Looking forward

I have given quite a lot of thought over the past couple of weeks to the things I want to change or improve for 2014.  Some things are pootling along quite well and can be left to continue, but other things could do with a kick up the you-know-where to make lives easier or better in one way or another.

So in 2014, I want to do some things:

I want to read the whole Bible through
I haven't ever done this, and I am sure that there are huge chunks of the Bible that I have never read at all.  Since I started Faith & Worship, I have read more and more, but this would be one way of making sure I had read it all at least once.  I've been looking online for some plans, and found a couple.  Today I am starting with Genesis, and I'll decide on the plan to follow tomorrow!

I intend to finish Faith and Worship this year
This course is long and challenging, and I need to see the end in sight.  The reality is that if I set my mind to it and just DID it, I could finish it this year.  So I will.  You read it here!

I want to memorise more scripture
I failed abysmally at Ann Voskamp's plan to memorise chapters of Matthew last year, so I am excited to find out her plans for this year, and to have another go.

I want to be more diligent at writing here every day
I have been better at this in the later months of the year, but earlier on it was a little sporadic at times.

Five days out of seven need to include exercise
My bum has got bigger again and so...

I need to lose a stone
That's quite simple: eat better food, move more.  Just need to do it.  Jeans are getting tight...

I need to help the EFG to be ready to "leave home" in September
I am not entirely sure what that entails, but I think that some financial education, some cookery advice and some washing-her-own-clothes instructions would be a good start.....oh, and how to clean the loo!

Lincoln

I've got a sealed pot savings tin again
And I am going to use it - already am!  I have no clear idea of what I will use it for, but the pot is there, and I shall continue to put odds and ends in it, and the egg money will go into it as well, when the chooks get round to laying me some eggs again.  Roll on, Valentine's Day!

Savings target for this year is £5K: we will have £5K more than we do today at the end of the year.
Revised down from this last year's target and achievement, but in recognition of some expenses coming up as I said, and also of a probable reduction in income.

Consideration of our spending habits
I'm veering more towards the German supermarkets, the Co-op and Approved Foods at the moment, and since we have stocks of most things, I think I have a while to have a ponder over this one.  We have limited shopping in the village, and to use a butcher, a baker and a market, I'd have to go to town to the same place as the supermarkets, so it wouldn't be a major problem.  I definitely want to get back to more basic foods as I feel that we have been relying on things out of packets a little too much in 2013, mostly down to lack of time.

 

(image from en.wikipedia.org)

We started to declutter and it felt very liberating
so now we just need to carry on and do more, and more, and more!  But our lives could also do with some streamlining as I feel that I am becoming stretched out too much.  It is really hard to say to someone that you want to do less, so the temptation is to either carry on, or to tell them that you are leaving altogether......People find it hard to understand, and I have to find a way through this by the end of 2014, if not before.

I want to cook from scratch every day!
The YFG has developed a taste for chicken kievs - aargh!  She's going to have to taste home made ones soon, and eat more vegetables!  Seriously, the kitchen is the heart of this home and we need to make sure that we are eating the right foods for all of us to thrive.  2013 has been a very hard year in many ways, and so coming back to basics with food is going to be a good way to S L O W down and re-focus, I hope!

The garden needs more attention 
and then it will produce more!  We didn't have a bad year in the veg beds, but we could have had a better one....if I had got off to an earlier start.  The time I should have begun in earnest collided with the FH being ill, so I was sidetracked, but with the help of my gardening guru, UJ, all was not lost.  This year, I want to think about some permanent beds for fruit bushes like the gooseberry blue berry as well as the raspberries and strawberries we already have.  The fruit trees look like they have all died, so we need to do something about those too.

I want to get the fundraising cookbook for the chapel written this year
I have been talking about this for about 3 years now, so this would be a good year to actually DO it, wouldn't it?!?

I'm off for a look around the other blogs now to see what you are all planning for 2014.  I think it is going to be an exciting year all round.