This year has been off to a rough start with one illness after another for all of us (colds, etc.). But we still have our goals for the rest of the year!

I have to share a funny story about our vision board last year. I had included a picture of a woman unloading a dishwasher to represent our goal of keeping with dishes every day (which we really have done a good job of this year, mostly thanks to A. putting in more time in the kitchen). We ended up having our dishwasher break, so we had to buy another one, and after the first one we chose wouldn’t work with our plumbing set-up, we had our second choice installed, and that one turned out to not only match our fridge exactly, without our having thought about that, but it’s also the very dishwasher shown in the picture! It hadn’t occurred to me that putting a dishwasher on our vision board might lead to us needing to buy a new one. 🙂 So I was extra careful about the images on this year’s board!

Here is a picture of part of last year’s board:

One of my top goals for this year was the same last year, and probably every year before, and I haven’t done it yet. But I’d like to both get more sleep and get up early every day, not just work days! Like being in bed by 10pm (instead of midnight) and up by 6am (except I’m up at 5:30 on work days). I want to read books before bed and watch less TV, and do things in the mornings that are hard to do once Ari’s up (around 7-7:30): yoga or just stretching, email, etc. Or just walk Andrew.

Other goals that I tend to repeat every year have to do with food. I always want to do a better job of planning and shopping for meals each week so that we cook at home more, eat more healthfully, and spend less money.

For 2015, I had goals of making trips to visit family in Washington state, Washington, D.C, and Vancouver, B.C., and a friend in Berkeley, and all of those trips happened! This year we’ve made a trip to Vancouver already and for the rest of the year I intend to stay home more. Even though there are so many people I want to visit, and I’d love to see everyone more often, I want to have good routines and some relaxation at home instead of trying to fit trips into all of my time off work, and it’s hard to imagine doing much traveling later in the pregnancy or after the baby is born, with a 3-year-old too. But we’ll still have some family visits.

It’s good to have some kid-free evenings out, so last year I had goals of going out with a friend once a week (and I did that at least once every other week!), and going out for a date night with A. at least once every couple of months (but we also have evenings at home together). This year, it’s been a lot harder to get out with friends, but A. and I went out for Valentine’s Day and last night I finally had a social night out and I’m feeling a lot better today after being pretty cranky recently!

I also intend to have fewer classes and playdates so that we can have more relaxed time at home. But at the same time, there are friends I want to see more often!

Last year I set an intention to drop out of a committee at work to free up some time, and I did that and haven’t regretted it one bit!

Another goal that we accomplished last year was having insulation and vapor barriers put in underneath our kitchen and closet pop-outs. This year, our home improvement goal for the house we’re in is to insulate the attic.

Without further ado, here is our vision board for 2016:

The pictures at the top focus on bonding time with the new baby and still having fun with Ari, being more organized but also more playful, getting up early and having nice breakfasts, exercising and possibly meditating (something for more inner calm!), sleeping (yeah right, there’s also a baby on that board!), cooking healthy food, and having a clean and organized kitchen.

In the middle, there’s a well-stocked and organized fridge (we also bought a second stand-up freezer already so that we can keep that stocked with pre-prepped ingredients and meals, and milk when I’m pumping); getting our attic insulated and sealed up; tomatoes (I’d like to do some gardening and grow tomatoes again at least, and maybe zucchini, artichoke, swiss chard, and potatoes as well, plus the apples, raspberries, and strawberries we have going); pictures representing “core strength” for A.; the word “bank” to represent financial security, increased income, and decreased debt; a picture of a nurse being caring and connected with her patient; and… a little house! That’s our big project this year (besides having a baby!), which we do have very much in the works already. I don’t think I should say too much more yet, but we’re hoping for some rental income to help with those financial goals.

On the bottom, I put an article about a nearby farm that does horseback-riding date nights, which I would LOVE to do; families playing in the snow (one of these winters, we’ll do that!); more healthy food; cooking with kid participation; and having time for our own “passion projects,” or things we want to do just for ourselves and our interests in the world beyond our family. For myself, I was thinking of reading and learning new things, and the computer represented the programming class I wanted to take. Well, actually, I’m taking that programming class and it’s almost over! That partly explains my high stress level these past couple of months, along with the illnesses. It really has not been a good class, but I’ve just about done it, I have a good grade so far, and I’ve learned that I should NOT apply for any grad school program yet, especially not to start this fall when I’m going back to work from maternity leave. That’s just too much for me!

So, there you have it! Lots of focus on home, family, and self care this year.