Daily Goals 

• Take my vitamins everyday 

• I started off strong with this one and then I completely failed. Every now and then I remember to take my vitamins but I am not consistent at all. Maybe it’s because I have my vitamins in my medicine cabinet and I don’t open that everyday? I am going to try keeping my vitamins on my nightstand this quarter to see if it helps me be more consistent. 

• Create and stick to a morning and night time routine 

• I thought a lot about what my ideal morning and night time routine would look like and also read about what other people do but I didn’t really set anything up for myself. I think I have been holding back because I feel like I have to create the perfect routine for myself right off the bat and that my routine has to be super productive. This is certainly a case where I am putting too much pressure on myself for no reason. My plan right now is to take a step back and take it slow. I am going to start with figuring out what kind of morning routine I would like to have and get that right before I move on to my night time routine. 

• Drink eight glasses of water a day 

• This was a goal that carried over from 2018 and I am happy that it has stuck. I honestly really only drink coffee and water so this is pretty easy to keep up with. There have been days where I forget to drink enough water and I feel the difference. 

• Journal everyday 

• Another goal carried over from 2018 and one that will be on my list forever! I use the Day One App and seriously love it! I can easily create a new entry, write up what I did that day, attach photos, and save it. Now that I have over a years worth of journal entries I even get little “on this day” notifications so I can go back and read what I did and how I felt a year ago. It will be exciting a few years down the road to see how my life has changed. 

Weekly 

• Create something

• While I haven’t been doing this every week I have been more conscience about trying to just sit down and let myself play and be creative. I think that in the past I have felt that this creative time has been a waste of time and that I could be doing something more productive but I have realized that letting myself be and not stress about if something will come out of this creative time that I open myself up for new ideas and inspiration. 

• Workout four days a week 

• When the year started I was in the final weeks of training for my first marathon. I was following a training plan and was trying to avoid over doing it so I only worked out according to my plan. The three weeks after the marathon were recovery weeks for me. Aside from stretching, I didn’t do a single workout for an entire week and then only did three workouts in the next two weeks. Mentally I was ready to get back to my workout routine but my body was saying otherwise. By mid February my body was finally feeling better and I started back up on my workout routine and have kept it up since. 

• Read two books a month 

• Y’all, I am doing so good with this goal! I read/ listened to 8 books in the first quarter of 2019. I am seriously in love with audio books, they make picking and cleaning my house way more enjoyable! I love being able to listen to a book while I am doing dishes or folding laundry or even when I am out on a walk. I have it on my to do list to write a round up of what I’ve read so far so I’ll talk about that in a future post. 

Monthly 

• Practice my photography skills 

• Luckily for me both my sister and one of my oldest friends came to visit me during their spring breaks and I was able to practice my photography skills with them. My sister has her own adorable blog and I was tasked with taking a few photos for here while she was here. You can see the photos I took of here in her first Coffee Shop Diaries post here. My friend Alana and her family were in town and wanted photos in the bluebonnets so I got to play photographer for the day and took some beautiful family photos for them! It was fun to be back behind the camera in this setting and it also made me realize that I have a lot to learn when it comes to posing people! 

• Cook a new meal 

• I am so glad that I have made it a goal to cook a new meal every month because if I would stick to what I know I would never have tried out some of my new favorite recipes. The three recipes I made and loved this quarter were:
• Roasted Lemon Chicken and Potatoes 
• Healthy Beef and Broccolini 
• Thai Chicken Curry

This Year 

• Complete Round 2 of Whole30 

• Confession: We started and quit a week into our second round of Whole30. Let me start off by saying that I think doing Whole30 is very helpful in terms of figuring out how and what foods affect our bodies. I learned a lot during the round of Whole30 that we completed last year and still use what I learned in making food choices. You can read about my experience with Whole30 here. We were a week into our second round of Whole30 when our friends invited us out to dinner. Immediately the panic of figuring out if there was something Whole30 compliant at the restaurant set in. We wanted to go out with our friends and have a good time and were letting the restrictions of Whole30 put a lot of unnecessary stress on us. We ended up quitting that night. I may write some more about this later but for now I don’t really plan on doing another Whole30 this year. 

• Run a half marathon distance every quarter 

• I ran my first marathon on January 20, 2019 and that pretty much covered my long distance running for the first quarter of 2019. I have since started slowly training back up to run a half marathon in the second quarter. 

• Travel to two places I’ve never been to 

• Flights are booked for Mexico and Europe! I am so so excited! May and June of this year will be filled with lots of travel and I am thrilled! I can’t wait to explore San Miguel de Allende, London, and Paris! 

• Finish Decorating our master bedroom and master bathroom 

• I’ve gotten a few decorative pieces for our bedroom but haven’t finished yet. I’ve honestly been distracted with trip planning! 

• Refocus on my online business and create a plan for the year to come 

• It was sometime in January when I sat down to analyze and think through what I wanted to do for my online business and I realized something… I am just not that into it anymore. Well, at least not in its current iteration. I started this version of my business when we moved to Houston almost 6 years ago and I am bored and burned out on it. Because of the nature of digital downloads I will still have my shops up and my printables will still be available but I am not focused on developing new designs and items. If inspiration hits I will be adding new items but I am not focused on growing that side of my business anymore. I am not sure exactly what is next for me but like with everything else, I am sure I will figure it out! 

My Evernote Notebook Set Up 

In Evernote I created a stack titled Food in which I have two notebooks: Recipes and Meal Plans . I keep the notebooks separate to make it easier to find exactly what I am looking for.

In the Recipe notebook I have one Template note:

1. Recipe Layout Template 

In the Meal Plan notebook I have two Template notes that I use week after week:

1. Meal Plan Template
2. Grocery List Template 

Recipe Layout Template 

For each recipe, I keep track of a few specific details that make it easier for me to meal plan. These details are:

• Recipe Title: When I title my recipe I preface it with the category that the recipe is in. The categories I use are: Breakfast, Beef, Poultry, Pork, Seafood, and Side Dishes. As I build out my recipe catalog I will include more categories. 
• Link to Original Recipe: A majority of the recipes I make have been created by someone else and can be found online. I like to keep track of where I got the recipe from incase I want to reference the original recipe since I do make modifications and change the ingredients list and instructions on my own copy of the recipe. 
• Cooking Information: This includes prep time, cook time, total time, and serving size. 
• Ingredients List: Because this is the section that I copy and paste into my meal plan template I use the recipe title again and include a link back to the recipe note with the ingredients listed below. Linking the title makes it easy for me to access the recipe from my Meal Plan for the week. 
• Instructions: I list step by step cooking instructions here. 

Meal Plan Template 

When creating my meal plan I like to be able to collect all the information I need in one place. I've created a table where I track the day of the week, date, each meal of the day, and what needs to be prepped on that day. Below that is where I paste a copy of the Ingredients List from my recipe note for each recipe that I will be making that week. Since I've linked the title of the Ingredients List back to the Recipe note, I can easily go from my Meal Plan for the week to the Recipe that I will be cooking. This eliminates having to search for the recipe saving a little bit of time. 

Once I have all my meals planned and the ingredients list for each recipe, I start working on my grocery list. The first step is to check off the ingredients that I already have in my fridge or pantry so that I am not buying more of the same and wasting food. 

Grocery List Template

Once I have completed my meal plan, I write up my grocery list for the week. Since I shop at different stores for different things, I have my grocery list broken down by store and by section. The stores I shop at are: HEB, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Costco. A majority of my groceries will be from HEB, but I do occasionally go to the other stores for specific items.

Under HEB I have a list of categories that correspond to different sections of the store. I do this so that I can get everything from that section before moving on to another part of the store. This has made my grocery trips a lot faster than they used to be. The categories I use are:

• Produce 
• Proteins & Meats 
• Dairy & Cold items 
• Snacks 
• Spices 
• Canned / Dry Goods 
• Drinks 
• Frozen
• Other 

These categories work for me because it is the route I take around my store. If you are recreating it you can organize your list in a way to works for you and the store that you shop at. 

Conclusion

Daily 

• Take my vitamins everyday

• Now that I am thirty I feel like I need to be taking even better care of my health and that includes taking vitamins. If you are reading this mom- I am finally listening to you! I have never ever been very good at taking vitamins, trust me, my mom has tried getting me to take them for years, but this year I am making it a goal to take a multi vitamin every single day!

• Create and stick to a morning and night time routine

• I am a creature of habit and love sticking to a routine. Don't get me wrong, a break from the ordinary is very much exciting in some aspects of life, but when it comes to my morning and evening routines I'd like to have something set up that I can stick to that helps prepare and end my day the right way. As it is right now I don't have a set routine and I know that it is throwing me off my groove. I may not go back to 4am wake up calls like I used to, but I do want to establish a better routine that helps start my day off right and not rushed. I also want a better night time routine that will help me relax and hopefully get better sleep. 

Weekly

•  Create Something 

• Sometimes weeks go by where I feel like I have not expressed myself creatively. I'd like to take some time every week to create something for the fun of it. Whether that be painting, drawing, creating a digital pattern, putting together a memory book, or writing a blog post, I want to make sure to exercise my creativity on a weekly basis.

Monthly 

• Practice my Photography Skills 

• Did you know I once wanted to be a photographer? I blame my mom for always having a camera around. I've shot with film cameras, cameras that stored photos on floppy disks, and DSLRs. Over the last few years I haven't worked on my photography skills as much as I'd like too and I am hoping to get at least one practice day in a month. 

• Cook a new meal

• Last year Steven and I cooked a lot and we developed a good list of weekly staples. It is so easy to stick to that routine, but it does get a little boring sometimes. This year I would like to try to make at least one new recipe a month, weather that be a meal that we can add to our weekly rotation or a cheat meal. 

This Year 

• Complete round two of Whole30 

• Since completing our first Whole30 in April of 2018, you can read about that here, we've taken some of the lessons we've learned and implemented some Whole30 program rules into our weekly meal plan. Even though we try to eat clean 80% of the time, I do think there is a big difference in sticking to the program for 30 consecutive days, so we are going to do another round of it. 

• Run a half marathon distance every quarter 

• I spent 2018 training for my first marathon (happening January 20th!) and with no set race in the future, I don't want to lose all the hard work I put into running. Plus, I really love running! So for 2019 I want to reset and train to run a half marathon distance every quarter with hopefully each run being better than the last! Not to mention running will help keep me on track with working out four or more days a week.

• Travel to two places I've never been to

• I hate traveling. The physical act of traveling is exhausting, but I do LOVE to explore new places so traveling is just something I have to do. This year we are hoping to travel to a couple of fun places! One of them will be San Miguel de Allende for our friends wedding and another will be a trip to Europe. We haven't finalized where exactly in Europe we will be going, but I am pulling for London and Paris! We'll see! If all goes according to plan checking this goal of my list will be easy! 

• Finish decorating our master bedroom and master bathroom 

• Project #CasaKelley is slow going. We've been in our house for about 16 months and there isn't a single room that I would consider to be done. For starters, I had no clue what decorating direction I wanted to go in. Traditional? Modern? Eclectic? Farmhouse? SO MANY OPTIONS! Finally, last summer we started to get a couple of pieces for our master bedroom and things are coming together. Before moving onto the main part of the house I want to finish our master bedroom and bathroom because that is our sanctuary. I'm hoping this project is finished up early this year so I can move on to another room in the house. 

• Refocus on my online business and create a plan for the year to come 

• If there was one thing to say about my business in 2018 it's that I neglected it. My online shop remained open and I continued to respond to customer messages and take on custom orders, but I didn't put in the time and effort to design new digital downloads or keep up with my marketing efforts. This year I want to refocus and create a plan for my business. Last year I wrote about my business being in a transition phase and it's about time I tackle that and figure out what is next!