Blessings of 2013
That little guy up there is probably our biggest blessing this year. 🙂 Over the past few weeks I have shared the journey to his birth,so I won’t say anymore about that. I will say I don’t know what we would do without Cameron in our family. How weird life would be…
Another blessing of the past year was being able to have my sister and new brother in law stay with us while they were in town for Thanksgiving. We live over twelve hours away from each other so having them stay with us was so much fun! They were making family rounds while they were here but we did get a chance to hang out a couple evenings. It was great!!
We are so thankful that our boys are getting along so well. I was kind of nervous of how Seth would react when his baby status got taken away from him, but after a couple of weeks he realized Cameron was staying. Now Seth gets worried that we will leave Cameron with others. Seth has become quite the protective older brother, at least when others bother Cameron. Seth likes to reserve the ability to pick on and pester Cameron for himself. 🙂
We were able to get our new windows in, and the outside of our house now all looks the same. No more tar paper on half and plywood sheeting on half. We are hoping to get the siding on this coming summer.
Goals for 2014
I have set a some goals for myself for this coming year in a couple of different categories. Spiritual Life, Physical Fitness, Mothering, Home and Hospitality.
I would like to share some of them with you today.
Mothering
*one on one date with Seth each month, doing things he wants to do, not what I think he wants to do.
*journal once a week in each of my boys’ journals.
Home and Hospitality
*dishes washed every morning by nine
*bathroom cleaned once a week (I absolutely hate cleaning the bathroom and always put it off as long as possible.)
*vacuum two times a week, or more if needed. (Our kitchen and living room are the same room, and it’s all carpet. With a baby who puts everything in his mouth I really need to get things off the floor as soon as possible. Vacuuming isn’t the hard,I just tend to put it off.)
*have someone over for dinner or coffee once a month
These are a few of my goals for 2014. What about you? What goals have you set for this coming year?
A book I read recently has really helped me with my goal setting. It is called Say Goodbye to Survival Mode by Crystal Paine. Crystal takes you step by step through the goal setting process using SMART guidelines.
S= Specific
M= Measurable
A= Attainable
R= Realistic
T= Time bound
Crystal will show you why everyone needs to set goals, not only to motivate ourselves, but to give direction and purpose for living. Intentional living. If you pre-order the book you can get $125 worth of freebies and discounts. Check it out!!
I love Crystal Paine–she’s so genuinely sweet.
You have a good list of goals for the year.
Love the pic of your two kids together-one in the stroller. 🙂
You’ve got some great goals here! I like the having someone over for dinner or coffee once a month one 🙂 My goals are numerous, but the word I’m speaking over this year is PEACE.
I’m curious as to what you mean by peace? Slowing life down? Resting in your decisions? Tell me more. 🙂
My boys are the SAME way together! Like peas in a pod! And I love the date once a month. I need to do that with my older boy! I am stealing it!
Steal away!! 🙂 I stole the idea from someone else. 🙂
That book, ‘Saying Goodbye to Survival Mode’, sounds like a great read. We know more than we realize about this, but the reminder certainly helps a lot. Happy 2014!
I agree. 🙂 Many of the points in the book, I knew, but the reminder is always good. And she put many thoughts into new perspectives.
It’s great to have a journal for each of the boy. You are still lucky having place with not much dust. In our house, the floor needs to sweep and mop twice a day. Otherwise, it is going to be dusty and sticky. We have no carpet here as it is hot. We only have carpet in the gym room. The toilet is daily cleaned up. The clothes has to be washed daily mostly as it is sweaty all of the time. We live in a tropical country, you know. Can you imagine living here without helper?
It sounds like you are cleaning up a lot!! Our house isn’t always the cleanest, but if I keep the dishes done,the floor picked up and vacuumed and the bathroom clean, it can improve the rest of the house about one hundred times. 🙂
I’m sure your helper is very needed. Do your boys have chores around the house?
What a beautiful gift to journal for the boys, you’ll treasure these memories for years to come and they’ll have wonderful memories to share as adults. Aren’t boys fun when they bond. My three grandsons are best friends, I love watching how they look out for each other. <3
Kim, I got the idea from those smash books. I don’t really care for scrapbooking, but I do like to write, so I figured I could start a journal for both of them and then just go the easy route and do digital scrapbooks.
I just released my book “One Income Mystery” and I also talked about how important goals are! If you are interested you can look up that title on Amazon.
I love your goals. They are obtainable. I really love the goal that you are going to do what your child wants to do and not what you think he wants to do!
I’ll have to go check out your book Jill!! 🙂