2023 Goals & 2022 Review

Join me as I look back at the previous year's highlights and goals and set a few simple, doable goals for 2023.

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We've come to one of my favorite times of the year when we can look back at the previous year, celebrate the steps we've taken towards a simple homemade life and look forward to what we'd like to do over the next 12 months.

Of course we can do this in July or October, but that week between Christmas and New Year's just seems to be a perfect reflecting time - for me at least.

When I've talked to people about making goals one of the themes that comes up over and over is "I don't want to set myself up for failure." Which I totally get, because as you'll see below, I absolutely do NOT accomplish all the goals I set each year.

BUT. When I came to see that setting goals was more about forward progress as a whole and not about only reaching some arbitrary number goal, that's when I got excited about taking this time once a year to evaluate and press on.

Because before that, it was hard to remember what had even happened the previous year. And honestly, besides making sure there was food to eat and the clothes were washed, what had we DONE as a family and personally??

Making a set of simple goals in a couple of areas I care about gives me something to look back on - celebrating the wins and moving the "still working on" things forward.

This is what I call being intentional with our time.

If the family vacations aren't planned, they will not just happen.

If reading is important to you then set a doable goal to read and learn.

We need to put money into a savings for it to actually happen - and a monetary goal will motivate like nothing else will (do we really need that mocha today?).

And so on. So let's get intentional and look at how the previous year went and what to work on in 2023.

2022 Year Review

Of course I would use the "year in review" page from my Flexible Planner - but you can use any pad or paper to write down your thoughts on the year.

You can even use the questions from above - what was the best thing? What do you want to change? Goals accomplished? What to keep and move forward or retire?

HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2022

January-March:

• My office makeover - the one month project that turned into three because I just had to see if the wood wall was intact under the wallboard... (spoiler - it wasn't!). This custom DIY shelf for my vintage gym locker baskets came a bit later - perfection.
• Farmhouse before and after videos - we spent the first months of the year finally putting together complete before and after videos and posts for each of the rooms on the first floor of our 1900 farmhouse. It was a LOT of work - and really eye-opening to see all that we accomplished with mostly DIY skills!

April-May:

• Ireland! April was prepping to be gone for 3 weeks, both work and home (I had seedlings to be planted but we had a long, cold, wet spring - thankfully it all worked out in the end). We left the end of April and spent most of May in gorgeous Ireland, traveling around, staying with my cousin's wife's Irish family, visiting castles (all the heart-eyes), and being blessed by the lovely people. It was a joy.

June-July:

• Starting our big outdoor cement project. We had areas of crumbling, poorly laid cement that needed to be replaced. The biggest area was the retaining wall from the driveway to the sunken garden. It was a drawn out process because the bids we got for it were WAY more than we could afford. Thankfully we had a neighbor with equipment to help us remove the old cement and my stepdad took over from there to help us prep and lay the new areas (well, much later as you will see...).
• Kayaking & paddle boarding at a beautiful Cascades lake with our family - a wonderful break and start to the beautiful summer in Oregon.
• Health issues. Both Brian and my mom had health issues that took much of our time throughout the summer - scheduled elective surgeries that then turned into new things and longer recoveries. I am BEYOND thankful that both of them are back to normal and recovered.💜

August-September:

• I compiled all the farmhouse's posts onto one renovation page - now you can go to one place to learn the history of what it looked like when we bought it, all the progress over the three (!) years it took to do all the work, and the before and after videos of the downstairs.
• We kayaked at a coastal lake where Brian's family has owned a cottage since the 1940s which is also a highlight because I got a new water vest for our dog, Jynx, and she finally was okay going out with me!
• Otter Rock surf trip in fun 70's themed A-frame -that's our daughter and me above on the cliff overlooking the ocean - in 76 degree weather at the end of September!!

October:

• The four-month cement landscaping and gravel project was completed! We finally have official steps down into the sunken garden as well as from the driveway to the back door and a path/retaining wall. We replaced the wood chip paths with gravel in the garden so they would seamlessly (and safely) go into the:
• New fire pit area. You can see in the photo above the large area where the chairs and fire pit will be - photos of this finished area are coming soon. It's so fun!

November-December:

• Hawaii! We shared a condo on a golf course with a view of the ocean with my parents and it was everything that was wonderful. Warm temperatures, snorkeling with sea turtles, delicious food, working with a view, and so much more.
• Time with family over the holidays this year was extra sweet. I made multiple chocolate chip walnut pies, cinnamon rolls, cookies, and so much more.
• The 2023 Flexible Planner was released, along with the free 12-month printable calendar, this year with seasonal fruits.

2022 GOALS RECAP

Personal: I met all of these goals! It helps that many were already established, or in the beginnings of being established. Yep - it's okay to pick goals you want to continue or grow more.

Home/Financial: Half of these were checked off, but the biggest thing I wanted done (the upstairs bath) wasn't sadly. Guess what's #1 for 2023?

Biz: This is the area I didn't do as well in - I didn't launch any new products, though I did add a few smaller ebooks to the shop and held a flash sale. I failed miserably on my bookkeeping goal and I'm paying for it now at the end of the year (again, #1 in this area for next year!) - obviously, tracking numbers isn't my wheelhouse. I did create new recipes I'm proud of, beefed up my emails and created the before and after videos and renovation page for the farmhouse first floor I mentioned.

2023 Goals

We're keeping our big 5-year goals again this year and they inform the 4 goals I've chosen for each of three areas: personal, home/financial and business.

The total 12 goals range between things that are in process, are what we hope to do, and a few things we have to do (um, second bath...).

I've been doing this awhile (this is the 13th year - you can see our other annual goals here), so this feels doable to me.

But you can pick one in each area or one overall goal or whatever feels like it would work for you. The main idea is to decide what you'd like and then make intentional steps towards achieving that goal.

Personal Goals

1. Keep up with the Line a Day Journal, focusing on gratitude. I'm excited because this year I'll be able to see the things I did the previous year.
2. Read/Listen to a Christian living book in the mornings, writing down thoughts in my Book Journal. I've been doing this, but I want to be more intentional, lining up the next book before I finish the current book.
3. Continue with 3x/week workouts, daily walks as weather permits, and getting up to move every 45 minutes to 1 hour. This is pretty much a habit now, but I keep it as a goal because I don't want to let it slide.
4. Lower food budget to $125/wk. This is a new goal for me and is directly in response to the inflation we're all dealing with now. I do spend 125-150/wk now but with a weekly number to account for, I will weigh more if we really need something or not and work to use up what we have. (Hmm, just realizing this may be a financial and not personal? But since it's something I alone am in charge of, I'll keep it here.)

Home/Financial Goals

1. Upstairs renovation: Second bath upstairs and stairway finished!!
2. Kitchen patio stage 1 completed. Stage one will be the patio and stair from the kitchen door. Hopefully stage 2 will be a porch-like cover.
3. Continue to max out retirement savings. This is auto for us now but it's a big goal that we keep on yearly.
4. Travel: plan a few short trips and family trips, plus one big trip. Where is still up in the air - but it's exciting to think about!

Business Goals

1. Grow email list to 20k. First year I'm making a number goal - it's been stagnant for awhile so it seemed time.
2. Add more products to An Oregon Cottage's shop and start a new Etsy shop (!).
3. Monthly financial hour to keep up with income/expenses. DO THIS for sure, ugh (paying for not doing it this year...)
4. Plan quarterly with wall calendars. I need a big picture view to keep me on track. (I will use the free calendar, putting the current three-month quarter on wood clipboards hung on the wall behind my desk.)

Curious about my past goals? You can see them all here.

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