2015

Another new year is upon us. As is my tradition, I like to have goals that I am working towards and evaluate how I have grown and changed over the past year. 2014 seemed to fly by. We bought a house, played a lot, and kept very busy with family, friends, work, and callings. I never, ever thought I would say I love teaching Gospel Doctrine and the Old Testament, but I do! I am learning so much and growing so much. I am really looking forward to learning and teaching about our Savior this year. Matt is so great with his young men and they keep him busy and on the right path. We both completed a challenge to read the Book of Mormon during the year and it was the first time in a long time that I have read the whole thing cover to cover. I feel like the kids have really grown a lot and we've been able to do a lot of fun things as a family. Overall we are happy, healthy, and looking forward to another year together!

Goals from last year:
Spiritual:
1. Continue goals from last year -- temple monthly, time with kids, family prayer daily: I have definitely slacked off on these goals. My temple time has been less than consistent, although I still make an effort to go. I do feel like I've done better at spending time with the kids... joining a gym this summer was the best idea I've ever had. It allowed me to go and have my "me" time everyday while they were able to play and have fun at kids-care and then we were all able to - enjoy our afternoons together -- swimming, doing chores, playing with friends, whatever we wanted! We have also been really good at doing family prayer in the mornings before school, but forget to do it when we are out of our routine and at night.
2. Improve personal prayers: I feel like this is an area I can always improve on, but I have made a consistent effort to pray in private whenever I can. Sometimes that means locking myself in the shower in the bathroom for peace and quiet, but at least I get it!
3. Be Positive -- Choose Joy: This is one that I am getting better at. It is so good for my health and well being and that of my family when I look at the positive side of things and choose to be happy!

Fitness:
1. Continue goals from last year -- more specifically eat more vegetables and run more than 1500 miles: I have done really well with this goal! Healthy eating has become a real priority for me and it makes such a huge difference in how I feel! I ran 1750 miles in 2014. Highest mileage was in 199 in March and averages out to be 33.65 miles a week. Not bad :-)
2. Break 3:20 marathon: Running more miles than ever before certainly worked. I ran 3:15 at Ogden in May. I wish that I wouldn't have been so burned out that I could have enjoyed it more. Now that I am loving running again, I am proud of that number and can't wait to see if I can improve it!

Goals for 2015:
Spiritual:
1. Continue goals from last year -- family prayer, personal prayer, choose joy!
2. Love others as Christ loves -- this was my birthday present on Christmas. I am going to work really hard on not judging and not gossiping.
3. Develop a deeper personal relationship with Christ -- this comes from a challenge from one of my lessons. There is CES devotional by Randall L. Ridd that talks about living with purpose and intent and that is something I really want to do. I want to allow myself to be yolked to Christ -- to really take upon myself His will for me -- and allow Him to help me... even when the answers I get aren't what I want to hear and when times are hard!

Fitness:
1. Continue goals from last year -- more specifically eat healthy and run more than 1750 miles
2. Enjoy running! -- running this year isn't about times. I want to run and have fun doing it. I would love to run Top of Utah Marathon and St. George if I can get in, but my only goal is to qualify for Boston. Sometime in the next few years will worry about breaking 3:00, but this year I get to just have fun and not be so worried about being perfect!