My Goals for 2022

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Setting goals weekly has gotten me through a lot over the past few years, so why not set some big picture goals to tackle during 2022. I’m hoping this list keeps me focused and motivated and helps me to build the life I need and desire during this season of our lives. What is the life you want in the new year? What goals are you setting to get you there?

Happy New Year!

I will say, that I am happy for the clean slate that comes on New Year’s Day. Having a clean calendar and knowing that the next 365 days hold opportunities always makes me a bit giddy. None of us know what is really instore for the new year, but what we do know is that we want to be the best version of ourselves and fill the year with something memorable.

I don’t set new year’s resolutions. And that whole, “new year, new you” is bullshit. In the past, I’ve chosen a word to set my intentions for the year. This year, I’m not doing any of that.

I’ve learned over the course of the last two years that I’m not that cutesy, Pinterest-worthy kinda mom or blogger. I won’t be creating beautiful vision boards and goals list that sparkle right off the computer screen.

Nope.

I’m a lot more practical than that. Especially now. Especially after all this. * waves hands around overhead while sighing heaving *

So for 2022, I’m doing a bigger version of the goal-setting that I typically do each week. Think of my goal list for the coming year the same way an employee makes a goals list just before a performance review. These are the behaviors, projects, and skills I’d like to build on in 2022.

Bouncing Back from Survival Mode

Way back in 2019, we bought a new home. Prior to the shutdowns, we began putting in a garden and setting up our home just so. While 2020 wasn’t so bad for us, and especially not for me specifically, the last year has absolutely burned me out. I have reached a new level of exhaustion that I didn’t think was possible.

You know that exhaustion you have with a newborn?

Yeah, multiply that by about 20. That’s how I feel most days.

I don’t have the energy, nor the desire, to do a whole hell of a lot, so making concise lists of goals has been the only thing that has gotten me through. And I’ll be honest, some days (weeks, months) I have been in survival mode of sorts and have just been happy to get through it no matter what had to give along the way.

For the last week, I have really disconnected from things. I turned off my homeschooling brain. Took off my scouting hats. And, for the first time in what feels like forever, I sat down in my family room and just spent time with my family. It has been so restorative and has helped me so incredibly much. I once again feel like I can conquer the world all because I took some time off.

So now the calendar turns another page. It’s new year’s day and we have a clean slate as if a magic wand has been waved over our heads.

Setting goals weekly has gotten me through to this point, so why not set some big picture goals to tackle over the course of the year. I’m hoping this list keeps me focused and motivated and helps me to build the life I need and desire during this season of our lives.

Self-Care Goals

Self-care doesn’t mean vanity. It doesn’t mean being selfish, or self-centered. Self-care is how we can for ourselves; our body, mind, and spirit. As I bounce back from survival mode, this is the area of my life where I need to be most mindful because this is the area that can make or break how I feel on any given day. I can’t take care of the family if I’m not taking care of myself first.

1. Remember that “NO” is a complete sentence and I don’t have to give an explanation. I will say no to those things that would cause me to stretch myself to thin. I will say no to those things and people who don’t help me to be the best version of myself.
2. My medical needs will go to the top of the list. I will schedule regular checkups, chiropractic adjustments, and massages because they help me to stay healthy, pain free, and be the best version of myself.
3. I am the keeper of the family calendar and from now on I’m scheduling time off for all of us. Time off isn’t used for running errands or chores, but for having actual down time to just be together or even to just be still and sit in the quiet.
4. I will move more. Currently, I am quite sedentary and I don’t like it. I have a rather low daily steps goal on Noom, and I will work each day to hit that goal and work my way up to actually walking 10,000 steps per day.
5. Attend my online courses/workshops twice a week. I have signed up for so many free (and some paid) courses over the last year, and haven’t attended many of them. I’d like to be intentional with working through the list.
6. Spend time reading a book that isn’t for the kids each day. I have quite a collection of gardening books and I think that may be a good place to start.

Homemaking Goals

Homemaker is a role that I take seriously, and one that has gone on the back burner more often than not when I was in my survival mode phase. Setting goals in this area of my life is important for me to regain focus.

1. We will eat better. For this one, I’m bringing the whole family along with me. Notice I said eat better not eat healthier. No foods are off limits. We will just be more mindful of what we are eating, where we are sourcing our food, and will do our best to eat more meals prepared at home than we have recently.
2. I am going to try Fly Lady for a minimum of one month to see if I can get our housework and organization in order.
3. Meal planning will be making a return to my weekly and monthly routines. We have scouts 3-4 nights per week, and we can’t afford to have takeout or convenience foods that many times per week. I need to find my menu plan mojo and get back in a groove.
4. Cash systems work for so many people, so I think I’m going to give it a try for our scouting expenses, groceries, gardening projects, and homeschooling items. Recently, I purchased a cute envelope system to get myself organized with transitioning to using cash, so now its just a matter of jumping in with both feet.
5. The children are going to take a more active role in taking care of our home. Once we get back in the groove with homeschooling, we will be revising the daily and weekly chore schedules. I’m hoping to use the Fly Lady routines with them as well.

Projects Around Our Home

As any homeowner will tell you, there are always projects to be done and purchases to be planned for. Here are a few that are on the horizon for our family.

1. Paint the second floor bathroom.
2. Take down the closet that is in the laundry room and install floor to ceiling shelving. This is our pantry space and I’d like to have storage for my small appliances in there too.
3. Build custom shelves for under the kitchen island.
4. Put a new roof on the sunroom. The current one is leaking. There is a good chance that we can do this project ourselves, or with help from friends, in the spring.
5. Redo the front steps. The bricks have come loose, so its time to remove them and reset them properly.
6. Seal the driveway.
7. Purchase new bed pillows.
8. Research the purchase of a new refrigerator for the kitchen.
9. File the paperwork with PECO to request natural gas hookup to our home. Currently, we have propane for our heat, hot water, and laundry dryers. I miss natural gas. We just found out that our neighbors two houses down have natural gas so its a real possibility that we may be able to convert as well.
10. Hang photos using frames we already have.
11. Make sure all smoke detectors are in working order.
12. Have a family portrait taken, printed, and framed for the dining room wall.
13. Finish unpacking any rooms that still have boxes in them.

Sewing

I always have an array of projects I would like to do and a few bins of fabric in which to do them. The challenge always seems to be in finding the time. I’d like to give myself 4 hours a month for sewing projects and mending and will be putting it on my calendar each month.

1. Make cloth napkins using fabric that I already have on hand.
2. Make a throw blanket for each of us so we can cuddle up on movie nights.
3. Find a pattern and sew a harvest apron for myself.
4. Hem a table cloth that I thrifted that is way too long for our table.
5. Sew a curtain for the kitty window on the stairs to the family room.
6. Learn to quilt. This one has been on my list for a while, but I have several friends who quilt so I’m hoping this is the year.

Homeschooling Goals

I am currently homeschooling all three of our children and follow a secular eclectic approach to homeschooling. This may be the last year that I am homeschooling all three children (my oldest is hoping to go to the tech school for high school next year), so I want to make the most of it.

1. If a curriculum, program, textbook, etc isn’t working for us, I won’t force it just because it looks good on paper. One of the reasons we started homeschooling was to have the freedom to do what works for us. I need to get back to that.
2. I will review lesson plans weekly to make sure the children are completing their work and to make sure we are staying on the path that we have put ourselves on. During this time, I will also make sure we have everything prepped for the coming week.
3. We will create a routine that works for our family and stick with it. I still need to work one-on-one for all subjects with my youngest, and my older children need me more often than I think I realize. We need to figure out how to share the time so everyone gets what they need.
4. This summer, I will take a 2-day homeschool planning retreat to plan the 2022-23 academic year. I will reserve a quiet room at the library and get away from my people in order to do the work and get our planning done.
5. Since this may be our last year homeschooling all three children, I want to be intentional with our time together. I want to plan some fieldtrips and maybe a long weekend trip that ties into our schooling.
6. There are 6 bins of books already sorted to sell, and I’m sure there are even more that I could get rid of. I will participate in at least two homeschool sales in order to get rid of the books.

Homesteading Goals

As I said, we bought this house in September 2019 and we started a plan, but then it kinda stalled. I’m hoping that 2022 is the year we get things moving in the right direction again.

1. I will not purchase seeds until I have gone through my existing seed supply to make sure I truly need something. If you know me in real life, you know I have a little problem with visiting garden centers and purchasing seeds just because they look like they’d be fun, delicious, pretty, etc. This year, I’m going to do my best to have self-control when it comes to seeds.
2. With few exceptions, I’ll be starting all of my own seeds this year instead of purchasing seedlings from the nursery. I will plan to grow an early spring garden, the big summer garden, and a fall garden during 2022.
3. I’d like to expand the items that we preserve each year and do more dehydrating and pressure canning.
4. Plant the orchard following the Grow a Little Fruit Tree method.
5. Redesign the backyard garden beds. Add 2 long raised beds for growing fruit.
6. Plant the rose garden that was started in 2020. We have about 6 potted rose bushes that have never been planted. We need to create the bed, plant the roses, and then decide where we go next.
7. Create a hydrangea border between us and the neighbor. I purchased several hydrangea bushes on clearance at Lowe’s late in the season. The plan is to create a hedgerow between the two front yards while adding a beauty for us to enjoy and for the birds and pollinators.
8. Begin work on the front yard garden along the road. We have several large boulders at the roads edge. My mother-in-law and I would like to plant hosta across the front of the property between those rocks at the roads edge. We have several hosta on the property that we can split to plant in these spots, but I’m also going to ask in my gardening groups for others who are splitting their perennials.
9. Redo the front vegetable garden bed. It was built in 2020 using corregated roofing panels, and the design isn’t working out the way I had hoped. The plan is to take down the metal panels, and rebuild the bed using 2×6 boards and special garden bed bricks.
10. Remove the herb garden. Amend the bed with fresh soil, and plant a bed of violas that will come back year after year.

What kind of life do you want to have this year? What goals are you planning to get there? Let me know in the comments!