January Evaluation

Spiritual

• Spend at least 10 minutes praying daily- Yes! It's not always at one time, but I'm getting this in each day so far
• Spend at least 10 minutes reading and reflecting on the Bible daily- Thank you, pumping! Yes this happened daily this month
• Memorize verses with the kids - We have done 3 verses this year so far, I'm confident in 2 :)
• Have extended prayer times 4 times during the year- Jim had his first of the year this weekend. Need to get the rest scheduled
• Read Christian books (Jim- 13 (not school related), Emmie- 26)- We read "The Insanity of God" together for our first of the year, and Emmie read "Humble Roots" 
• Teach Kids 12 Hymns this year- We have worked on "Be Thou My Vision" and have the majority memorized

Marriage

• Pray together daily- Yes! Though we need to work on praying before we collapse in bed and more concentrated prayer times 
• Go out for a date once a week- We did most weeks, though last week ended up off and had a date night in
• Go on a night away once this year- Have a weekend away planned for March thanks to Emmie's parents! Ready for it to come. 
• Read 2 books together this year (read one day a week)- We read "The Insanity of God" together for school of missions and have done some sort of reading together one day a week, except 2 weeks ago
• Discuss plan weekly on Saturday afternoon- We're still not doing very well with this, and it shows. 

Kids

• Spend 15 minutes of one on one time with each child every week- We are doing this sporadically. We're really wanting to work towards this apart from school time, but they are getting this with school lessons currently
• Special Outing Alone once during the year with each child (hopefully during birthday month)- None this month, just routine outings
• Family fun activity once a month- Family day at the pool and eating out, The parents were more excited than the kids, but 4 of the kids gave the big pool a go!
• Write in individual journals at least 4 times this year- We're on track for this
• Finish Jamey's 1st year Scrapbook- There were grand plans to get this finished in the next 5 months, but sadly I think it will have to wait until the 2nd half of the year

Homemaking

• Make a cleaning schedule that we can keep up with and do it!- We've been doing a lot of cleaning this month, but no schedule yet! Need to get this figured out
• Look at calendar once a day- Um, no
• Update Google Calendar twice a week- Nope
• Being fully present when with my family- By God's grace I have been much better at this on the whole, but still struggle when I feel stressed and overwhelmed
• Try 12 new recipes this year- We tried a broccoli and cheese soup recipe this month. It wasn't bad, but we're looking for another one
• No TV 2 days a week (watching)- I actually think we did this! I know the last 2 weeks we have accomplished this, and sometimes there were 3 days! Loving having the TV off more

Ministry

• Continue sending out Prayer List- Yes! 

Personal

• Read 2 book a month for myself- This month I read "Frankenstein" and "Humble Roots" as well as "The Insanity of God" with Jim (reviews to come on all of these). I also started 3 other books with good headway in them
• Jim read one fiction book- 
• Journal 5 days a week- I really struggled with this during January. We've been attempting to find a good rhythm, and towards the end of the month, this was getting back to normal
• Jim Journal 3 days a week- Yes! Sometimes more
• Edit novel to prepare for publishing- Spend one evening editing this month! 
• Book Club once a month- Yes! Really enjoyed a nice evening at Jo's house this month
• Continue to meet once a month with writing group- With everything going on, I could not get it together, but looking forward to meeting this ladies next month
• Blog 1-2 days a week- If you follow my blog, you know this did not happen this month, but we have spent a lot of time revamping Childbirth Conversations and once we get that blog up and going, this will become more of a reality
• Spend one evening a week on business (added in Jan)- Yes we have done this and more! God has really opened up some opportunities for us to step into

Health

• Mild Exercise twice a week- I've been doing a lot of work around the house, and one day at the pool, but that's about as far as exercise goes. This will change next month!
• Lose weight- Down a couple pounds. Really wanting to press into a healthier lifestyle next month and making adjustments to do that
• Making more from scratch food and balanced meals- Yes! We have done more from scratch meals and have done a better job balancing the types of foods as well as colors when we can! Still have room for improvement, but we're off to a good start

January has been quite a blur. We have spent this month getting our home in order, figuring out the best way to make necessary repairs, and figuring out what God wants for us in this next stage of life. We have done some major cleaning, organizing, purging, and seeking out aid for projects that are over our head. We're also looking at business that can help our family. We continue with Norwex and seek how God would use that as well as looking at the blogging world. There are a lot of opportunities and we have been looking at what God would want for us. We are wanting to really seek to be healthy in a Godly way and seeking things that would aid in that. Recently we decided to try Plexus with our holistic eating and adding more activity into our day. Clearly it's been busy! 

But God continues to draw us to Himself. He continues to open doors that we were not expecting. He continues to grow us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. He draws us to each other and grows us as a family and with our church family. God continues to be God. And even though it's been chaotic at times, we are still pressing forward in life as He guides our path and points us to His plans for us. Please pray for us! 

How can we pray for you? How was your first month of January?