February Goal Check-Up

I'm all about honesty here, and I will let you know that I have been very hesitant at looking back on the month of February. I knew it had to be done, but I knew that it wasn't a very good month--for various different reasons.


January flat out rocked my socks off. I was dumbfounded by all that we were able to accomplish. And, I must say, thankfully we went into February ahead--because we are coming out behind.

My mini-goal for February was to pay atleast $1150 total towards our debt. We came into Febraury about $300 ahead, so we had to pay atleast $850 to keep our momentum. We were only able to pay $650, so we are going into March $200 behind.

But, I have faith that after all the curve balls we were thrown in February, things can only get better. Or atleast we hope.

We definitely could have made better financial decisions, but we didn't. But, having said that, we are ahead in other aspects--so we really can't complain. Honestly, I still think it will all even out, and we will still get to our goal!



Here is our progress:

• Actually set aside me and God time in the morning. Working on it. Some weeks are good, some are not so good.


• Become more knowledgeable with The Word. We have been having atleast one night a week where we sit down as a family and read the Bible and go over verses. So much fun!


• Know Him more. I have really been working on this. I have found myself turning to Him more in my struggles (which the end of February was full of!) and just talking to Him more.


• Wife: Be his help meet. Be more understanding. I think so far so good.


• Mother: Patience! We put Nicholas in OT, and changed around some of his medications. We have seen an amazing amount of improvement in this area. Now that Nicholas is happy and getting along with everyone, the stress (with everyone) seems to be almost gone. That was one of my biggest patience killers--so we are doing very good in this area.


• Daughter. I know that I should probably leave this on here because as with all relationships it is something that will always need to be worked on. However, I am pretty confident in saying that I have let go of all of my hard feelings and I have moved on. Our relationship is awesome--and just like any mother/daughter relationship should be. Thank you, God!


• Sister & Friend: I live away from all of my family and most of my friends. I really need to communicate with all of them better. End of story. I'm still terrible! Sorry, guys.


• A total of $4000 (including EF) in savings for: Health expenses, and vehicle/home maintence. I talked about this a little bit here, but I'm going to throw it here as well since it is still our goal for 2009. Just hopefully one that gets crossed off soon! I have yet to do our taxes, and we are hoping to use those to finish this up. So, no crossing off, yet.


• Bump up our contribution to our Christmas Club account. This was completed in January.


• Pay $17500 towards debt. 11% completed. We should be closer to 17%, but I think we will make it up.


• Finish painting the interior rooms. Almost done with the living room/hallway. Only 3 rooms to go after that.


• Update flooring in the Living Room. Hopefully this spring.


• Make it a haven. In progress.


• Fall in love with my home! In progress.


• Be more efficent in my housework and day to day duties. I am getting better-just not ready to check off quite yet. We will see how March goes.


• Finish my Home Guide, Budget, Gardening/Food Storage Notebooks I am done with my Budget notebook, for now. And the Gardening one is in the process.


• We plan to do organic (atleast try to) and switch to all heirloom seeds. All our seeds are heirloom, except maybe 5 plants.


• Build Greenhouse/Permanent Garden Beds.The greenhouse was accomplished at the beginning of February, and we are currently working on the Permanent beds.


• Plant beginning stages of our orchard. Not quite. We bought a blueberry bush, does that count? :)


• Grow our own herbs. I bought them--now let's see if they grow!


• Preserve all our own veggies, fruit. Not quite time, yet.


• I want to get my 3 months of food storage up. Haven't even begun. :(


• Continue to make from scratch and the switch to whole grains. I would love to expiriment with grinding grains, but I don't know that I am that ambitious quite yet. We are eating more whole grains than ever. I actually bought a grinder/wheat berries--but the grinder broke!! So, back to square one.


• Cook more healthy, more nutritious meals. Learn more about nutrition/vitamins. I am cooking fairly healthy meals, and our store bought snacks are almost completely cut out. I still have a long way to go to learn about nutrition, though.


• Have the children assist more in the kitchen and garden. Yes! We are going great here--and it feels so good. They are an active part in our garden, and they are so excited. They help a little in the kitchen, but I really need to kick it up a notch still yet.


• I would love to be more self-reliant. Entrust God to bless us with our harvests. We are well on our way, here.


• Let go of my perfectionism. This gets in the way a lot. More than I care to admit. I am getting better--but I can still improve.


• Become healthy. Uh--I'm still avoiding the doctor. It terrifies me.


• Lose weight. For real! I'm thinking that once the above is taken care of, that this one will be easier. I have lost a little bit of weight--but not enough.


• Read More books that I am interested in. I am in the process of one right now--and it feels great to be reading a "Mommy book" instea of Dr. Suess.

How was February for you? How are you doing on the goals you set for 2009?