Wow, I cannot believe that it is already 2015! It just feels weird every time that I type it. I honestly have no idea where 2014 went, it just flew by in the blink of an eye. It was a great year, but I feel like it just went too quickly and I didn’t get to fully enjoy it. It was a big year for us from our amazing trip to Japan to finding out we are expecting our first baby. 🙂

I am not really ready to welcome 2015, but I guess I don’t have a choice do I? 😉 So, I will do my best and of course start it off with setting some goals. I always say that I hate resolutions, but I do believe that it is as good time as any to evaluate life and see where you want to make some changes. So here are some things that I plan on working on this year:

1) Get ready for our sweet baby boy’s arrival
So far, I have done very little to prepare for the arrival of our bundle of joy in April and I am now 6 months pregnant! Life has just been so busy and gone by so fast that I haven’t done much besides some readIng and of course all of the dr appointments. We still need to purchase all of the big items and set up his area of his room. We will hopefully at least be purchasing his dresser this weekend, so I guess that is a start 😉 But, I need to definitely get everything organized and cleaned in the house before he gets here and things get really hectic. It will be wonderful but I also know I don’t want to have to worry about any of that stuff once he arrives.

2) Edit pictures daily
I had this one on my list last year and I have to say that I epically failed. I am even more far behind than I was then, thanks largely to our trip to Japan, which I am still not done editing and that was back in May! So, I am going to once again commit to editing pictures for at least 15 min per day. I enjoy doing it and I really need to do it, so it is a win win if I can just carve out the time.

3) Do a Project 365 and a Project 52
This is another photography goal of this year. The Project 365 is a commitment to take a picture everyday. I started this last year and i failed within the first two weeks, I just really struggled to remember and to come up with new things to photograph each day. I really do want to succeed this year because I think it will really have a positive impact on my photography skills. I have a feeling this will become much easier once Baby Schulte arrives, I can’t imagine I will ever bore taking pictures of him 😉

The Project 52 is a project I am starting through Clickin Moms, a photography resource website that is amazing. Each week an assignment is posted and you take your picture and post it. It is a great place to be held accountable and to get some feedback. I am really looking forward to participating! If you are interested, here is a link to the forum thread, you do have to be a member of the site, but it is really affordable and well worth it! You can join the challenge at any point and it is super relaxed!

4) Read more
I always want to do this! 🙂 I absolutely love to read and never seem to allow myself enough time to do so. I just let everything get in the way and before I know it it is time for bed. Last year I participated in reading challenges, which was fun, but it became hard to keep track of everything. This year I have just set a goal of 24 books to read over the course of the year and I will track it through my goodreads account. Do you have a Goodreads account? If so, I would love to follow you, make sure to leave a link in the comments 🙂 I also need to make a list of all the ones I plan to read this year, I will work on that and put it in a future post.

And here is a bonus pic from my 18th birthday a ways ago haha! I haven’t even read all those books yet!

5) Spend more time with God
This is one that I definitely need to make a priority everyday. Like with reading, I just let everything else in life distract me and take up all of my time. This year I will set aside some time each and everyday to spend with God and work on our relationship. This is especially vital as I prepare for the birth of my son and for life once he gets here. It will be my responsibility to show and teach him how amazing God is, and I can only do that if my relationship with Jesus is strong, secure, and growing! 🙂

So these are my 5 main goals for 2015. I want to keep the list short and doable. I will of course be working on many other things this year, such as my health and my management of finances and whatnot, but I felt the above five are my priorities this year. What goals or resolutions have you made for this year? I would love to hear about them!!

Happy New Year Everyone and I look forward to all the adventures we will all experience this year!

Ashley

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