It’s time to proclaim our goals for 2014 to to the entire world, or rather to our little community here at Loving Here. Before we get started, I just want to say how thankful we are for your company on this journey through life! We’ve loved getting to know you over the past year and are really, really looking forward to sharing more of our successes, failures, and crazy life stories with you in the new year!

And without further ado, here are our 2014 goals! (For the recap on how we did with our resolutions last year, check out this post from yesterday!)

1. The kitchen/flooring/stairway project. This is a huge one so I’m hesitant to include it, because I’ve learned that sometimes, even with the best of intentions, our plans can change. We planned to replace the door in the basement and enlarge our back storage shed last year, but other projects seemed to skip ahead in priority. It doesn’t mean we’re not making progress, it’s just that progress looks a little different than we’d planned. But, we’re pretty set on starting this project soon, so I’m hoping it will turn out to be some of the first things we can check off the list this year.

2. Finish refinishing the chairs. Our basement no longer has a million chairs to be refinished, but we do have a bunch in progress in the garage that we need to continue working on. This project will also include my first attempts at reupholstering! Yikes…

3. Replace the kitchen light fixtures. I know this is similar to the entire kitchen project, but when we moved in, I wanted the kitchen light to be one of the first to go. We’ve now been here a year and a half, and the light hasn’t budged from it’s place of honor over the table. Now that the new table is finally in place, the light looks ever worse than before! Ick! Plus, it’s really dark in there, so I want to add better and brighter lights to the rest of the room as well!

4. Family recipe Fridays. We’ve been doing champagne Fridays for the past couple of years. The premise is to pick one Friday each month to have a date night in, with some bubbly. Wyatt had the idea to add one Friday a month in which we select a favorite family recipe from our book to try. There are so many we haven’t ever made, simply because we’re lazy sometimes, and we rely on our regular rotation of dishes. This will be a fun way to try new things and keep the traditions alive.

5. Expand the garden and preserve more of our own produce. Last year, we made pickles, tomato juice and sauce, pepper jelly, and pickled hot peppers, as well as some frozen bell peppers. I have hopes of continuing this project this year, and perhaps not losing all our zucchini!

6. Kansas City appreciation date nights. We want to really take advantage of living in such a great location. Not only do we enjoy our little suburb, but we are also a part of a really fabulous city and metro area. Once a month, we have decided to attend a new event (hockey game? concert?) or try a local restaurant we’ve never been to before. It will be a fun way to explore our surroundings, get out of our comfort zone, and support a city we have certainly grown to love, even if we’re still country kids at heart.

7. Write five things that are not work or blog related. I ended the year last year with only two or three pieces out of my goal of five things. (That’s better than the previous year, when I didn’t write any personal pieces!) So, I’m going to try again. And possibly, if I’m honest, I’ll actually spend some time working to find and use inspiration, not just waiting for a lucky mood to strike.

8. Turn the basement into usable living space. It’s now been a year and a half in this house without any real progress on the basement, other than some organization. We have hopes and plans to at least get some furniture down there and hopefully do some painting (and ceiling scraping?) before 2015. This also includes the door project, which was left over from this year’s list. In fact, this entire goal really stems from last year’s brainstorming session.

9. Read/listen to 15 books, at least half of which were already on the bookshelf. This is a repeat/adjustment to the two previous year’s resolutions to make a dent on the number of books that I owned but had never read. I’m closing in on the original ones I was trying to work on and I’ve got some new ones I’ve been given recently that I want to read, hence the revised goal. Also, I’m upping my number to 15 because I’m hoping to get back in the habit of reading more and being on my laptop less. Here are a few I have on my “maybe read” list for 2014:

10. Buy/Make/Refinish a new TV stand/dresser/shelving unit. You can tell we’re still in the early stages of shopping around and deciding what we want, but I also know I’m getting more and more fed up with the tiny little cheapo unit we are currently using.

11. Host a holiday dinner or event at our house. I’m not sure if it will be Easter or Thanksgiving or Christmas or even just something simple like St. Patrick’s Day or Labor Day, but I want to start sharing our home with more of the people we love. We have the space, so why not?

12. Maintain the habit of always going to bed with a clean(er) kitchen. I’ll admit it, I’m a late night snacker, or a before-bedtime-hot-cocoa-drinker. And sometimes we don’t do the dishes after dinner right away. And other times, we let the clean dishes pile up as they’re drying in the rack. But I hate waking up to an already-messy kitchen, so I am going to try and spend five minutes every night getting the kitchen just a little more presentable before bed. I’m sure there will be exceptions on especially sleepy nights, but overall, I really want to get into the habit of doing this.

13. Vacuum/Sweep/Mop at least one room at least once a week. There, I’ve said it. I don’t vacuum as often as I should. But admitting is the first step, and I’m ready to face my fears (or rather, face my dislike) of the noisy chore in the spirit of having cleaner floors. (This will be especially important after we get the new flooring in.)

14. Make some wall art. I have recently noticed how bare most of our walls are and want to add some special stuff there. But I’d rather make it than buy it so it will mean more. (See how bare our guest room walls are? Yikes! So naked!)

15. Take advantage of our awesome outdoor space. We had a few nice nights outside on the deck last year but not as many as we should have, given the size of our backyard. We also want to use our yard more, possibly add a fire pit, or some outdoor games of some sort. Really, we just want to utilize the amazing blessing we found in this house that makes us feel more at home (in the country) than a tiny yard could ever have done.

And there you have it! Our goals for 2014. Of course, we also have some more personal goals we’ve decided not to share with the entire world, and I’m still in the process of setting some business and career goals as a writer this year, but these are our “family and household” resolutions, at least.

Now, it’s your turn to share your goals for the new year with us! It helps to say them out loud or write them down, I can testify to that, so feel free to share your new resolutions with our little Loving Here community in a comment below!  Then we can encourage and check up on each other throughout the year! Happy New Year, everyone!