Happy New Year!

Despite how I've felt about the rest of the holidays, I am looking forward to the New Year! I love a fresh start. As a kid and teenager it was always about a new start for school-new books, new clothes, new friends (because we moved often enough that I usually started each year at a new school!) and just in general a clean slate. Now, it's always about the New Year (although we do get new school books and supplies once a year around here since I homeschool the kiddos-is that my secret reason for homeschooling? Hmmm...). The new year gives me a chance to figure out a few goals that I want to work towards. Goals that will make me feel better about me.
So, this year here it is!

1. Gotta have the obligatory weight loss goal. This year it's extra necessary since I just had a baby, and unfortunately, he didn't weight 50 lbs. I was really hoping he would...then that would justify that weight gain. Oh well. Guess it's all on me now. :) So, lose weight and exercise??



2. BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET!!!! Gotta get that budget under control. My (lofty) goal for this year is to pay off our "small" credit card balance. It's only "small" if you are looking at that as a relative term. I don't know if we can do it, but I will sure give it a try. The first step is to quit using it. Ha.


3. Quit yelling. Period. I read once in a parenting book (Creative Correction by Lisa Welchel) that yelling at your kids and expecting them to respond is like honking the horn on your car and excpecting the car to respond. It just doesn't make sense. And yet, I continue to yell. I'd like to practice the act of whispering when I feel the need to YELL. Maybe, just maybe, if I do this my children will follow suit and not yell so much. Our house is small and our family is not. Quieter would be better.


4. Not only do I need to budget my finances but I need to budget my time better. It is a resource-one that is more valuable than money if you really think about it-and should be treated as such. Time is a blessing. God gives it to me. I need to use it wisely. I think that the chaos in my house would be less if I budgeted my time (and my children's) more carefully.


5. Read my Bible more. I know it's good for me. And yet I just don't do it. I know that right now might not be the time to expect that I will do it for a certain amount of time every day (my plate is pretty full and I'm trying to find my groove as a mama of four) but just to do it once a day. Maybe post a verse somewhere in my house (kitchen?) that I can see it and think on it. Learn it. Hide it in my heart.

I think that's enough for now.