Elisabeth and Noah have daily chores. They frequently spend more time organizing them than actually doing them. Amelia watches them always. Elisabeth told her, "when you get older you will have to do chores too and you won't like it!"Monday, December 31, 2012
Morning chores
Elisabeth and Noah have daily chores. They frequently spend more time organizing them than actually doing them. Amelia watches them always. Elisabeth told her, "when you get older you will have to do chores too and you won't like it!"
Goodbye to Old Habits, Facebook and 2012!
Starting on Dec 26th (although it starts to creep into my head in November) I really try to concentrate on thinking about what I can do for the coming year. I like New Year's Resolutions because I like the mentality of starting a new chapter and being able to start fresh. This year I'm even more excited than ever becasue I feel like a lot of the things that have been holding me back from some of my personal goals are finally out of the way. For example: school and pregnancy has caused me to postpone fitness goals, have excuses on why I don't have enough time to journal, read scriptures or spend more attention on my kids. So now that I have graduated and don't have every ounce of energy going to studying, I feel that I have a chance to really make some internal changes.
As I have pondered over the past week, I've thought about what is most important in my life, or better yet, how I'd like to feel at the end of each day. I realized that I'd like to end each day knowing that I did something good for my body and that I have the strength and energy to conquer whatever I want to, that my kids feel loved and know that they can accomplish anything they set their little minds to, that my husband knows I love and appreciate him, and that even though I mess up and am far from perfect, my Heavenly Father loves me, He knows me and He will provide what I need to become what He wants me to become.
After thinking about these goals, I realized that I need to set some concrete goals to help me feel this way each night. Because currently, I don't feel that I am doing good things for my body. I'm not sure my kids know how loved they are because I'm so focused on them doing their chores and homework and haven't been focusing as much on just sitting with them or watching them or playing games with them. That is my biggest issue that I wonder each day, becasue I feel like I spend so much time planning family outings and doing things with the kids such as cooking with them and going on little outings with them. But yet I think that my stress about everything being "just so" takes the joy and fun out of many of our interactions. I am and always be a disciplined parent, however. Because I do feel that I can find a way to be disciplined and not stressed. I am not sure that my husband always knows how much I appreciate and adore him, and I more-often-than-not go to bed feeling like a failure. My expectations for myself are so high and I never feel that I have done what I wanted to get done yet when I read scriptures and pray to my Father in Heaven I don't feel that way becasue He helps me to know that I am good enough.
So here are my goals:
1. to spend 30 minutes each day to read scriptures and reflect on them
2. to something each day that makes my body stronger, ideally working out, but taking
hikes or doing something active outdoors with the kids can count too
3. to remember that I am eating to fuel my body and not for any other reason and so I
need to eat accordingly
4. to work with hubby on our finances to get out of debt and save for our future
5. to read this passage each morning out loud so I don't forget my most sacred
duties:
In order for me to accomplish these five things each day I have decided to take a Facebook hiatus. Facebook is so wonderful and has allowed me to keep in contact with people I normally would not have been able to keep in touch with. It gives me an outlet to share my joys and frustrations. However it also takes a lot of time and focus off of the things that are most important in my life. I'm sad because I love keeping in touch with people, but I know that it is the right thing for me right now. I'm hoping that by having a blog I can take time to reflect more on my family and how I'm doing and also to write more stories about my children so that I can remember them in years to come. I'm so excited for 2013, I think that it's going to be one of the best years yet!
As I have pondered over the past week, I've thought about what is most important in my life, or better yet, how I'd like to feel at the end of each day. I realized that I'd like to end each day knowing that I did something good for my body and that I have the strength and energy to conquer whatever I want to, that my kids feel loved and know that they can accomplish anything they set their little minds to, that my husband knows I love and appreciate him, and that even though I mess up and am far from perfect, my Heavenly Father loves me, He knows me and He will provide what I need to become what He wants me to become.
After thinking about these goals, I realized that I need to set some concrete goals to help me feel this way each night. Because currently, I don't feel that I am doing good things for my body. I'm not sure my kids know how loved they are because I'm so focused on them doing their chores and homework and haven't been focusing as much on just sitting with them or watching them or playing games with them. That is my biggest issue that I wonder each day, becasue I feel like I spend so much time planning family outings and doing things with the kids such as cooking with them and going on little outings with them. But yet I think that my stress about everything being "just so" takes the joy and fun out of many of our interactions. I am and always be a disciplined parent, however. Because I do feel that I can find a way to be disciplined and not stressed. I am not sure that my husband always knows how much I appreciate and adore him, and I more-often-than-not go to bed feeling like a failure. My expectations for myself are so high and I never feel that I have done what I wanted to get done yet when I read scriptures and pray to my Father in Heaven I don't feel that way becasue He helps me to know that I am good enough.
So here are my goals:
1. to spend 30 minutes each day to read scriptures and reflect on them
2. to something each day that makes my body stronger, ideally working out, but taking
hikes or doing something active outdoors with the kids can count too
3. to remember that I am eating to fuel my body and not for any other reason and so I
need to eat accordingly
4. to work with hubby on our finances to get out of debt and save for our future
5. to read this passage each morning out loud so I don't forget my most sacred
duties:
"Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3).
Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live."Just five daily goals to think about. Nothing too crazy like I've done in years past such as "workout for an hour every day", or "eat less than 1500 calories each day". While those are still things I will most likely do, I don't want my focus to be on time or numbers, but rather on how I feel each day. I hope by striving to reach these goals each day, it will help me to feel more at peace on the inside and happier each evening as I reflect on my day. I know that by making more time for scripture reading I will be more gentle with myself which in turn makes me less stressed and more pleasant to be around, for my hubby and kids. I love working out and need to remember to take time for myself to do it, it's hard being a mom because I always feel I need to devote 100% of my energy to my family, but I know if I take time to focus on myself I'll be able to serve them better. I know how to eat healthy and I love doing it, but so often I eat because I'm stressed or sad or angry or lonely or happy... basically I eat for reasons other than to fuel this body of mine. I think that by working my hubby on our finances, it will bring us closer together but I think that by me spending time taking care of my physical and spiritual needs I'll be able to be a better wife and companion in general. Lastly, I have found in the past that reading quotes can help set my mind right each day, so I hope this passage will help me parent a little better each day.
In order for me to accomplish these five things each day I have decided to take a Facebook hiatus. Facebook is so wonderful and has allowed me to keep in contact with people I normally would not have been able to keep in touch with. It gives me an outlet to share my joys and frustrations. However it also takes a lot of time and focus off of the things that are most important in my life. I'm sad because I love keeping in touch with people, but I know that it is the right thing for me right now. I'm hoping that by having a blog I can take time to reflect more on my family and how I'm doing and also to write more stories about my children so that I can remember them in years to come. I'm so excited for 2013, I think that it's going to be one of the best years yet!
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Just pulled my head out of the sand....
So hubby and I decided that we want to be debt free. We have accumulated a lot of debt since moving back to the USA and me being in school for four years hasn't helped. Since neither of us really knew where to start, we decided to go ahead at do Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University". Well.... I'll be honest, I decided we should do it. I had to convince hubby to join me. But he agreed, reluctantly! However, after the first lesson (we decided to do it online) hubby became enthused and we are both super excited to get going on paying off our debt. We assumed that we had about 40K of debt including my student loans.
Well, the first step of Dave's baby steps, is to get a 1K "emergency fund" set aside. That took, um, one second. Hubby went to the ATM and pulled out $1,000 last night and we put it somewhere safe!
The next baby step is to pay off our debt as soon as we can and with "gazelle intensity". Well this meant we needed to figure out how much debt we have. So I took out my college info to look up how much I have on my student loans and I looked at my two credit cards and hubby looked at his two credit cards. We wrote it all down and added it up. Then we both nearly cried as we saw the big fat 84K that we have to pay off! We were devastated! We don't even make that much a year. I had no idea that we were in that much debt. I'm shocked! But I'm not going to hide it either, I think that admitting it is part of being able to change my spending habits! And quite frankly I'm sure that many people are in debt too, so even though we don't all know each other's debt, I'm declaring war on mine and this is what it is!
But here goes... one of my goals for 2013 is to tackle this with every ounce of energy and with every penny I can! I don't know how we're going to manage getting rid of so much debt. We have several thousand in savings, but Dave's plan requires us to pull every penny (except our $1,000 emergency fund and our retirement funds) out of savings to put into paying off our debt. That makes both of us extremely nervous. What if something happens and we need money? We are cutting up credit cards and vowing to not use debt EVER AGAIN, yet we are also going to extinguish our savings, other than our $1,000!
Here's to our new journey of faith. We are going to have faith that Dave Ramsey's plan will work for us. We are going to have faith that our Father in Heaven will help us as we live by His Word and not live in debt. We are going to have faith in each other, that we can continue to support and love each other through this journey. It's going to be uncomfortable, but I know it's going to be worth it.
Well, the first step of Dave's baby steps, is to get a 1K "emergency fund" set aside. That took, um, one second. Hubby went to the ATM and pulled out $1,000 last night and we put it somewhere safe!
The next baby step is to pay off our debt as soon as we can and with "gazelle intensity". Well this meant we needed to figure out how much debt we have. So I took out my college info to look up how much I have on my student loans and I looked at my two credit cards and hubby looked at his two credit cards. We wrote it all down and added it up. Then we both nearly cried as we saw the big fat 84K that we have to pay off! We were devastated! We don't even make that much a year. I had no idea that we were in that much debt. I'm shocked! But I'm not going to hide it either, I think that admitting it is part of being able to change my spending habits! And quite frankly I'm sure that many people are in debt too, so even though we don't all know each other's debt, I'm declaring war on mine and this is what it is!
But here goes... one of my goals for 2013 is to tackle this with every ounce of energy and with every penny I can! I don't know how we're going to manage getting rid of so much debt. We have several thousand in savings, but Dave's plan requires us to pull every penny (except our $1,000 emergency fund and our retirement funds) out of savings to put into paying off our debt. That makes both of us extremely nervous. What if something happens and we need money? We are cutting up credit cards and vowing to not use debt EVER AGAIN, yet we are also going to extinguish our savings, other than our $1,000!
Here's to our new journey of faith. We are going to have faith that Dave Ramsey's plan will work for us. We are going to have faith that our Father in Heaven will help us as we live by His Word and not live in debt. We are going to have faith in each other, that we can continue to support and love each other through this journey. It's going to be uncomfortable, but I know it's going to be worth it.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Amelia Playing
Amelia loves her new toy and will just stand there at it for a long time. It's as if she knows she belongs there, but isn't sure what else to do. The many activities that are there on the sides are of no use to her because she needs to be standing up and they are too low. My sweet thing.
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