In the interest of accountability, I thought it might be a good exercise to post my monthly goals. Nothin like public humiliation to motivate oneself!

For my Bible/devotion time, I am working through the one year reading plan. I have been pretty faithful with that, but find myself rushing through my prayer time. So that is my first goal for the month - to have better quality prayer time.

We have been s-l-o-w-l-y chipping away at our finances with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. So, we are working on our baby emergency fund of $1000. My goal for this month is to put $100 in there. I am hoping to put bigger chunks in soon, but we have some unusually large bills to pay this month.

I used to be a Flylady devotee and still use many of her principles to keep my home under control. So, to prepare for fall and the holiday season, I would like to fling 20 kitchen size trash bags full of clutter this month.

I also hope to do the kitchen deep cleaning project from the Homemaker's Mentor  . Do you know about this site? It is wonderful! Martha Greene and Rebekah Wilson teach old fashioned homemaking skills in the spirit of Titus 2. I have learned so much neat stuff! This kitchen project is pretty major. I don't know if I will finish it all, but we'll see!

My husband and I have become very interested in back country hiking and backpacking, so we are working on getting in great shape. My goal is to walk /hike 30 miles this month.

On the homeschooling front, my goal is to not fall horribly behind this early in the year!  I guess what this would look like is to keep my records current, stay current on corrections, and current on the lessons/reading/etc that I have planned for the month. I don't think I've ever truly met this goal before. I like to keep a relaxed atmosphere in our schooling and those two things seem mutually exclusive sometimes!

Lastly, my husband really wants to become more self-sufficient, so I am participating in a September challenge to do one thing a day toward that goal. We recently received a gift from the DIL's of a floor to ceiling metal storage rack system for our laundry room. There are six huge shelves to fill with pantry items. I have been working toward filling it with frugally procured items (couponing etc with Money Saving Mom) such as rice, beans, grains, pastas, canned goods, toiletries, and other staples. Everytime I pass by and see it I feel encouraged.   And, we have a new flock of chickens (raised from chicks since spring) that should start laying anyday now. So, that will further our goal too. For this month, I would like to save enough money to buy a milk goat ($125) and build the pen for it.

That's it! I'll post how I am doing at the end of the month.