New Years Goals Jar

It's that time again!  During the last week of last year, my wife and I set up a bowl and a set of papers similar to the picture above.  Then, any time during the week that either of us had any inspiration, dreams, or goals for things to accomplish during the year, we wrote them down. On New Years Day (or sometime close to then) we had a date night and read through all of them together.  Some of them were simple, some were outrageous, some were jokes, some quite serious.  It was a great hour of conversation (in Burger King... classy I know!).


Here are a few of the goals we set at the beginning of last year that we've met (or attempted) as a result of our conversation that day:

• Budget each month: It has been so helpful to come together twice a month to get on the same plan about money. As a month comes to a close, we are able to look at what we've spent or not -- save for Christmas, etc. Without this, it would have been impossible to...
• Buy a bed for the girls room
• Send out Christmas Cards
• Buy a freezer to have freezer-meals (didn't quite accomplish, but should occur early in 2015)

• Create a CD: One of my favorite accomplishments of 2014 was finally recording a CD of my own music, written for our church. By using garage band, I was able to layer together several tracks worth of vocals and guitars and self-produce the CD: Oaks of Righteousness, which you can download for free.

• Concert:  Another goal of ours was to host a concert of our favorite family-oriented songs, which we were able to do in July. Belding offered us a spot on their Thursday night "Music in the Park" series, where we were able to perform a set of country songs.  

• Start Recycling
  
• "Bread"-ruary:  Our initial dream was to simply go one month with only creating fresh bread - not buying any. After successfully going through February, we continued on into March, and now ten months later, still make our own bread each week. I don't think it's saved us any money, but it sure tastes good, and with an electric Breadmaker, it's not time consuming either.
  
• Have a garage sale
  
• Not have another kid (YET): I hesitated to even include this, but with couples all around us expecting in 2015, and this being such a publicly stated goal in our small groups and circle of friends, I was afraid if I left it out people might think we were making an announcement or something.  The exact wording of the goal was "Enter and leave 2014 with two kids", a sort of joke that we wouldn't lose any kids along the way either.  I'm happy to say that despite Carrie picking up more hours at the library and also 8 hours a week at church, I haven't lost any kids in the extra hours of daddy-daughter time.

Granted, there were some goals on the list that haven't been accomplished. They won't automatically become goals for next year, as I think it's important to reevaluate and dream again.  But overall, the process of dreaming together as husband and wife was valuable last year, and one we are planning to do this year too.  Eventually, I hope the whole family will get involved too.

What do you hope to accomplish in 2015?