2011 Goals

Our family doesn't make resolutions. To me a resolution sounds like something you will change and do forever, without mistake. And our family is full of mistakes. So, we make three goals, not too few, not too many. I'll spare you the nitty gritty details of our goals, but we learned from our brilliant personal finance teacher, Bryan Sudweeks, that goals need to be specific, and measurable. Anyway, our family goals for 2011 are to:

• Get out of Debt - pay off student loans
• Save - put extra money in savings, beyond our regular savings
• Be Prepared - put together 72 hr kits, food and water storage, and an emergency plan.

I'm working on laying out plans to accomplish these goals. I am so excited to finally be working more seriously on the things we've been told to do for decades! We also have set up a reward for when we accomplish our goals for the year. HURRAY!! I love prizes! So, if you have worked on any of these goals and have some advice for us, please comment! We'd love to hear from more accomplished provident livers. :) Wish us luck!

Stolen Inspiration

OK, so I saw this idea last year, I think from our friends Karson and Betsy, and this was going to be my "cleaver" little gift to all the neighboors, along with some goodies..... But Stephanie from Brooklyn Limestone Stole it. That'll teach me to wait until the last half of December to do things.... now I'm going to look like a stinking copy cat..... Hopefully none of my neighboors read her fabulous blog. :) Or mine, for that matter. :)

The best decisions I ever Made

Winter Wonderland Indeed

I found great joy today watching this:

Snow shovels are good for more than just removing snow from driveways.

P.S. He's making an igloo

Elder Hirschi

Greg's brother Shaun reported to the MTC at the beginning on October. We'll miss him, but we sure are proud of what he's doing. We spent a few days playing with him, and taking pictures so we could remember and talk about him with the kids.

September Field Trip

I'm teaching preschool this year with two other moms and three adorable little boys. Septembers field trip was to an apple orchard to pick apples. Here are some pictures of the trip

Negligent

I was reminded that I have been incredible negligent in posting pictures of our youngest trouble maker. And sadly enough I don't really have time to write captions, so here they are:

Inspiration

I read something today that inspired me to be a better mother:

The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice. - Peggy O'Mara

Indeed.

The dieting woman

I feel like a dieting woman at Christmas time. A food lover who restricts her diet and allows herself nothing but fruits, veggies, and whole grains all year long, and then tells herself she can have birthday cake on her birthday, and pie at Thanksgiving, and thats it. Do you know what I would do if I were that woman? I would eat an ENTIRE cake on my birthday, and an ENTIRE pie at Thanksgiving.

I try to be frugal. I do not spoil my children, my husband, or myself. we buy what we need, and generally nothing else all year long. Then at Christmas or Birthdays my mind goes wild with all the possiblities of gifts that I could make and/or give. So many things I want to give my children and my husband. I want to eat the ENTIRE cake.

But I can't. And I shouldn't.

What is my purpse in giving gifts? As much as I would like to fulfill every dream of each person on my list, my purpose is to show my loved ones that I know them, that I pay attention, and that I care.

Fulfilling those purposes has little to do with money, or tags, or wrapping, but it has to do with the message that the gift sends.

I want to teach this to my children. Teach them that giving a gift is like sending a message without words (or sometimes WITH words).

Would one gift be enough to do that? Can I really shape my childrens perceptions of Christmas while the whole world is telling them that Christmas is about how many and how big? Is it fair to only give my children one meaningful gift? rather than 15 gifts that will impress their friends and fill up the recycle bin with wrapping?

I'm still working on my own answer to that question. If you have any thoughts or comments I'd love to hear them.

Sometimes we do things we don't want to do

(Leah, asleep in her birthday suit)

Potty Training, its the one thing I wish someone else would do for my children and would relieve me of my responsibility. I hate it, and just wish it would be done and over with. I would probably consider paying someone else to potty train my children. (any takers?)

Since birth Leah has had nudest tendencies. For a while I couldn't put her to bed in footie-jammies because she would unzip them, take them off, and then pull off her diaper. I thought this was a phase, but it turns out there was just a delay in her learning how to take off regular pj's and clothes. She started up again, and since she is no longer in a crib, she proceeded to remove her clothes, and her diaper, then fall asleep either before or after peeing all over the carpet. AWESOME.

If I have to clean up pee, I'd better be getting a potty trained child out of it.

PS: Is it weird to read posts about me potty training my children and such? It might be. I just realized that it might be the kind of thing that only I think is significant.... hmmm.... Anyway, we're a week in and had a delay because of vacation, but she's been doing well, with the exception of #2.... we're having issues not wanting to do that in the toilet. :(