2018 Goals

I know, we are already more than halfway through February and I'm just now writing down my goals for the year!  Maybe we should just call this post "goals" and not tie any length of time to them.  I don't really feel it's necessary to attach a deadline to certain things that we want to do for ourselves.  Maybe sometimes we need a deadline, ie. I want to have our loan for our DEIVF cycle paid off before we start our next cycle, however, I do feel like there are some goals we set for ourselves that don't need to have time constraints attached to them.  I'll be honest, some of these are kind of deep, they're not your typical, get to the gym, read 5 books, make more home cooked meals, some of them are, but these are really about just bettering myself and my life for me and my family.  There is always room for improvement.

Find Better Balance

I'm not sure if this is even humanly possible & something that I should probably consider as a long-term, ever-evolving goal as our lives change over the years, however I do want to try to find a better balance between working my full time job, being a mom, being a wife, being a friend, practicing self-care, taking care of my home, being a blogger, and selling shampoo on the side.   Sounds like a lot doesn’t it?  It is.  I find myself stuck sometimes in the monotony of the day to day, but we are creatures of habit and I am definitely someone who likes routine.  A lot of people have suggested hiring a cleaning lady for at least 2 times a month & I'm really really considering that something I might do this year.  Is it possible to just add another 5 hours to the day??

Continue to Pay off Debt

We don't have a ton of out of control debt by any means, but we do have a few things that we need to clean up.  A credit card and our loan for our DEIVF are the two that I'd like to see paid off this year.  I do have another year or two on my vehicle, and of course our house, but we just actually did make a huge improvement on our mortgage and ended up refinancing to a 20 year from a 30 year loan and knocked off 7 years and 1.4% on our rate!

Find Contentment in what I already have

I am bad with this.  I feel like we grew up in an era when we are always wanting the next best thing and we are never really happy with what we have.  I am totally guilty of this and I am trying to be better about reminding myself that what I already have is pretty damn amazing.  A big contributor to not being content with what I already have is being so involved with social media.  I follow some really amazing bloggers, but they live (or portray that they do) these fabulous lives constantly sharing links to their wardrobes, their home décor, & more, and it's extremely hard for someone who is impulsive like me not to "swipe up" on every Instagram story I see with a cute thermal from Nordstrom that is "under $70" – seriously WTF is that.  So working on my self-control & impulses and being happy with the things I already have is really important for me & also contributes pretty heavily to paying off our debt too. 

Decluttering & Purging

So over our 10 years together we have collected SO much stuff.  Joe likes "stuff", and he is an extremely nostalgic person so we have every remote control car, gaming system, and pretty much every other toy he's ever had in boxes downstairs.  On top of that we just have accumulated a lot of stuff over our years together.  This year I really want to focus on getting rid of as much as we can.  Simplifying & organizing everything that we can.  I am totally not a saver of stuff and Joe is so we need to find a happy medium which will probably be our biggest challenge.

Cultivate Positivity and Happiness

I feel like I am in a good spot with this already, but like I said, there is always room for improvement.  I want to make sure that for myself and my family that we are living the best life that we can be.  I want to make sure we are having some awesome experiences together, but also be able to be satisfied when we are doing nothing or are by ourselves.  There is no room in our life for negative or toxic relationships, life is just too short for that.  I want more date nights with just Joe and I, and I want us to also do more as a family too.  Cleaning up my social media is also a big part of this—who I am following on social media as well & trying to only follow accounts that I feel are really inspiring and positive.  I've been trying to spread more of that myself lately, you might see more quotes shared on my pages that are uplifting.  I think that's a really easy way to cultivate happiness is by sharing your own joys with others.

Better Self-Care

I think I do a pretty good job of this too.  I take the time to get my hair done, I try not to spread myself too thin if I can, but I really need to be better about my diet, especially once I am done breastfeeding because I won't be able to eat the way I have been for the last year without gaining weight now that I don't have a tiny human literally sucking the calories right off of me.  I want to be better about incorporating oils and cleaner products into our lives, and I'm hoping to start doing some form of exercise or something for myself, even if it's just getting outside and taking Georgia for a walk each day.  It's so hard in the winter to be motivated and I cannot even fathom where I would find the time to go to the gym, but taking small steps like a quick walk each afternoon is all I think I really need. 

Rebranding my Blog

I've had an itch lately for a change with my blog and I am slowly starting the process.  I feel like Baby Ridley Bump is finally a big book that can be closed.  It will always be where I started my life as a blogger.  It will always be what started as a pregnancy blog that evolved into an infertility blog, and documents every step of the way over the last 6 years.  All of Baby Ridley Bump will be moved over to the new space so that my journey can still be accessed from the beginning, however, I plan on a name change, a design change, and a host change.  We'll see how far I get with this!  It seems like it will be a lot of work.

It's a lot now that I read back, but it all seems like things I can make happen and it will all only be to make an already amazing life even more incredible.  What are your goals?