Five-a-month

It may be shocking, but I'm going to try to add some variety to the blog by covering a few more topics than just Shepherd updates and pics. Don't worry, all you grandparents, I will still try to throw in a few pictures per post to keep you updated and to maintain the cuteness factor!

In order to have some public accountability and a way to track my goals, I'm going to start a monthly "Five-a-month" goal setting post that I have seen on other blogs. I will list 5 goals for the month and then at the end of the month, and maybe some throughout (if I get ambitious), I will review how I met/didn't meet each goal. The goals will be pretty simple and I will try to make sure they are measurable. Feel free to join me by commenting with a link or list of your own goals.

February Goals:

1 - Read the Bible and pray every day. This is something that I already do most days, but there are days that it doesn't happen. I usually do my quiet times at night, so praying usually starts out stronger than it ends due to falling asleep... I am currently reading in Matthew. My goal is to continue reading Matthew daily and to have more consistent and complete prayers.

2 - Exercise two times a week. This is a sad goal, but realistically, if I meet this goal, I will be doing much better than I have been in the past few months. This can include walking, elliptical, jogging, exercise video, whatever. Anything intentional for at least roughly 30 minutes. I'd also like to add to this walking the dog at least twice a week. She used to get walked daily, and sadly, with the addition of Shepherd, her walks are much less frequent. Ok, I better stop with this one before it becomes unattainable.

3 - Cook a "real" dinner at home 4-5 nights a week. By "real" I mean something from a recipe or at least something that I put some thought into. Leftovers from the night before also qualifies! We will go out to eat at least once per week to a fairly nice restaurant (Nice = not fast food). The other 1-2 nights can be either going out, take out, or throwing something together at home like frozen pizza, mac-n-cheese, or pancakes. I usually do pretty good at this goal already, but lately I have been trying to stretch the time before I return to the grocery store a little too much and we end up scrounging to figure out what we can eat the few days before I get more groceries. So, I either need to plan better or go to the grocery store sooner. I'm going to try to opt for the first option.

4 - Crochet 3 baby hats. I already have a head start on this one since I'm about halfway done with the first one. These are for friends/family with babies due SOON, so I better get going. Enough said because I don't want to ruin any surprises.

5 - Take more pictures of Shepherd. I don't want this precious time in our/his life to go without adequate documentation. I've been doing not-so-good on the picture-taking front. This isn't directly measurable, but hopefully by the end of the month I can share the proof that I've met this goal.

Lastly, here's a cute pic of the Shep. Taken about a month ago, but one of my favorites.



And here's a little video to give you an idea of what dinner time is like for Shepherd. I'll just call the video "Bea is Distracting."