New Year, new blog! If you’re a little perturbed with the long break between blogs please refer to my 8 rules for blogging.

I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions, but this year I decided to make a few. Since today is the last day of January let’s take a look at my resolutions and how I did the first month.

1. PRAY & READ SCRIPTURE EVERY DAY. I hate that this one even needs to be a resolution but sadly it does. I have 3 daily scripture books and in the past I’ve made it a goal to read all 3 of them every night for the entire year. I generally forget or don’t feel like it on nights when I’m really exhausted or forgot to take them on a trip and get behind….really behind. This year I decided to tackle just 1 book at a time and I’m doing pretty well sticking to it! HOW AM I DOING? I’ve only missed 2 nights and I was sure to make up for it the very next day instead of letting the readings pile on. I’ve also found that the more I deliberately pray and read scripture the more I find myself praying throughout the day.
2. WORKOUT 4-5 TIMES A WEEK. I’ve always been active. In high school I had sports and in college I had PT and a workout buddy. I’ve found it hard to make the time to workout since being out of college and in the “real world”. Once I figured out I could pass the PT test (and pass it quite easily) with little effort beforehand the workouts got fewer and farer between. I always found myself saying I’m too tired to workout on the days I work and don’t want to HAVE to workout on my days off so I just didn’t do anything. I didn’t start this resolution off with a bang but have since ordered T25 and have stuck with it for 2 weeks now which equates to 5 workouts a week. I workout Monday-Friday whether I work or not. 25 minutes isn’t as much as I’d like to be doing but it’s a realistic amount that I’ll actually stick to. 25 minutes is better than nothing right? Are you seeing a theme in my resolutions? 1 scripture book instead of 3. 25 minutes workout instead of an hour. Small but REALISTIC goals. Once these resolutions become habit I can start adding to them!
3. SEND SOMEONE A “JUST BECAUSE” CARD EVERY MONTH. I know I love getting mail other than junk mail and I have a feeling everyone else in the world does too. Every month I’ll pick 1 person to receive a random card from me! Hoping to brighten some days and put a smile on some faces! Send me your address if you want to be a part of this one. I get an A+ on this resolution in January.
4. SEND BIRTHDAY CARDS AND SEND THEM ON TIME. I usually only get birthday cards out 75% of the time and of that 75% only 15% of them are on time. I apologize if you’re in the 25% that didn’t get one. I should also add that I really only send them to my closest friends immediate family. So that’s maybe only 15 people. Nothing commendable I assure you. This year my goal is to get my family’s birthday cards to them 100% of the time and get them to them ON TIME. Maybe next year I’ll extend my birthday card reach. I’m failing so far considering my brother’s birthday is in 2 days and the card is going in the mail tomorrow. Luckily I bought some better late than never cards! Winning?
5. READ 1 BOOK A MONTH. All of you book lovers are probably losing your mind right now. 1 book per month?!?! What? I have a problem when it comes to reading. I either don’t love a book but get too far into it that I can’t not finish it (it just takes me forever because I don’t love it and don’t want to read it) OR I love a book and can’t put it down. I really can’t put it down. I will stay up until 3am to finish a book I love even if I work the next day. Therefore, I typically only pick up a book when I have nothing else to do (so I can do nothing but read all day). How often does that happen? Hopefully I’ll learn to read regularly and put the book down and go to sleep! I didn’t meet my goal in January but I was kind of close to finishing a book. It’s just one of those books that I don’t love but have to finish.
6. RESPOND TO TEXTS/EMAILS THE SAME DAY. Okay, I’m miserably failing at this one and I blame it on work. It’s just not happening on days I work. And if you text me while I’m working and I don’t respond I probably won’t remember the text until MANY days later. I promise I’m working on it!

So there you have it, my resolutions for 2016.

Did you make any resolutions? What are they?

Side note:  I would also like to cut back on sugar, learn to crochet, learn photography, become a certified childbirth educator, and an international board certified lactation consultant in 2016. Oh….and blog more frequently!