Doesn’t September feel like a start to a new year??  It always does to me! The cool breeze is in the year, the kiddos are back in school.  We are living in an environment of growth, physically and mentally as our son starts his last year in Middle School.  I love that feeling of growth and want to continue to experience it myself.   Otherwise, my life feels stagnant.   I set goals every year to help myself to continue to grow. 

This time of year I always reflect on my goals for the current year and what I hope to accomplish in the upcoming year.   I am not a New Years Resolution sort of gal,  my new year starts in September.    Just seems logical as we get back into the routine of school.    And worst yet, when I reflect on my goals in September it gets me in gear to finish them by the end of the year.

2015’s Focus – SIMPLIFY

I try to keep my goals to a minimum, I only have 3 goals in 2015.   My goals for 2015 are as follows:

1.  Simplify My Life – to me this meant decreasing my commitments that kept me out of the house and focus on the  activities that matter to me.   I was just feeling stretch too thin and wasn’t enjoying it.   After many years,  I took a break from my book club.   Spending more time at home, having Sunday dinner with our children each week.  Doing things that really makes me happy.   The simple everyday things have more impact then we realize on our own happiness.    We also simplified our life by decreasing the amount of stuff we own.  This is an on-going project, but we have made a lot of progress.   We have no desire to keep up with the Jones’.  We are becoming more selective as to what is allowed to come into our home.  Our desire is to be DEBT FREE!!!

2. Park in the Garage –  this winter we will park at least one of our four cars in the garage!   We took time off in May and really made a big dent in cleaning the garage.  This weekend I had four boxes left to go through, which are done.   The garage is almost done, I just need to organize a bit and get rid of all the empty bins!!  

3.  Organize my photos –  this one I haven’t made much progress on at all.   By cleaning out the garage and around the house, I believe all photos all photos are all in one place.   I want to get at least one photo book made by the end of the year, so this will be my project I will be spending the rest of fall with. 

2016’s Focus – HEALTH

While most of my goals in 2015 focused on simplifying our life.  I hope in 2016 to focus on my health.   My goals for 2016 are as follows:

1.  Healthier  & Happier – I bought the book  52 Small Changes One Year to a Happier,Healthier You by Brett Blumenthal 2 years ago.   Each year I start the book and only make it through the few changes and then lose momentum.  This year I will make it through all 52 weeks.    By blogging about my experience each week, I hope I will get some of you to follow along with me and keep me accountable.     Plus this will get me blogging more than just my menu each week. 

2.  Writing Project – Complete a writing project I would like to do. This is a crazy idea I got one morning in the shower, which is by the way, the location my best ideas come from!!   I am going to give it a try….I blog, that is writing, right??

3.  Continue to Simplify……

What are your New Year Goals this September???   Join me in getting Healthier and Happier in 2016.  Look for a blog post each Wednesday discussing the new change we can make that week to aide us in being healthier and happier!

Happy  New Year!!