2014 Goals and New Blog

I thought linking up with First Grade Nest would be a great way to start my new blog! I have a teacher blog (Being Elementary in Middle School), but it doesn't cover all of me and I feel odd posting personal items on it, so I never update it.

This blog is a way for me to be accountable to me. My mom gave me a book titled organize now! by Jennifer Ford Berry.

As the subtitle implies, it is a week-by-week guide and has some awesome ideas. Each week has goals for you to accomplish and a checklist. It has you writing down and keeping track of different items through out the 56 weeks. I kept trying to come up with a way to do this that wouldn't be expensive and wouldn't require me to carry around multiple journals and notebooks along with all my teacher stuff and it wasn't working. I woke up in the middle of the night with the thought that I could do it all on a blog and I would have it where ever I went. So Year of the Robyn was born.

The first item on week one's checklist is to write out my vision for my life. After I read the first week chapter, I checked my Facebook newsfeed and on it was an update from my friend Andrea at Reading Toward the Stars about a Goals and Resolution Linky for 2014, so I thought this would be a great start for me.

So here are my resolutions or my vision for the upcoming year for me:

And now some goals:

This year I would like to make more hands on activities for my students. I teach writing (yes, I know I make lots of mistakes) to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at an inner city school. My students hate to do any work and I can't count on anything that goes home coming back. I started using an Interactive Notebook this year and the kids love it, but I have a limited amount of copies that I can use each month. Hence my goal of more hands on activities. 

Goal One leads into Goal Two. I want to create more items on Teachers Pay Teachers. Last year my amazing neighbor helped me to create two items and I made more than $45 in 6 months from the one item that costs money. My goal is to have 10 more items up by the end of the school year.

Goal Three is to be healthier. I would love to lose 40 pounds this year! I have already started getting everything lined up to accomplish this too! My mom and I are signing up for a 10 week program at our local gym. It starts in two weeks.

Goal Four is to be more organized and clean. My husband does most of the cleaning and this year I want to do more! And I've already started. I decided yesterday that I needed to start off the year with a clean oven. After spending more than 3 hours spraying, waiting, and scrubbing, I have decided that our next oven must be a self-cleaning oven.  And of course the book my mom gave me will be a great help too!

This summer my mom is planning on renting an apartment in London, England for a month. The kids and I are going to go over for two weeks and one place I would like to visit is Stonehenge. I've been to England before but didn't venture very far from London. 

I love trying new foods! This year I would like to try more vegetarian entrees. I have several friends who are vegan and a couple of weeks ago my daughter and I spent a weekend with them. Since we were staying with them, we ate to their diet. I haven't felt that full or that good in a long time. 

My children and I love to watch cooking shows. This past fall, my daughter and I got caught up in Junior Master Chef. We were both amazed by what they were able to make. One of the dishes that the children had to make was homemade pasta. My daughter turned to me and asked if we could learn to do that. So this year I want to learn how to make homemade pasta. 

Every year I try to give up pop (soda), but this is going to be the year. I am already on day 5 of no soda!

I want to spend more quality time with my family this year. One way I want to do that is to start having Family Game night on Fridays. We just taught the kids International Rummy and they love it.

I want to be healthier and more organized this year! And hopefully this blog is a great start towards all of my goals.

Happy New Year and good luck on your resolutions and goals for 2014!