My Goals for 2018!

1. Focus on Me

My first goal is a big goal and I don’t think it’s something that I can complete within one year, but I know I can make a lot of progress. For the past 4 years I have focused on being a mom and neglected myself. I don’t regret making that decision, but I regret not trying to find more of a balance between both and realizing it’s okay to focus on myself and my kids interchangeably. It has finally caught up to me and sometimes I feel very unhappy with myself. This past year I have really reflected on what putting myself on the back-burner has done, so this year I am determined to make a change. I want to start small and understand that it is okay to focus on me and I will be a better mom because of it!

2. Get in Shape and Be Healthy

At the beginning of 2017, I was determined and focused to get back in shape, but it didn’t last long. I felt like I couldn’t commit every time I attempted to make it work and then I just gave up. Now I am so unhappy with the way I look. I feel like it has stopped me from doing a lot of things that I want to do because I am embarrassed and in simple terms, I hate the way I look and my body. I have so many fun plans I want to do this year with the kids and I don’t want the way I look to hold me back. I know I have to stay committed or I will just regret it by the end of this year.

3. Declutter, Declutter, Declutter!

For the past 6 months or so I have been going through our house and everything we have and trying hard to declutter and get rid of a lot of things we don’t need. This has been a hard task for me at times because I have realized I put a lot of value on items and find myself holding a lot of memories in objects. I try to stop and think about what the item really is and if it is important for me to keep. Some items that cannot be replaced I will keep, but others I have learned to let go. One of the biggest items I have had to declutter is all the clothes for Emily and the triplets. We had so many and we really needed the space, so I made the big decision and parted ways with almost all of the clothes, but I had to keep some of my favorites! If you are looking for any inspiration to start or think it may not be worth it, when I started decluttering, I started selling my stuff and I was able to save up enough money for our trip to Florida last summer. I would take a trip to Florida over all those items still in our house! *The cover picture is from our trip that I was able to pay for with the stuff I sold!

4. Save Money

Who doesn’t want to save money, so of course I had to add this to my list! I think this goal ties into my goal of decluttering because I like to spend money and I end up buying things we don’t need. Now that I am focusing on decluttering, I find myself becoming more aware of what I am buying and really questioning if we need it or not.

Not buying stuff will of course make saving money easier, but I also have to have a plan in place where I am ACTUALLY saving money and putting it into an account or some place I cannot touch it. Dan works for the bank, so he is always up-to-date with the best ways to save and I think the biggest step I can do, pretty much right away, is to open an RRSP. Dan has been bugging me to open one for so long and I’ve just been putting it off, so this year will be the year I do it (hopefully by the end of January!)

I do have to add a third part to this goal because with everyday life we will need to spend money no matter what. I like to think I am pretty good with finding deals and the best prices out there, but this year I want to be better! Whether its using coupons or finding discounts available, I want to save money on our everyday purchases! I think I will share a post with all my money-saving tips too and hopefully share some insight on easy ways you can save too!

5. Simplify My Life Everywhere I Can

At the end of 2017, I was all about taking away the unnecessary stress in my life. I would think about what makes me feel stressed and then think of a way to make it not stressful. I think that all of my goals kind of tie together because a big thing that stressed me out was all the clutter and disorganization, which is why I have been on a big decluttering spree. I just want things to be simple and not complicated and whether that means using a product or service to make my life easier, I am all for it!

6. Re-do & Organize Our House

We have been living in our house for 4.5 years now and I am finally deciding to take the time to organize and set it up the way I would like. I feel like for the past 4.5 years we were in a baby mode and our house was set up for everything baby. I’ll have to write another post to talk about the different set ups we had and hopefully I can find some pictures, because it has changed so much. Now that Emily and the triplets are no longer using high chairs, swings or a playpen, we finally have more room, which is what we need now that they are running everywhere and just want room to play. It will be nice to step a little further out of the baby set up and have a house that’s a little more stylish!

7. Stay More Focused and Not Procrastinate

Procrastination should be my middle name, because I feel like I procrastinate with everything. I am not proud of it and it’s something I really have to work on and this year is going to be it! I really don’t know why I do because those times that I get things done ahead of time, it’s such a good feeling and much less stressful. I also want to stay focused on my goals and not let them drift away. I have some big goals I want to achieve this year and I know I wont be able to complete them if I’m not focused!

8. Work on and Finish My Many Projects

If you know me, you know I have about 100 projects on the go and some have been on going for the past 2 years (our fireplace mantle for example)! This year I am determined to complete some. I know if I tried to get them all done I couldn’t do it, so if I right out a list of all the projects I have, I can pick which ones I know I can complete and which ones are the most important.

9. Reconnect With Friends

Becoming a mom was the biggest job I have ever had and it came with a lot of sacrifices. I wasn’t as free as I once was and I couldn’t just leave for a spur of the moment night out. It was also hard to stay connected with friends as my life and their lives became busier. I thought I would have so much more free time being a stay at home mom, but I feel like it is the complete opposite. Most of my days I spend at home just trying to keep our lives on track and as a result its been hard to find extra time to go out. This year I want to reconnect with my friends and find the time to go out with them.

10. Grow The Baby Gang

And last but not least, I want to grow The Baby Gang. I want us to be able to connect to more people and to share our experiences with a bigger audience. We want to continue to give back to everyone through giveaways and sharing things we love and advice on products that we use through our partnerships. And we want to continue hearing from all of you with your stories and insights you give us! In February it will be 2 years since we posted our video of me changing Emily and the triplets and we cannot believe all of the things we have experienced since then and all of the people we have been able to connect with. Not only have we shared our experiences and hopefully taught you something, but we have truly learned so much from all of you. We are excited to keep going and see where 2018 takes us.

As Emily and the triplets get older, Dan and I can only imagine all of the fun things we will be able to do with them. From making fun videos with the kids or vlogging all of the awesome adventures we hope to take them on, we are excited to share it all with everyone!

We still have our goal to reach 100,000 subscribers on YouTube and now that we finally hit 500K on Facebook, we are setting our next goal to 1 Million. Then for Instagram we would love to reach somewhere between 50 – 100K followers. Of course reaching all three of those will take a lot of work and commitment from both of us, so it is up to us to put in the work to make our goals a reality! We know none of this would be possible without all of you, so we want to share a great big THANK YOU for supporting us and enjoying everything that we do!

I hope you all have an amazing year and can proudly say you achieved all of your goals by the end of 2018! We would love to hear what your goals are, so please SHARE!

-Corrie