Angela's Resolutions

I usually don't make New Year's resolutions, and I'm not really sure why. This year since I'm beginning a new phase in my life after graduating from the college stage, I thought it would be a good idea to set some goals for 2009 (I think my MFT training may be rubbing off on me. Research does show that people who write down their goals are much more likely to achieve them).

1. Read through the Bible in one year- Matt is joining me in this one. Our pastor challenged everyone to read through the entire Bible in 2009. He told us to have a plan and a partner. I've got the partner taken care of and now I'm looking for daily reading plans. I'm excited to share this with Matt. I think it will help us to grow spiritually as a couple and individually as well as keep each other accountable in spiritual disciplines.

2. Weekly date nights- Matt is joining me on this one too (obviously). Because I've been in school pretty much our entire marriage, spending evenings together has been more of an occasional luxury rather than a normal routine. Since that is changing now, I don't want us to take evenings together for granted spending them doing individual things every night. So our goal is to dedicate one evening per week to a "date." Activities during date night could include going out to dinner, going to get ice cream, watching a movie, playing wii, taking Rhapsody for a walk, cooking dinner together etc. What we do isn't as important as demonstrating to each other that our marriage is a priority and we value the time we get to spend together.

Before our date to the Melting Pot just before Christmas

3. Keep in touch better with friends- This one has really slid partly because of living so far away from my closest friends :(, and partly because of our crazy schedules and graduate school. So, my objectives for this goal (here comes that MFT again) are weekly email updates and at least monthly phone calls. I got a chance to catch up with a great friend this past weekend. It was so wonderful, but it also made me realize what I've been missing out on these past couple of years by not keeping in touch as much as I'd like to.

I missed her so much!


Sarah and her sweet daughter Adaline

4. Be a more thrifty shopper- I can't believe how high our grocery bills are each month. Food is so expensive. Usually, when I'm at the store, I will price compare a little, but I want to up this a lot this year by taking advantage of sale ads and coupons. My goal is to cut our monthly grocery bill by 25%. We'll see how that goes.

5. Exercise at least three times per week- Matt got me a wii fit for graduation, and my parents got me a puppy with lots of energy, two great ways to burn some calories!