprising to find that those kind apparently aren’t available here in Michigan. We are going to check in to used ones next.}
- Check in to at home dance programs. Every since we went to Texas and started learning to two-step Facebook keeps showing us ads for video programs that teach dancing. It might be fun to try that – at home where no one can laugh except us! Anyone tried it? {We did not do this yet but with the quarantine continuing at least through April we should.}
Personal Goals:
- Apply self-tanner once a week. This is new for me and I’m excited to maybe get away from the permanent farmer tan. {This was going good for awhile and I was really happy with how the tan was building, but I fell off the wagon when the mask making got crazy.}
- Decide whether or not to join the spring Style Challenge. Whether I do or not, I NEED to buy some new clothes soon. So many of my clothes are literally falling apart, including the only jeans that fit me. It’s bad guys. {I did do this and it has been such great timing! It’s ironic that I’m getting dressed NOW, but I am and it has been great for me mentally and physically. I’ve gotten dressed every day in April, and I’m finally happy and comfortable with the clothes I have.}
Reading Goals
- Continue reading my Bible in a year with a plan from the Bible app.
- Continue reading the Mom Heart Moments devotional each day.
- Finish The Connected Child.
- Finish Cold-Case Christianity.
- Finish listening to C.S. Lewis: A Life on the Libby app. {Done!}
- Start & finish Interwoven: A Pioneer Chronicle.
- Start & finish Before And After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. This is a non-fiction sequel to Before We Were Yours, which I read last month. {I’m almost done with this one!}
- Start & finish Whole Heart, Whole Horse. I read Horses Never Lie last month, also by Mark Rashid, and I learned a lot.
- Start & finish Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.
{I haven’t done any more of this reading since the first week that we started making masks. I think that was the last week of March. I just started reading again this week. Fortunately or not, our library has been closed for weeks so I still have all these books to work through.}
Health Goals:
- Make it at least 7 days on the Sugar Fast. Take it week by week after that. {Guys! I did the whole 40 days with a couple allowances that I set ahead of time. I’m going to stick with mostly avoiding sugar now as it has worked really well for me both spiritually and physically. You have to read the Sugar Fast book, it’s a gamechanger!}
- Limit my late nights to 3 a week. Try to be in bed by 10 the other nights, even if I’m reading (but no screens!). {This one went out the window, mask sewing just really through a wrench in a lot of my plans!}
Financial Goals:
- Hit our monthly savings goals. {Done!}
- Get back to our investment pro about tweaking the boys’ college funds. {Oops, still need to do this. We figured he was probably busy this month!}
- LIst Suburban for sale (maybe) {Did not do this.}
Business (Farm) Goals:
- Get sand for new barn and asphalt millings for driveway hauled in as soon as the weather allows. {Done! The hauler that we had lined up dropped the ball and didn’t show or answer the phone – seriously why is that a trend every time we try to hire someone!? We are reasonably friendly people and our checks cash so I don’t understand it, lol. So, Brian just hauled the sand himself with our semi and a friend loaned us a dump trailer that he used to bring in some new material for the driveaway. It is soooo nice to not have drive around potholes anymore, ha!}
- Paint new panel for shop door and have it installed. {Fail!}
- Get estimate for shed repair. {We did get the estimate! This will go on the list as a future expense. The block foundation is in poor condition and let’s a lot of water in.}
Horses Goals:
- Get estimate for new fencing. {We did get this estimate. Wood fencing is going to be expensive but we think it will be worth it for the parts along the driveway and closest to the house. The existing fence needs replacing, the posts are all rotting. I have to give serious props to Action Fence in Lapeer! We called so many places for estimates on different things this month and Action Fence was the ONLY place that seemed really excited to have a chance at getting our business. The owner himself answered my phone call, he answered all of my questions and gave me prices right then. He told us what to consider and how far out he was booking, and how giving a deposit would lock in our price. I didn’t call anyone else. We love it when we find rockstars at customer service! We will have to save for the fencing, but are happy to know how much to save.}
- Ride Jewel, my current mustang project, 3x/week. {This is a big no. The rides we have done have been good and I feel like we are starting to have a breakthrough with some of her issues, but I definitely need to get out there more.}
- Decide on location for round pen and order it as soon as the sand is ready. {We found a new potential spot for this and are still trying to decide between two locations.}
Check back soon for April goals, even though we are two weeks in to the month already. I hope you’ll share some of your goals, too!
Ready to set your own monthly goals? Grab the free printable before you go!