A fresh year and a fresh batch of a dozen monthly goal posts is in front of me. It's a good place to be. I've been collecting quotes for a while and thought that I'd pick one each month to accompany my goals each month this year. Just a little bit of inspiration for us all.

I think I'll prepare for each monthly goals post by reviewing my 2018 post and reflecting on my word for the year: CONNECT. It always feels like so much is happening and being reminded of what I decided should be important this year is centering. Every month requires recommitting to goals to make them habits of the year.

This month I'm looking forward to settling back into routine. Especially of Orange Theory twice a week after being sick for the first couple weeks of the month (ugh) and eating big salads for lunch. Another overarching goal for us this year is to stick to our $150/month joint personal allowance budget for family/couple eating out or other activities and to a decreased personal allowance budget of $80/month (down from $100/month). I'll be sharing a monthly round ups of how we spent at the beginning of each month so stay tuned.

Big things happening in January:

+ Heading back to work. I survived!

+ My parents visit. We had a great visit and look forward to more now that my mom is retired - woo hoo!

+ Solo parent weekend while Chris is out of town. I'm actually starting to look forward to these which is a world of difference from even a year ago. We'll have the boys' favorite dinner (mac and cheese) visit some parks and maybe even watch a movie.

January goals:

+ Write Christmas and birthday thank you notes. I still love to send handwritten thank you notes for most of the gifts we receive, which I discussed at length in an etiquette episode of The Girl Next Door Podcast.

+ Start working on our 2017 family yearbook. This is my favorite annual project. The satisfied feeling of having a hardback book documenting family life that we can look through with the boys cannot be overstated. I shared my simple process of organizing and making use of family photos in this post.

+ Complete a draft of a feature piece on anthropology research at work. I don't normally include work goals here but this is something I need to make a push on this month. It's a bit of a quick turn around coming right on the heels of the holiday so I could use the oopmh of making it a goal.

+ Make time for a freelance editing project. Since the beginning of last year I've had the opportunity for some freelance writing and editing projects which I've really enjoyed. This month I'm excited to be editing a novel! This will take some evening and weekend work but it's work that's very enjoyable.

+ Paint my nails. I've fallen out of the habit but I've found that consistently painting my nails really helps keep me keep my cuticles beautiful. For the winter I'm loving dark colors like Essie's Smokin' Hot.

+ Itemize our front and backyard updates so we can start planning for getting the work done.

Recurring monthly goals:

+ Call my mom on Fridays, and call my Austin girl friends every other week or so.

+ Thursday night at-home cookies dates with Chris.

+ Don't start or end the day with my phone.

+ Go to bed by 9 pm. I've been struggling with this one but I know how critical good sleep is. Usually I'm staying up to read but sleep is everything!

What's happening for you this month? Happy January!