Cultivating good habits & trying new things

Last year when I set goals, I created a list of twelve new things I wanted to try.  It was an epic failure, because as I've mentioned---my goal setting for last year was far too ambitious and lacked any real direction on how to go about accomplishing my goals.

We are only 25 days into the new year, but going through the process of setting goals according to my priorities has been transformational.  Each week, in addition to working through my to-do list & my cleaning checklist, I've been sitting down with a sheet that has a space for all 8 of my priorities.  I've been setting one or two goals underneath each priority for that week.  For example, this week under my "Work to maintain a clean home and organized life" my goals were to clean out the linen closet & under the guest bathroom sink.  By accomplishing that goal, I worked through another goal of filling a box of items to donate from my stockpile under my priority of "Serve others"---cleaning out those two spaces also meant I got to check them off of my "Areas that need to be cleaned out and organized" list!  :)

While I am getting "stuff done"----I think the better way to sum up how I feel is "I'm being more fruitful with my time, I'm accomplishing my goals & I'm keeping my priorities in check."

In addition to the goals, I'm really striving to cultivate some new habits for myself and the kiddos and I'm wanting to get back to the "try 12 new things".

This month, the habit I'm working to cultivate is spending time in God's word everyday.  One of my goals for the year is to read through the entire Bible using the ESV chronological plan.  By the grace of God, I've managed to spend time every day this month in His word.  While reading the Bible isn't a new habit, reading the Bible every day is.  I'm striving to cultivate this habit & make this a regular discipline in my life.  As I've said before, if I have time to check facebook, I have time to be in His word.

As for the new thing?  This month I made homemade dishwasher detergent!  I have tried this in the past and hated it.  This time I'm using a powder recipe that is a collection of other recipes.  The first few rounds have gone well---I'm going to keep using it, and if I'm still happy with it in the next ten days, I'll post the recipe I've put together from other recipes online.