I am a note-taker.  Always have been.  Always will be.  It’s the only way I can remember anything. (By the way, have you seen OneNote?  It has taken my note-taking to a whole new level!)

A short time ago, I found an old notebook that I used to make notes from audios I had listened to or from homeschooling and homemaking ideas I had as I read books or listened to conference speakers.  The notebook was old and falling apart, so I pulled out the notes and decided I would start looking through them and see if there was anything worth adding to OneNote or blogging about.

One page caught my eye because at the top was written my oldest daughter’s name with a curriculum we never used scrawled next to it.  As I looked down the rest of the page, I realized it was followed by all sorts of notes to myself…

goals I wanted to accomplish…

five years ago.

It was a fascinating blast from the past as I realized some of these goals have become second nature and some of these goals never happened…yet.

So, today I share with you my goals from the past and commentary on those goals because it is just as good to look back and see where you have been as it is to look forward and see where you are going.

1.  No phone calls in the morning – make calls at rest time. I don’t heed this, but truth be told, as I have aged and had more children and my circle of friends have aged and had more children, the phone calls are fewer and further in between.  We are all simply too busy to sit on the phone all morning long and chat.  The occasional days I do take a phone call in the morning don’t end up being a big deal in the overall scheme of things.

2.  Breakfast:  Winter = hot, Summer = cold – Hmmmm….Breakfast has always been a difficult thing for me.  I did not get this one down and I’m not sure I want to.  I did however recently decide to add Green Smoothies {thanks Erica for making it super simple!} to our list of breakfasts.

3.  Write out a few simple goals for each day the night before. Most of the time I do this, if not the night before, then the day of.  I even wrote a post about making simple goals when I have morning sickness.  In fact, I was thrilled to see Sarah Mae talk about this in her ebook 31 Days to Clean.  It really does help to have something to shoot for and something to cross off throughout your day.  Now if I could just remember to make this same kind of list every time I sit down at the computer…can you say rabbit trail?!

4.  Start trying to cook bigger batches and freeze the leftovers. This one made me laugh since bigger batches 5 years ago would have looked like our normal batches now.  This is a goal I would like to work toward and do occasionally accomplish, but not consistently.

5.  Schedule a little bit of housework every day. Let me take you back…I had just had #4.  Remember, my Crossover Baby?  Prior to his birth, I was doing FLYlady with success, but then I hit the wall and could no longer accomplish a full day of cleaning and one day of laundry and manage to keep the house clean for more than a few minutes at a time.  This goal must have been made shortly after finding out about Large Family Logistics (when it was only a website and not a book).  I didn’t end up adopting Kim’s exact days, but I did take her concept of bite-sized pieces and ran with it.  You can see our Weekly Chore List here.

6.  Be in bed by 11 pm and up by 7 am. This has translated to an hour later on both ends.  And for me, that is actually a very good and doable goal.  And yes, you may all now gasp at how late we get up around here.

7.  Have a routine, but not a highly scheduled one. Way to go, Amy!  You’re learning, girl!  And guess what…you end up writing an entire series on this and making it into a homeschool conference session!

8.  Start school with a book. I do start school with a book…the Bible!

9.  Read outside when possible, learn outside when possible! I do this, but not enough in my opinion.  This time of year is absolutely beautiful for learning outside, so note to self…GO OUTSIDE!

10.  Plastic dishes for breakfast and lunch. I actually did do this for a time, but the reason it didn’t stick is because I really do not like plastic dishes.  I use plastic only for my youngest 2, but everyone else uses regular ole plates.  Now, my reasoning behind this was so that my then 5 year old could help with table chores (a newly instituted event back then).  Instead of using plastic, I now have all the plates, glasses (yes, REAL glasses too) and silverware in a cupboard next to the refrigerator where the younger children can easily access them and help out with my supervision.  Typically, it is the 7 and 10 year olds who set the table and put away dishes from the dishwashwer, but back then I didn’t have anyone over 8, so plastic made sense.

11.  Easy lunch, bigger dinner. Five years ago my husband worked from home.  Although I do not remember the circumstances behind this goal, I imagine I was trying to have big meals all the time and was burned out.  This is a goal I hold to even today.  Our lunches are fairly simple most days and our dinners are typically the largest meal of the day because Daddy is home at that time.  Recently we pulled out of the Feast or Famine cycle (thanks Sherry for opening my eyes to this!) and when I made my last Once a Month Shopping meal list, I made sure we had both Feast Meals and Famine Meals intermixed throughout the month, rather than all the Feasts at the beginning and all the Famines at the end.

12.  Take a short walk each day with the kids before lunch and then come home for lunch. I don’t do this, but it sure does sound like a nice idea!

Well, that was fun!  Thanks for sharing in my blast from the past.

How have your goals changed over the years?  I’d love to hear about it!