A New Year ~ Getting Prepared

 Hope you all had a safe and fun New Year’s! We hung out with family, tried to watch the New York New Year’s and somehow missed it, but found the Spanish channel’s ball drop and watched that, worked on a Snoopy puzzle that started with my kids’ help and ended with me trying to finish it by myself after they went to bed and then we were in bed by like 10:20pm. Safe…yes! Fun…oh CRAZY fun ;)

As we wrapped up 2015 and have rung in 2016, I’ve been reflecting on the past year. It was a productive and full year. My husband passed the Bar this spring, which was a huge accomplishment, both for him and for our family, I stayed busy with my business, we had some great family time and family trips, we were able to do some meaningful charity work, and we took an unforgettable road trip this summer across the country. There have been some wonderful times and also some challenging issues that have come up this year. Lots of long conversations to try and figure life out.

I’m constantly trying to improve myself, systems, parenting, our home, etc., and not just at the beginning of the calendar year. I mentioned it back here, but for me, back to school time is almost more of a fresh start than January 1st, but I’ll take any “fresh start” I can get! Last year I came across this super helpful printable to help facilitate a “family meeting” on Emily Ley’s instagram. I love the idea of running a household as a sort of business. You wouldn’t or couldn’t run a successful business operation without weekly meetings, a yearly plan, a budget, organization and members of the organization knowing their roles and what is expected. We’ve recently taken this concept a little more seriously in our house and I really like the idea of not flying by the seat of our pants, although we’ve done that way too much this past year! During a recent conversation with Jason, he deemed me, or I guess reminded me, that I am the CEO of our family/household and that I needed to approach our lives/family/household like that. I have more to come on this whole concept because I love this idea and the purposeful direction it gives!

But before we get too crazy and start setting the Household CEO concept on fire, we started with this printable last year to help us review the past year {2014} and look forward to 2015. Baby steps, people!

Last year we went out to a little drink/dessert date and went through each section and really thought it all through. Here is a little snap shot of some things on the printable that we wrote out for our family…

Just a few things that worked for our family during 2014:

* Jason was involved. He didn’t have law school classes the second half of the year and was able to help out more with the kids and around the house.

* I was able to have dedicated work time in the morning most days during the week before the kids woke up, which allowed me to get ready for the day and accomplish some extra admin work for my business so it didn’t take up time during the few hours a week I had to work.

*More faith in our lives.

What didn’t Work for our Family Last Year {2014}:

* Our morning/after school routines were not working for us. {Our afternoon routine is still a little shaky}

*Kids’ chores/jobs

*Family Budget

*Managing our Joint Calendar

We definitely have figured out our morning routine this past year. Most mornings, I work early, Jason gets the kids breakfast and gets them ready to head out the door to school and takes them to school at least one day a week and I take them the other days. It works especially well if I have put everyone’s outfits out the night before and made lunches the night before too. I really rarely make lunches the night before and every morning after I do that, I think “I should totally do this every day. It makes mornings so much easier!” But I’m usually too exhausted at night to think about lunch prep. It really only takes 15 minutes or so, though.  That one should be added to the 2016 goals :)

We started the summer strong with kids’ chores and it worked great over the summer but it’s kind of lost it’s momentum once school started. I would like to implement a Saturday morning chore routine. Another one for the 2016 goals list!

Our family budget is a big one this coming year. We are really wanting to have a great grasp on our family budget this year. We’ve started working on it and will continue working on this a lot this year. I’m finding some printables/systems that would work best for us to keep us accountable and organized. Told you I like systems! Problem is I’m really good at getting everything all organized to put those systems in place. And then I get side tracked and lose steam about 2 weeks in!!! Looks like I’m writing my goal list for 2016 just by writing this post :)

Managing our family/joint calendars was a nightmare in 2014. I think that was our biggest frustration for managing our family in 2014. I am a detailed planner and I would have everything planned out and assume Jason was able to help or be there, etc. and he would have his own work agenda that I had no idea about-meetings at night, meetings super early in the morning. So we added the Cozi app to our lives and haven’t looked back. He still keeps his work calendar and I still keep my personal planner, but if it involves the other person or our family {early morning meetings, meetings or events at night, kid activities} it goes in Cozi and we have had way less frustrating moments due to our calendar for 2015!

Goals for Next Year {2015}:

We were able to accomplish a lot of our goals. We set some goals for the grown ups and each of the kids, and for us as a family as a whole. Some we didn’t get checked off, but those will maybe get moved to the 2016 list. I have a tendency to look at a list of goals and focus on the ones that weren’t accomplished, but looking through it with positive eyes, we really did get a lot accomplished.

Memories To Make {in 2015}:

 Love this one because we can get caught up in to-do lists and accomplishments we want to achieve and lose sight of having fun along the way. We always end up having fun, but having an intentional list of the memories we want to make helps to make life more fulfilling and fun!

2016

Yesterday, we left the kids with the grandparents and headed to Starbucks and went over last year’s worksheet and discussed and planned for 2016.

Main Goals for this Year {2016}:

 *Setting up and following a family budget and

*Get serious about planning and preparation in all aspects of our lives: Family; Work; Household Management; Meals; and Personal Interests.

Those were on our goal list last year and both were pretty much a major FAIL!!! We need some good, simple routines like when I go grocery shopping or to Costco, when laundry gets done and how it gets put away, etc. and to know where our money is going.

*Finish up home projects we have already started that haven’t quite gotten completed and tackle some of those much needed projects that are on our project list.

*Work on preserving our family history. This is a personal goal. I have SO many photos and I want to print out the ones that are meaningful and get them organized and make sure all the meaningful family documents we have are all together in a safe place. I can’t stand that we have this kind of important stuff all over our house! To me, this is a great gift I can pass on to my immediate family and future generations.

Memories to Make {2016}:

* A few family trips

We’ve got a few trips that we would like to take as a family this year.

*Set up a backyard garden

This is one I have had on my wish list for quite some time. Maybe this is the spring I will get it set up!

*Beach day trips

We live close to the beach, my kids love the beach, and we just don’t go as much as we should. Easy, cheap, fun family entertainment!

I feel like I always have too much on my “Want to Accomplish” list that sometimes it feels like a recipe for failure. But having goals and lists are a great place to start! And I’m working on reminding myself to celebrate the small and large victories I have day in and day out. I definitely don’t have it all figured out and I love trying new ideas to find good solutions that make the things in life that I can control a bit less stressful and simple.

I’m looking forward to sharing some of the progress on this throughout the year with you guys. You can find great info here and the printable we used here, and I still love my Erin Condren Life Planner too that has helped me over the years a ton to stay more organized and on top of life. And I am always open to ideas that work for you, so share away!

Here’s to being prepared and organized, and efficient planning, and setting the Household CEO concept world on fire in 2016!

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