Goals

2014: goals, plans, priorities, resolutions

~ Christie ~ 16 Comments

imageI sit down to work on my 2014 goals post (that was supposed to be published yesterday) and quite frankly, I don’t feel like doing anything right now. But the past few days I’ve been thinking about my goals for this year.

I want them to be helpful in these down, unmotivated moments.

So many times goals are set in a super-motivated, conquer-the-world mindset. Then when we have trying days, we give up. Because who can really accomplish that anyway? “Surely not sorry-excuse-for-a-human me.” (not that I feel like that right now or anything)

I want my goals this year to be representative of growth, not necessarily achievement.

What areas of life do I need and want to grow in this year? What are specific ways I can work towards that? What will my priorities be when everything else around me is crumbling -meaning, I bought the wrong kind of couscous which actually takes 18 minutes to cook instead of 5 so now there is no way on earth we will get to Wed. night church on time. Again. and other such disasters of various degrees. What are some guiding resolutions I can remind myself of when tempted to give up or stop caring?

So here they are, probably in an order that only makes sense to me.

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Goals

1. To be more organized and prepared for life. Specifically, homeschooling, church events, doctor’s appointments, birthdays, meals, family time, etc.

2. To be more productive in the morning and evening. (while the girls are in bed)

3. To re-sharpen skills from another lifetime. Playing the piano and writing letters.

4. To become more of a reader.

5. To do things with my girls just for the sake of spending time with them.

6. To love Paul more than I did last year.

7. To establish an attitude of prayer throughout the whole day. Though I do not have hours to spend on my knees at this stage of life, I want to redeem time while folding laundry, doing dishes, and cleaning to pray specifically for the members of my family and others.

8. To grow in the domestic skills -cooking, baking, cleaning, decorating, crafting.

9. To prepare for the birth of our new baby. To be ready as much as possible, and to embrace that newborn stage of life with thankfulness and calm.

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Plans

*please note: I understand that these are sketchy. I pounded them out during a car trip. However, part of my plan of action is that these will be a work in progress. I’ll look at them and see how they’re going and make more specific plans as the year goes. I always seem to start with real specific things and end up making general attempts. Maybe that can reverse this year?? = )

PERSONAL
Bible:
Read Old Testament
Memorize 3 passages from the New Testament
Books:
Read 12 books *list to come soon*
Music:
Sightread classical music for one hour a week, plan works to read through
Fitness:
January-  do cardio and strength training once a week
February- cardio and strength training twice a week
March- three times a week
April- four times a week
May- five times a week
June- six times a week
July- stretch three times, walk one day a week
August- one cardio, strength training and walk a week
September- two cardio and strength trainings a week
October- December – three times a week
*walk twice a week
*plan which days to exercise
Home
*Organization
-organize one room a month
January: kitchen and pantry
February: master bedroom
March: Mckayla’s room
April: girl’s room
May: laundry room
June: balcony
July: living room
*Cleaning
Plan spring cleaning
Make homemade cleaners to keep under sinks
Have girls help with chores
Plan to clean the balcony thoroughly after pollen season
Laundry system: never put laundry in baskets??? *already trying this and it’s working!*
Projects/Decorating: 
Use more candles
Keep surfaces clean
Print out and frame family pictures
Something on girls bathroom wall
Room for baby
Rearrange decorations in girls room
Save up for a couch
HOME EDUCATION
poetry, reading, science experiments, beginner biographies
Hopey
Weekly planning
Choose science project *already did this! Woohoo!*
Church library
Piano lessons
Sophia
reading
piano lessons
numbers
Gracie
alphabet
writing
coloring
sorting
playdough
check on other things
Mckayla
ABC’s
singing
coloring
counting
GIRLIES
*for fun questions to ask your kids about the New Year, read here and here
speaking respectfully to adults
looking at people in the eye
Morning habits
Hope/Sophia
potty, clothes, bed, hair, teeth
Gracie/Mckayla
potty, clothes, bed, (hair and teeth by Mommy)
Chore possibilities
trash
setting the table
folding laundry
doing laundry
cleaning sinks and toilets
Daily habits
put away all books, toys, and clothes
clear dishes
throw away trash
dirty dishes in dishwasher
read
create
ask mom
serve others
Personal responsibility. Kindness to others. Always rejoice. *This is for me, too!*
Activities
play outside one hour a day
work 1-2 hours a week
go on nature walks
have adventures
field trips
explore new things
give to others
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Priorities
1. Rejoice
2. Give thanks
3. Love Paul with kindness and affection.
4. Love the girlies with time, teaching, and discipline.
5. Make meals.
6. Do laundry.
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Resolutions
To rejoice in the character of God.
To diligently fulfill mundane daily responsibilites.
To prioritize nighttime sleep.
To simplify; to focus on the responsbilities and joys that will not remain after this stage of life.
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Big breath.
Hello 2014.
*note: there are some things that will not make it to this list. Remember when you read blogs that you’re only seeing a percentage of their life. Hopefully, I will give monthly updates on progress and further plans, but no promises. = )

New Year’s Day questions for my kids

~ Christie ~ 6 Comments

I have a lot to do today. We have not been operating at full steam around here, but the chaos caused by daily life has kept clicking right along.

On the list would be to make more of a dent in the laundry, clean the bathrooms (gag), start thinking about a menu and grocery list for the week, and check the calendar to see when we’re scheduled to resume homeschooling.

We’re going to fellowship with some friends in the afternoon, so I almost began strategizing about how to accomplish my tasks by lunch.

But I want something about this New Year’s Day to be special for the girlies. My six and four-year-old are old enough to sort of understand the concept of “out with the old in with the new.”

So my idea is to ask them questions about last year, and see what their opinions/desires, even goals might be for the New Year.

You never know with kids; sometimes they’ll really surprise you.

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Here are my ideas for questions:

*What was your favorite thing about last year?

*What was the worst thing that happened last year?

*What do you think you learned last year?

*What is one thing you really hope happens this year?

*What would you like to do more of this year?

*What part of obeying Daddy and Mommy do you think you should work on this year?

*How do you think you could be more loving to your family this year?

*How do you think we should try to help other people who don’t have as much as we do this year?

*What is something you would like to learn this year?

*Where is somewhere you would like to go this year?

*If you had a choice between Mommy reading to you more or teaching you music and piano more, which would you choose?

*What is one thing you want to work on this year?

*What would you like Mommy to do more of this year?

*What would you like Mommy to do less of this year?

*What do you want to pray for about this year?

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This is a very rough, in-the-moment sketch; but I really want to try it!

Maybe this could be a sweet New Year’s Day tradition?

Here’s to resolving to spend time asking and listening in the morning!

Happy New Year!

The Idealistic Homeschooler

~ Christie ~ 6 Comments
Idealistic homeschooling... for two weeks
Idealistic homeschooling…. for two weeks

I have a dream. It goes something like this:

I wake up early; have some quiet time to myself; exercise; and get completely ready. At this point (hopefully @7:30) I go in and wake up my children. Did I say their clothes were already out and waiting for them? They wake up, get dressed, make their beds, and come to me so I can fix their hair. We eat breakfast and clean it up. School commences at promptly anytime earlier than what it has been. Oh wait, I’m being idealisitc; school starts at 8:45. When school is done, we make sure everything is tidy from that and then go outside to exercise and play for an hour.

In case you don’t know this about me, what I just described is nothing like how our weekdays go.

But I have this idea.

Starting Monday, we have officially two full weeks of school until Christmas break. What if I just try to live my “ideal” for two weeks? Only two weeks! Can it really be that hard? And if it is…can’t I stick it out for just two weeks?

Now, in my defense, the last three weeks have been crazy and unusual. There is no way that we could have or should have tried or expected something like this to happen due to all that was happening.

Why do I even want to try this?

I know that change is better done gradually; I know have to be realistic about my life expectations with four little kids; I know the whole thing could be a colossal failure on day 2.

But it just occurred to me that I have this two-week window coming off of a very relaxing holiday break; and it might be a fun time to try.

I’m hoping for a couple of things:

1. To realize that some ideals are maybe more livable than we think if we just give it a chance. Sometimes it’s too easy to just trudge along and never actually try for anything better.

2. To get over my fear of waking my children up earlier, thinking that they won’t get enough sleep.

3. To force myself to get up earlier for the purpose of prayer and exercise, and to therefore go to bed earlier. (because if this girl doesn’t get enough sleep, she’s not gettin’ up; AND, we’ve been starting to do a lot better at this already!)

4. To bring some more structure to our homeschool routine.

5. To make more time for extra homeschool things with Hope and other activities/learning times for the little girls.

What do you think?

I just spent almost two hours cleaning up our homeschool space, organizing, and in general trying to prepare the house for a fresh start tomorrow.

And the whole point of hitting “publish” now is to make it a point of no return.

Don’t expect updates; hopefully, I’ll be in bed.

Completely unrelated: we got our Christmas tree tonight!!!!! Mmmmm…. the smell of Christmas tree could inspire me to do just about anything.

****A slight, but important amendment! I will post about how it’s going, but just on the facebook page to be faster. If you haven’t liked the facebook page, do it here so you can keep up!