Wow, TEN years of our family's adventures are recorded on this blog now! I have always enjoyed journaling and photography, so this has been a great creative outlet for me and its purpose is two-fold as it also leaves a record for friends and family to enjoy now and in the future. I do need to get to work on making each year into a blurb book though (I've only made them for 2007 and 2008 so far, yikes!), but soon enough all of my kids will be in school and I'll have a bit more time for that.
With the new year *TWO THOUSAND SEVENTEEN* (say what?), I've been reflecting on some SMART goals for this year.
For the most part, I just want to keep on doing what we're doing. Our daily life is busy! Len has to travel often for work; Kaleb's in Concert and Jazz band, the Acorn service club, and he signed up to go on the Art trip to Chennai in February; Noe's in Dance Club, the Acorn club, and also signed up for the Art trip, and as part of her Drama class is auditioning for the Spring musical- so we'll see if that gets added to her activities; Gavin's in Engineering, Taekwondo, and we're waiting to see which Studio class he'll get; Teague's in Gymnastics and Art. Hiram's busy enough just being in pre-kindergarten and Ali's busy at home. I would like to take the Bollywood Moms Dance class, but I'm waiting for the details to see if it will fit into our schedule.
For the past 4 out of 5 weeks (we took the week of our vacation off), Len and I have been getting up at 5:00 and exercising together. I want to continue doing this. I would like to lose 25-30 pounds this year. If I just lose a half a pound a week, I'll reach my goal. Food is the biggest factor when it comes to my weight loss and food is really challenging here. I'm trying to focus on listening to my body. I want to eat when I'm hungry so I don't deprive myself that later leads to a binge, and I want to stop eating when I'm full. I'm working on portion control and really listening to my body. I've lost about 17 pounds since we've been in India and I hope I can continue to lose instead of plateau.
Our family scripture study has always been a roller coaster. At some periods we're doing great, then something happens to get us out of our routine and it's hard to get going again. In December we did our 24 days of Christmas book in the morning for the second year in a row and it worked much better than doing it in the evenings. We kept our momentum going after Christmas ended, and each morning after we exercise we wake the kids up for a daily hymn, prayer, and scripture story. We also have weekly FHE and attend church every week that we can. I want us to get better at evening family prayers and encouraging our kids to have their own personal prayers regularly.
I love having dates with my honey, one-on-one dates with the kids, and family dates. However, this year we're going to take a break from the more rigid schedule. As I mentioned, our lives are pretty hectic so we're going to work in natural outings as they come up. (I am looking forward to Len's and my date next week to see the tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith team up with Indian dancers and percussionists for an evening of Rhythm Rewritten.)
One thing we need to work on is CHORES! Our house goes from clean to disaster in about 10 seconds flat. I can't clean up after 8 people by myself, or that is all I would be doing. I need to make up daily and individual charts to keep us all on track better.
I want to read a novel each month, work on the craft projects I've been carrying around with me for years (decades?), but I want to be prepared every day to serve others. I can get overwhelmed in this department because there are so many here that are lacking the basic comforts of life. Then it's easy for me to play ostrich to cope with all the cognitive overload I receive. I want to strive to be in-tune with the Spirit to help when I can. I also want to remember that right now the best place for me to serve is within the walls of my own home.
We have some exciting milestones this year. Teague will be turning 8 and getting baptized. Len and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary and we are hoping to take a trip to Hawaii to attend the Laie Hawaii Temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center. We also want to visit all 3 of our extended families as we haven't done that since 2014. I hope we can get pictures with our 3 fams, and of course we'll be taking our annual family photo too.
I recently came across these wise words from Rob Hill Sr.:
"My goal is to build a life I don't need a vacation from."
Amen to that!
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