I decided not to do a New Year's Resolution this year but instead I have a list of goals that I want to accomplish for myself. Some are for my family, some are personal, some for my husband and our marriage, and some for my personal spiritual well being. These are not resolutions but instead changes I want to implement into my lifestyle.
So here are these changes that I want to be part of who I am.
Personal--
1. Blog Daily--that means that each day you will get to hear from me here. :) I know you are all excited about that, right?
2. Work on my personal book project daily (I am a working on a book idea and I am hoping that it will one day be available as a published piece.) I might choose to share more about this in the future and I might not.
3. organize my schedule
4. Get one room at a time completely organized and looking how I want it to look. I have procrastinated this since I moved into our home six years ago. Today I am making the choice to no longer be this way. This weekend I worked some on the kitchen and tomorrow I am starting on the bathroom.
5. I'm taking a de-clutter challenge. That's right it is a challenge to get rid of any unwanted/unneeded items from my home throughout this year. Some rooms, like my overwhelmingly cluttered living room, will be waiting until I can purchase some storage solution furniture because why put the effort into going through everything now when I am just going to have to go through it again in a month or two.
6. Stick to my workout schedule.
7. Keep a food journal (even the bad for me things that I do not want to admit that I ate will be written down).
8. Follow my coke management plan (coke as in coca cola, in case anyone was wondering)...I will be working on allowing myself to have coke when we eat out. However when I am at home I need to have a full three glasses of water drank before I can have a coke and by glasses I do not mean cups but instead I mean full pint glasses of water.
9. Not getting drunk...if I choose to drink choosing healthier drink choices like a glass of pinot noir and an occasional beer.
10. Doing something every day to keep my house organized.
11. Singing each day. I miss performing and singing and I have realized lately that I am losing the gift of my voice by not practicing with it enough so I am going to be singing each day.
12. Get up every morning, get dressed up and do my make up regardless of where I have to be.
Family--
1. Parenting devotional/read a book on parenting each day.
2. Dance with my kids every day.
3. Morning prayer as a family to start the day off right.
4. Bedtime prayers to end the day right.
5. Daily devotional
6. Work on weekly memory verses.
Marriage--
1. Pray for my husband daily
2. Read a marriage book or a do a daily devotional pertaining to marriage.
Spiritual--
1. Do a daily personal devotional
2. Look for journals, devotions and books that I'd like to read in the future.
3. Daily prayers for myself and those around me
4. Prepare each week for my Sunday school class.
A Few Things About My Sunday School Class and Church
So as for my day....we went to church, started a new book in Sunday school that really looks great. The book is called "Women Living Well" and is about "finding your joy in God, your man, your kids and your home". It is by Courtney Joseph who I do not think that I have read before so it should be fun learning something from a new author.
I took some things from the book already and we basically just discussed what we could expect in upcoming months as we study this book. In the introduction the author states: "The voice of the Lord is powerful and majestic, yet it is nearly impossible to hear over the clamor of this world." I have never thought about how true this is. Daily we are bombarded by so much that it is hard to imagine what we are supposed to be hearing that is good. There is so much negativity surrounding us that we end up focusing on that instead of the positives that could lead us to joy.
Other quotes that I really liked from the book include the following.
From page 1 "Women have been told for far too long that being on the go and accumulating more things will make our lives full. As a result we grasp for the wrong things in life and come up empty." Never before have I been able to relate to something so fully and completely. I have not always led the life that I should and I was married twice prior to marrying my current husband . When I was with my second ex-husband I had all of the pretty things in life, a very large new house, and so many other things that were wonderful on the outside but I never felt more empty on the inside then when I was with him. When I read this it was like a light bulb went off in my head and I instantly understood why I was so unhappy for all of those years.
From page 113 "...let's give our children the best of our time, talent, attention, and efforts." This made me want to cry. How many times have I focused solely on how I was acting with others trying to put my best foot and best face forward regardless of the circumstances only to be a complete tyrant in my home. Instead of my family seeing the bad side of me they should be the ones who are experiencing the good side of me. I am going to try hard to do this and to be able to follow through in my faith to do well with my children and to worry less about what others think and more about how my children and husband feel towards me.
From page 161 "...home is where we rest, refuel, and build strong relationships with our loved ones." I have never thought of what my home was supposed to be or mean before and this struck me as something that I should be able to consider for our family. We should rest when we are home and work on building stronger relationships. This is going to be a life changing thought for us and something that can really help us to develop closer bonds as a family and a better home life for all of us.
Now for some thoughts on what my minister, Pastor Bill, taught in church this morning.
Pastor Bill announced today that we are studying our way through 1 Timothy this year for the first 8 months of the year. 1 Timothy is a pretty short book of the Bible so to me the fact that we are spending a year on it means that there is some pretty powerful stuff in there. Our challenge was to read the book of 1 Timothy once a week during the study. I am going to be doing this but I will be reading in the morning and sharing my initial thoughts on the book. I am interested to see how my thoughts change as I re-read it each week and if I get something new out of it each time that I read it.
We were encouraged to have a spiritual partner, someone to encourage us, hold us accountable, and be there for us in prayer. This should be someone that I can go to with my problems and someone who can come to me with theirs. I am not sure who I am hoping my spiritual partner will be but I do know that I am thinking about it deeply and praying that God will send the right person, no matter how unlikely that person would be to me for one reason or another. I need someone like this in my life, someone who can be real with me and not get offended when I get upset with them for being real.
We are called to prayer without disputing and since I am a big fan of theology and debate this spoke to me. I know that I should try harder to be a good Christian and to not dispute others even if I believe them to be wrong. I am going to work on being less of a debater even though I am sure that this is going to be the hardest thing for me to do at this time.
It was interesting to me to hear Pastor Bill talk about the secular influence of the outside world on Christians. I have long wondered how people could be in certain positions and act one way inside the church and a completely different way when they were not at church. I am not a religious person by any means, I am me and a long time ago I learned to be me regardless of whether or not others liked me. The fact is if they like me for something that I am pretending to be then they do not really like me at all so why try to impress them or share with them what I am trying to do. I loved that it was pointed out that someone could look really good and be denying the power while still teaching the law. I want to experience power, I want to see change, and I want to be the best possible me that I can be.
Then there was talk of joy. Several months back I realized that you can choose to be happy or choose to have joy. I have been trying to choose joy regardless of the different situations and circumstances that I am facing and the power of joy has been seen in my household. I have a 10 year old who has some anger and aggression issues. He used to be in trouble all of the time, like literally every single day there was a fight, yelling, screaming and uncontrollable outbursts. Now there is very little of this. Since I started choosing joy I see him smile more and I do not have nearly as many arguments from him, even though he is a very argumentative child. I am happy that God has blessed me with a son who wants to think for himself rather than listen to others. I know that his stubbornness is something that he got from me. So I am learning to show him that you can choose to be happy and with this I see a different child, one that only got in trouble a few times in the last month and who things continue to get better with on a regular basis.
I liked that Pastor Bill said that there should be no guilt or shame for your past. Jesus gave his life for me, even with all of the terrible things that I have done, and has forgiven me. When someone is constantly pointing out every mistake that you make, constantly stating things that you have done in your past and telling you how awful you are, it can be hard to believe that you can ever really be forgiven for something. The truth is that I am forgiven and the things that I have done in my past, the mistakes that I have made, and everything that has made into the person that I am today can help me to be a better witness for God. These things can help me reach people that others in the church could never reach because they simply have no idea what these people are going through. I know that I can change, leave these sins and mistakes behind me, and move on to a better place in my life. I know that I am forgiven and I am going to try to remember to live in this truth each and every day.
Personal Devotions--
I am finishing up a section from the women's Bible study that I did this fall/early winter that I missed or was honestly just not dedicated enough to complete.
Family Devotions--
The kids and I started a one year devotional book today. Althea instantly knew the right answer. I was so proud of her for being such a kind and gentle spirited little girl. It was a story about envy. A little girl had a ring and her friend became very jealous. It was about what her friend should do. Althea answered with forget about the ring. Andrew on the other hand answered with ask her not to wear the ring. We then read the coordinating scriptures to learn why this wasn't the best answer and he continued to argue that it was the right answer for him because he would not be able to move past his envy if he saw it. I chose not to argue with him. I did gently explain why Althea's answer was better. Then we said our prayers together as a family. As horrible as it sounds to admit this I have no always been a strong believer in prayer and have not prayed like I should. This is something that I am working on changing and two times per day praying with my children, once in the morning for a good day, and once at night to show our thanks for the day that we were given. I am so glad that I am changing this and really working to create a strong family that is strengthened by God.
Thoughts on Parenting/Marriage--
Today I am going to focus on prayers and on creating goals for myself before I head to bed. I will likely share these goals tomorrow. I want to know what my expectations are that I have for myself based on Biblical principles and how I want to improve my life in these two areas.
Big Changes Ahead--
Finally I am going to change some things next year. I over commit to things and then am left feeling stressed out and having a hard time with trying to manage how I can ever get things done. I am going to focus on being the best that I can be at each thing that I do and then backing off of the other things so that I will have less commitments to worry about.
Right now I head up some committees at the school, work on different committees and volunteer for every event. I am a room mom which I love. I am also my daughter's daisy scout leader and I work in our youth program on Wednesday nights at church with the kindergarteners and first graders. I also have a son who I am not able to do things with because I am over committed for Althea. These things are not fair. So it is with a heavy and sad heart that I am going to give up volunteering for the church group after this school year. I need to focus more on my family. I will still be leading daisies, getting more involved in boy scouts with my oldest, and focusing on building a stronger family with a Tuesday free night where we are going to try and keep from planning anything since we are all home on that night.
A Little About Me--
If you are new to my blog here is a short intro. This is me, I am who I am and what you see is what you get.
If you have questions for me please do not hesitate to ask. I will answer any question you have openly and honestly as long as I deem it appropriate for the benefit of my readers.
I am a writer and I love writing. I love the release that I feel when things are written down on paper or even in the form of a blog or letter.
I have an amazing husband that is like my perfect half. He balances me and I balance him. We work well together.
I am a mom with four amazing children.
My oldest is Andrew and he is ten. He is hyper and silly and very smart. I enjoy learning new things with him and teaching him about things that I love like favorite authors or ways to learn how to write better. (My key to this is that by writing all of the time you will quickly improve and get better.)
Next there is Althea who is five, she is the sweetest little girl on the entire planet. I love being able to spend time with her, developing her knowledge and doing things that we enjoy like nails, shopping, and make up! She is such a girly girl and is so much fun for me to be around and do things with.
Huxley is four and is a great little boy. He is so full of life and really so funny. I enjoy doing active things with him and watching his little mind create new things.
Finally there is Adeline, she is my baby and you can tell...lol!! She is just a tad bit spoiled but I love her little emerging personality so much. She is definitely a feisty one and honestly I can say that she is likely to be the one that has a personality the most like my own.
Well here is to an amazing year and one that will hopefully bring me closer to some of my readers.
