Goals for 2017

SNOW!!!! We finally have snow and I am one happy girl :)  It may only be a few inches but there's something about a fresh blanket of white snow on the ground that makes me happy.  It also makes me look forward to 5 so I can go home, eat a yummy dinner and spend the night curled up with my husband watching our shows!


On Monday, I talked about about my word for the year.  See that post here!  I like to pick a word that just represents all that I want to accomplish that year.  On top of that, I like to make some specific personal and blog goals to hold me accountable as well.

My goals for 2017:

Personal

- Lose 25 pounds
(I am currently on day 4 of the 21 day fix so stay tuned for my results!)

- Read 2 books each month
- Daily devotional or scripture reading

- Stay committed to my new workout & healthy eating goals.  This is about more than weight loss for me, I just want to be the healthiest version of myself.
(I'm currently obsessed with this hoodie and these leggings for working out!)
- Spend quality time with my husband & family (you know the kind where you don't have your phone & just enjoy spending time together)
- enjoy trips and getaways with Jared
- grow our personal businesses and continue to do well at work

Blog

- Consistently post new YouTube content & be at 250 subscribers!
(If you haven't yet, subscribe to my channel here!)
- Blog at least 3 times each week & grow blog following
- Explore using Facebook Live videos in addition to YouTube
- Learn more about SEO (if you fully get this, help me!)
- Learn more about my camera and how to take better quality pictures
- Continue to cultivate blog friendships!

What are your goals this year?!

One Word 2017

A few years ago, I talked about One Word the first time.  I have gotten out of the habit of doing this each year and this year I decided to start again.  

My word for 2017 came to me pretty easily.  I haven't talked about it much on here but 2016 was a challenging year for me in a lot of ways.  I spent a lot of 2015 really focusing on my health, losing a lot of weight and really taking care of myself.  2016 started out okay besides a bad sinus infection and a bought of the stomach flu (which was foreshadowing for the rest of the year).  Flash forward to the summer, I started having some serious health issues and ended up gaining a lot of the weight back, feeling awful every day and spending way too much time in the hospital and in doctors offices.  After 6 months of looking for answers, we still aren't sure what caused the original problem but we were able to eliminate the scariest options.  We did discover several things about my health through the process though that I am thankful to know and am able to work on.  I didn't really want to share any of this on my blog but I decided to give you all a few highlights for a couple of reasons.

One, this blog is about my life and that includes the dark and crummy parts too.  It makes me feel so much more normal when I read about others going through something similar to me and I feel like I owed it to those bloggers to share parts of my story too.  Two, I took large blogging breaks this year and that's why.  There were days I just didn't have it in me to post on here, I was barely getting through the necessities of each day.  Three, because I want you all to pay so much attention to your health.  I almost blew off the symptoms I was having and they were super scary ones.  It's so easy to just say oh maybe I'll call my doctor next week.  When I finally decided to call my doctor's office and listed off my symptoms, they had me leave work and be in their office in less than an hour.  In that moment, it got real.  Do not brush off symptoms - get checked out!  Even though we're not 100% sure what caused my original issue, we did find some very important things out about my body to keep me healthier going forward and we would never have figured those things out without some of those tests.  This allows me to take care of the issues they did find in the ways my doctors recommend and if I have issues again it will give them a starting point.  

I have a bad habit of putting me and my health last.  I like to take care of other people, our house, my work, etc.  I have learned that I can't do that anymore.  It's like the airplane oxygen mask.  I have to take care of myself so that I can do all of the other things I want to do and to pursue the things God wants me to.

I have chosen Health as my word for 2017.  I want to pursue a healthier body and lifestyle through my food choices, regular exercise, resting my body and taking care of this vessel God has gifted me with.  I want to pursue a healthier marriage and relationship with my husband.  I want to pursue healthier relationships with my family and friends.  I want to pursue a stronger relationship with God through intentional prayer, devotionals and bible study.  I want to improve our financial health by paying down more debt and saving for our future goals.  The word health applies to all aspects of my life I'm wanting to focus on this year which makes it the perfect word for me.

Hopefully, this time in 2018 I'll be able to say I'm in a much healthier place and feeling great!  I'll be checking in during 2017 to let you all know how I'm doing with my word.

Are you all choosing a word this year?  If so, what's yours?

2016 Year in Review

2016 has been a year.  Several downs but more ups, special vacations, precious time spent with Jared and our family.  It's so hard to believe another year has come and gone!  As much as I've enjoyed a lot of 2016 and the recent holiday season, I'm ready for 2017.  There's just something about a new year, getting organized, setting goals and starting fresh.  Before 2017 is officially here, I thought it would be fun to do a recap of 2016!

January

We had our first snow of 2016!

I spent a day sledding with my family!

February

Attended a casino night with family to raise funds and awareness for a local service organization!

We celebrated my sweet husband's birthday!



Louisville + Bruce Springsteen trip!

March

I traveled to Cincinnati to visit Katlin!

We celebrated Easter!

April

We went to see Garth Brooks!

We traveled back to Louisville for the Spring Game!

I finished re-doing our bathroom!

May

A lot of business work took place in May!

We celebrated Mother's Day with Darlene!

June

We enjoyed several drive-in nights!

We celebrated Father's Day!

I started using BeautyCounter!  See my review here.

July

I shopped my favorite sale of the year!

July was full of lots of work and not much blogging this year.

August

I got to go on a really cool tour of where my brother works!

August was a really tough month for me and date nights and this guy definitely got me through!

September

I started swimming for exercise which I'm hoping to really commit to again in the new year!

I launched my YouTube channel which I can't wait to add more to this coming year!

We all got together to celebrate Dylan's birthday!



Darlene, Granny & I went to see Pride & Prejudice at our local theatre.

At the end of the month we snuck down to Florida for a few days with my grandparents.  See part 1 and part 2!

October

One of my best friends got married!!!

We enjoyed our annual trip to the GIE Expo in Louisville!

November

Dyl and I spent a Sunday with our grandparents driving around and seeing all the family sites and cemeteries.  It was so interesting and good quality time spent with them.

We enjoyed our trip to Texas!  We had so much fun!

Houston

San Antonio

Magnolia Market

AT&T Stadium Tour

Cowboys Game Day

Dallas Aquarium, Galleria & Grapevine

We celebrated Thanksgiving!

December

We decorated for Christmas!



We enjoyed our annual trip to Opryland!

We celebrated an awesome Christmas!

2016 has been an awesome, trying, busy and successful year and we are looking forward to seeing what 2017 holds!

Christmas 2016

Get ready for photo overload!  Before diving into the new year & all the fun posts that come with that, I want to recap our Christmas!

Christmas Eve started out with lots of cooking and loading up at our house and then we trekked over to my aunt & uncle's for our Mann family Christmas!

Secret Santa

Our 3rd married Christmas!

My little brother & grandfather.  Two good looking and good men!

So much love in this picture.

After lunch, gifts and visiting with my Dad's side, we headed over to Dad & Darlene's to do Christmas dinner and gifts with them.

Stockings by the new fireplace!  (They just renovated & I love how the fireplace turned out)

They crack me up.

We were so spoiled!  

We ended the night at our Christmas Eve church service which was so beautiful.   It's easy to get swept up in the commercial side of Christmas but it's so important to remember and celebrate the real reason for the season!

On Christmas morning, we woke up and exchanged stockings and spent the first part of the day cooking and enjoying the morning together.

On Christmas afternoon, we went to my grandparents to eat dinner and exchange gifts with them.  These three guys make my heart happy!

Delicious dinner!

Love these 4 so much!

Christmas 2016 was a great one!!   I do not take for granted how lucky I am to have these amazing people in my life.  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with your family!