Resolutions

I am not good at keeping resolutions...for long. So instead of every year making resolutions I am going to do it quarterly. I am going to post them here. If you talk to me, feel free to ask how I am doing, I will need all the encouragement I can get I am sure! At the end of the quarter I am going to sit down, write about my feeling, how I did with my resolutions, what worked what didn't and then I will also sit down and write more or leave them if I want to try harder, etc. So here we go!

1. Try to bring a real smile to each member of my families face each day or find a way to let them know how much they mean to me. This may not seem huge, but it really is. To share an honest to goodness smile with someone can brighten not just your day but theirs too! It can be as simple as telling someone the did a good job and getting overly excited over it. It can be leaving a little not for them to find. It could be as simple as emailing a joke that your hubby would like to him at work. or calling to say "hi" or "i love you". Not you forgot to take out the trash AGAIN! ( I have been writing note to the kids and leaving it on their pillows at night and they LOVE it, they have even started write notes to me and Vernon, and each other. I also make a not for each little boy and write for one of the big kids to please read it to them.)

2. Actively be working on having "savings". Lets face it times are tough, not just for the military, but for everyone. We live pay check to pay check and a lot of times its barely scraping by or just trying to make do. So we have set up a savings account and set it so $25 a paycheck to go into there. As we get a better grip on our money we will probably increase it. But for now it is a start and I am happy. Now to just not break into it.

3. STOP eating out. Ok, not all together...but limit ourselves to one special time each paycheck. We always have good intentions of this and talk about how horrible it is for us and what a waste it is when you spend $30+ for a family of 6 to eat out! Do you know how much more food that could buy or how it could help out the savings, or go to a partial bill. The options are endless and we need to stop it. We have decided that we will get a mason jar and every time we think we have this extra money laying around and we are eating out, out of shear laziness the money will go into the jar and it will be save for something special. (it is undecided as of right now what it will be)

4. Try to live healthier. I want to loose weight, but if I put that down or make a goal and dont make it I will be disappointed, it will not make me try harder. So for now, I will limit myself to one or less coke a day. (can't break that, just yet) Go for fruit or veggies instead of cookies, chips and other junk. I will take the long way home, I already walk the kids to and from school, but take the shortest route. on the way home when I am not in such a hurry why not take the longer way and give my body a little more exercise? Eat at home (see above) I know how to cook, it may not be order what you want, but I am capable of making yummy food.

5. Teach my kids the value of a dollar and more importantly the value of hard work and earning your money. Every time we go to the store, every time we are out. Can I...? I'm hungry, I'm thirsty. Can we go....? So now the kids will be earning a quarter a night if their chores are completed and they were not whined about or had to be told over and over and over. So then when we go to the store, they can do something with their earned money if they choose. I have made up a calender and each day it tells them what chore is theirs.

6. Daily reading of scriptures and family prayers. I will be getting up with my husband each morning, reading scriptures with him and having a pray with him before he goes to work. I will then read the same scriptures with the kids when they wake up and have a prayer with them before they go to school. Then each night we will read together as a family and have a family prayer. God is taken out of so much these days and if I want to instill our beliefs in my children I need to be enforcing this. It is bringing so much more peace into our home. I can really feel it on the days we don't do this.

7. Find a way to do an act of service each day. The possiblities are ENDLESS. It could be taking a plate of cookies over to a neighbor. Giving a friend a break (take their kids with you and your kids to the park, take on dinner for their family, be a listener, or a shoulder to cry one) Take out the trash even though its hubby's job. Bake cookies or some other treat for hubby to take to work with him. Offer to hold a crying baby while the mom pays in the store. You get the idea ;) Remember: " no act of kindness no matter how small, is EVER wasted.

8. Keep a better house. I HATE cleaning house but love the feel of a clean house. I have gotten a lot better over the last few months, but I am not going to take it a step further and set up a chore chart for me. This is so I am not overwhelmed and know what I am supposed to be doing each day. Being a stay at home mom is the best and worst thing for me. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being home with my kids but I just don't have the disipline that is needed to keep myself on a schedule and forcing myself to accomplish the things that should be done each day. So I am putting out there so I will try harder.

9. Keep up on my blog. This one is stupid and purely selfish, but I don't write in a journal, I don't scrapbook. I dont call all of our family and give them updates as often as I should. And someday my mind will go, or my kids will want to know about things they don't remember.So for these reasons I am going to try to blog at least every other day. Sometimes you will get more sometimes it may be less but I really feel this is important.

Well folks, this has to be it....for two reasons. One I can not think of another "really good" one I need to put out there for the world and ME to see. And two Dalton seems to think that bed time was actually a nap so I am going to go snuggle him and rock with him in the rocking chair!
LOVE YOU ALL!
~Care