New Year, New Start

Alright, blogland, I realize I have little to no readership but I have decided to do this for myself. I am going to use this blog as a way to be accountable to myself and the goals I have for this year. I dislike the word resolution so I prefer the word goals. So often I make resolutions and they are out of my mind by the end of January. I decided to limit myself to 12 goals. It seemed fitting...12 for 2012. They aren't new goals or in any way special, in fact I'm sure thousands are making these same goals. But here they are anyways.

1. I want to keep a blog, update it regularly with things that are important to my family and me (at least 2 times a week.)

2. I want to continue my journey to becoming more healthy. I want to continue to go to the Y at least 3 days a week and the weight loss goal continues to be 1 pound a week. I also hope not to get frustrated if I have an off week and throw it all away because of that (I tend to do that.)

3. I want to become more organized, in my home, with kids schedules and in my life in general.

4. I want to read more. My to-read book list grows ever longer and I rarely cross anything off. My goal this year is 15-20 books. I have friends who can read 50 books a year and while I want to eventually get there, I know myself and when I make goals that are two big, I get frustrated and quit before I ever get started.

5. I want to have more family fun time; game nights, movie nights, just in general hanging out and enjoying my family, at least once a month.

6. I want to figure out what I want to do with my life...narrow down the possibilities and start on the road to making it happen.

7. I want to finish some of my already-in-progress projects...at least 5. They are in various stages of completion and some started many, many years ago.

8. I want to keep my house cleaner on a daily basis. Restart my routine and stick with it. I want to organize a chore chart for the kids. They are certainly old enough to take on some of the responsibility for keeping our house a home and helping out is part of being a family.

9. I want to build and grow a vegetable garden in our back yard. Nothing big, but a nice garden to grow some of our own food.

10. I want to cook more of our meals. And more than that, I want try more new recipes. We get stuck in the same meal rut on a pretty regular basis. I'd like to try 2 new recipes a month.

11. I want to learn one new skill this year. I'm not really sure what that skill will be but I want to learn something new.

12. I want to get away for at least one long weekend with my husband. It will be our 10th anniversary this year and we never took a honeymoon. It is time we reconnected without our children. Also as a piggy back goal to that, I want to have more date nights. We rarely do things together alone and I think that is important for our relationship.

So that's it. 12 goals for 2012. At first my little list was hard to come up with but as I got started I realized I could go on and on and on. Good thing I am limiting it to 12. I feel like I might be more successful if I don't start off too big.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make these goals more attainable? Have you had success with your new years goals in the past? What are your goals for 2012?