Friday, November 20, 2020

Our Goals for 2021

I'm sure your saying......" Uh, Katie it isn't even Thanksgiving yet and your working on next years goals?

    Haha! Yes, we are working on it! Never to early to start thinking of your goals! Plus, hey it's 2020 right! People already have their trees up, so why not! :) 


Here are some of the goals I personally have for myself and some hubby and I have together. 


    Financial goals: 

So many of you know my husband and I work the Dave Ramsey Plan. If you don't know who that is take a minute and good him and the baby steps and hop on board, you won't regret it! If you want me to do a post about our financial journey and our debt free journey let me know! We are on baby step 6 right now which is to pay off your mortgage as fast as you can and we are working on it! Any other Baby step 6 people here? Comment down below! Okay so here is what we have so far as our goals. 

     Working on continuing to knock down our mortgage as much as we can! Paying our home off as soon and as quickly as possible is a huge goal for us! 

    Bump up our emergency fund another month's worth of our living expenses.( we currently have 3/4 months of living expenses saved)

    Bump up retirement contributions more then we already are. 

    Cash flow house projects we would like to get done. We currently have a bathroom project that needs to get completed :). Also have some outside projects we would like to do. 

    Keeping our grocery budget where it is($450/month) and even challenge myself to see if I can get it lower. ( I will keep you updated on this in future posts) 

    Continue to add to our replacement car fund.  Both our cars are doing great and don't see the need to replace them for a few years, but we like to start saving now so we have a good chunk saved to pay cash for the next one. Have you ever paid cash for a vehicle before? Let me tell you it is the best feeling in the world to write a check, leave with the vehicle and know we don't have any payments to worry about. It is just such a cool feeling! I challenge you all to do this! So worth it! 

  Personal goals:

    I would like to read more books. I love financial/ business books. :)  So setting a goal of reading or listening to at least one book a month. 

    Continuing having my morning time with the Lord. Diving deeper into his word through reading the bible, Bible studies, and listening to speakers. Continue to keep a prayer journal. ( I have really loved doing this and highly recommend it! 

 

   I would love to better my career. I intend to do this by reading / watching videos and listening to podcasts on business and careers and just evaluating how I can make myself better at my job and maybe ways to advance  in my career. 


    Keep reaching my goal of 10,000+ steps a day. 


    Continue to volunteer at least once a month. 


    Make time to hang out and strengthen/ grow my friendships! ( really looking forward to this one! :)) 


    Continue to homeschool our boys ( I will have a High Schooler (9th) next year! How is this possible?! and a Middle Schooler(6th)!?) I absolutely love doing this. Yes, there are hard days, but the good days so out way the bad. So excited what the new year brings with teaching and learning, but God is at the wheel and at the center of it all so I know it will be great! I will be doing more posts on homeschooling for us as well. Let me know if you would be interested in this as well. 


    Start back to blogging on a regular basis. I am going to really work on this in the coming year. I love to have a place to write all my thoughts and the events that happen in our life. It is a fun way for me to document our life together as a family. 


That is it for now. I know these aren't massive goals, but we/I wanted to make them manageable and achievable as well. It is not fun to make goals that you will never reach.  So let me know do you have any fun goals for next year? Have you started working on them yet? 


Thank you for taking the time to join me on this post and don't forget to share with your friends! 


~Katie


    

    








December Monthly Meal Plan

Here is my monthly meal plan for our family for the month of December. 


1st- Pancakes and Bacon/ fruit

2nd- Homemade Calzones/ salads

3rd- Soup/ crackers/ cut up veggies

4th- Crockpot pork chops/ mashed pot./ veggie

5th- leftovers

6th- Tacos

7th- Oatmeal night with all the toppings

8th- Pocket Sandwiches( homemade hot pockets) 

9th- Fish sticks, fries and veggie

10th- Breakfast for dinner ( either eggs, french toast, bagel sandwiches, quiche)

11th- Crockpot chicken and dumplings

12th- Spaghetti

13th-Chicken Patty Sandwiches

14th-Baked Potato night with toppings

15th- Ham , mac and cheese, veggie

16th-Homemade pizzas

17th-Beef Stroganoff, egg noodles, veg

18th-Potato soup/ homemade roll or biscuits

19th- Crispy chicken casserole, salad

20th- Lasagna, garlic bread

21st-Breakfast for dinner

22nd- Sloppy Joe Sandwiches

23rd- Not yet determined ( would love a suggestion)

24th-Christmas Eve

25th- Christmas Dinner with family

26th- Tomato soup/ grilled cheese sandwiches

27th- Beef stew, cornbread

28th- Bagel Sandwiches

29th-Not yet determined ( would love a suggestion) 

30th-Not yet determined ( would love a suggestion)

31st- Fried Shrimp, Salad 


Would love to hear what you are having for the month of December! Do you have any traditional meals during this month? 


Let me know in the comments what your monthly meal plan looks like! 


~ Katie

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

What has been happening on our homestead?


I have had a few readers ask me what is new on our homestead since I last posted. 


Well during my time away from blogging, we downsized our goats. We no longer have meat goats. All we have now are 3 goats. My mom's pygmy goat, Tyler's white and brown Nigerian dwarf and Kyle's Black/brown Nigerian dwarf. We also downsized our layers. At the time that was what we needed to do. We had a lot on our plate and a lot going on. 

We have since gotten more layers and are excited to be getting our egg business up and running! ( Even getting our business stamp made and should be here by the end of the week! Also, got our order of 100 new cartons.) We just got an order of layer chicks to help replace a good bit of our older birds come this fall/winter. We are super excited about this part of our journey and how we are looking to hopefully continue to expand.And talking about expanding,  I have an incubator coming this month ( Happy Mother's day to me! :) ) to also start the next  new adventure into hatching/ raising our own replacement layers, as well as selling some of the chicks we hatch and raise.  I will be sure to do a post on this, showing which incubator we chose and as we go through this adventure , so stay tuned!

We have put in a small orchard in our backyard! We put in 2 peach trees and 2 pear trees. We will be excited for them to start producing fruit in a few years. The boys have also put in a small pond in the middle of the orchard for the next  new additions. Any guesses? 

And last we have put our garden in for this year. We are already enjoying lettuce , strawberries and even some broccoli from it. We planted lettuce( 2 types), broccoli, sugar peas, green beans, dry beans, zucchini, 3 types of tomatoes), beets, onions ( red and white) and a lot of red potatoes. We also transplanted 2 blueberry bushes that were Tom's dad's. We are very excited to have these and see they already have some fruit started grow on them. 

Did / or are you getting anything new or excited to add to your farm/homestead/property? I would love to hear about it. Leave it in the comments! 

~ Katie



Monday, June 1, 2020

Back at it again!

 After a long while off, I have decided to start blogging again. I hope you all are doing well.

 A lot has happened since I blogged last and a lot in this world is going on as well.

   There has been happiness, stress, sadness, mourning, doubt, prayer,  growth, seeking and planning in our journey during this time. But during this time I keep coming back to Jeremiah 29:11. That verse says so much and it is wonderful to think God has it all planned for us!

 I am very happy to be back  to share all that is going on and  somethings we have planned for the future.

I hope you will join me ( and my family) as we get back on this journey.

Feel free to share my posts, I would greatly appreciate it!

~ Katie