Resolutions

Darren and I make New Years resolutions every  year. I'm not too sure if that is an ancient practice these days or not but we still do it. We keep track of them from year to year and it's a really great way of seeing how we've changed in the past few years.  As a mom I feel like I never accomplish anything at the end of the day so it's nice to look back and, for the most part, be able to say "yup, I actually did accomplish that this past year".

Our goals tend to change the older we get.  The first year of our marriage was more career oriented and financial goals.  Then came the kids and that's when my resolutions started to change.  I noticed a theme for a few years was to learn more about how to parent better, how to have more patience. It reminded me of those hard years with Rhys where I just felt like I failed every single day. Not to say I have mastered this parenting thing at all, but I feel like I've grown in this area. But not without a lot of hard work put into it. It's been the hardest thing for me to get to know someone that is so different but yet so much like me and know how to be their mother.

This past year, 2012, was quite a duesy for me. I honestly feel like I've been living in a cloud for the past 7 months since my mom's death, and for some reason these past few days I feel like I'm able to see clearer. Maybe it was the Christmas break Maybe it's the feeling of a new year with new expectations. Who knows. But it's nice to have a little bit of a break from the cloud that has been over me.  While sitting down to think of my resolutions for 2013 I tried to think about characteristics of my mom that made her such a great woman. One of her favorite things to do was to read. I'm not exaggerating when I say my mother had probably read over 1000 books in her life. There was always a stack of books on her nightstand. I honestly don't know when she even had time to read while taking care of 7 kids and working.  She wrote in her memoir that one of her favorite times was in the middle of the night when she would be doing a midnight feeding with a baby in one arm and a book in the other. It was her time to read and connect with us at the same time (always multitasking! )

My mother was a very wise woman and I have no doubt it was because of the time she spent reading. Most of the books she read were by Christian author's and had an impact on who she became in life.  She would take what she was reading and apply it to her life.  There were times a book had such a big impact on her that she'd buy a copy for us to read so she'd have someone to talk to about it.  If my busy mother had the time to read as much as she did then I really have no excuse. This year I am going to read at least a book a month.  I'm going to write down all of the books I read so that I can measure my success at the end of the year.  I'm looking forward to filling "dead" time with books rather than my phone.  I'm going to keep one in the car so I can read for a few moments while picking kids up from school. I have one in the dining room that I sit down and read a few pages at the rare moments the kids are playing nicely.  It's exciting to challenge my brain to think about things that I wouldn't normally think of throughout the course of my day.  To get outside of my "mom" world and push myself to think about things other than day to day life.  

My challenge to you is that, if you haven't made any goals for 2013, to sit down and really think about things in your life that you want to change and then come up with a game plan to change it.  Don't just say "lose some weight, stop smoking, be a nicer person etc.."  Try to come up with how you'll lose that weight, how you'll stop smoking, what can you do to learn to be a nicer person.  Put a plan of action in place and put it into your calendar and hold yourself accountable. Or get others to hold you accountable.  Write it down somewhere so that at the end of the year you can see how you were able to attain that goal.

I truly believe God wants us to continue to grow in every area of our life on a constant basis. Staying stagnant is boring.  Push yourself to attain goals that you've been wanting to do and then do it.  Feel free to leave a comment as to what your resolution(s) are for this year and how you are going to attain it.