My 2010 Non-Resolutions...

I don't make resolutions. I've broken them so many different years that it's a waste of my time. However, goal setting is a bit different in my mind. I spent a day setting goals for my family and myself the first day my kids went back to school. As we look at the new year it's nice to remind myself of those goals and see how much has been accomplished and where I need to make improvements.

My most important goal for many years has been to take care of MYSELF. Yes, you heard me, I think I'm more important than others. Sounds a bit selfish right? Well, it's not. God made ME before I became a wife, mother, friends, etc.

Here are the main areas of my life that I focus on:

• Myself
• Wife
• Kids
• Homemaking AKA my job!!!
• Other

MYSELF:
Almost every morning I get up earlier than the rest of my family. I'm able to sit on my couch, look at the hills, drink a cup of coffee and thank God for every blessing in my life. After the rush of the morning making breakfast and lunches, I am able to sit down with my Bible and learn a bit more about God. I love to walk so at some point during the day I try to get my franny moving. Once a week I lift weights and watch CSI-Miami. I absolutely hate lifting weights so I reward myself with a t.v. show. My husband gets the kids in bed this night so it's a double bonus for me! People who work outside the home or have kids at home ask me what I do all day long...each day I have a list a mile long I don't ever get everything done that I want to!

WIFE:
I honestly didn't know what I was getting into when I got married. My high school sweetheart/nonsweetheart (we weren't always nice to each other) and I got married right after we graduated from college. I had no idea that it took work in order to make marriage work. It's very natural for me to be a nag and not supportive...it takes work on my part to encourage my husband and show him that I love him. I really need to read the book The Five Love Languages. I've read it before, but so quickly I lose focus on the most important people in my life.

KIDS:
Again, I need to re-read The Five Love Languages book. I know that my son's love language is touch and time. My daughter's is gifts and words of praise. I'm not really good at any of these! My daughter's entire face lights up if you give her any praise. I struggle with what kind of praise to give her. I don't want to give her surface praise - she looks pretty or that she's smart. I want to focus more on the good choices she's making and how caring she is.

Every Tuesday I volunteer in my son's classroom and then we have a "mama time". We run errands at this time or if I don't have anything going on then we'll come home and play the Wii or a game like Uno. On Wednesdays I pick my daughter up (normally they ride the bus home) and we go to the library. One day I made hot chocolate and brought it with me when I picked her up. She went on and on about this "gift" so much that I actually felt guilty! It's the LITTLE TINY THINGS with her! I always think that a gift means spending money, but really it just means slowing down a bit and thinking about what she likes. It could be a pencil or a sticker on a piece of paper that I call a book mark!

HOMEMAKING AKA MY JOB:
This is so important to me! I absolutely love love love being a homemaker! I feel like I've finally figured it out just a bit. I've been home full time now for 8 years and I can't imagine juggling an outside-the-home-career ever again. For a long time I believed that I would never again have a paying job. Now that my kids aren't home full time I can see a time in the future where I would like to have a job, but I still don't see myself having a career. I wouldn't mind going some place to earn money, but I definitely don't want to bring my work home with me like I used to. For me, my career is my home. I took some time off "working the home" when we moved to Arizona so my husband could go back to school. It showed in our budget, but it proved to me that I make a huge difference in our finances.

Other:
Even though my extended family and my friends are in this category, they are still extremely important to me. I just have to remember to put the other areas of my life first. It's so easy to hang around with my friends because they don't make me work!


My Goals:
I was hoping as I wrote this post I'd figure out what goals need to be set. Some are clear, some aren't.

1. Obviously I need to read The Five Love Languages and set some goals after reading that book.
2. Continue with my morning routine after the kids are gone for the day: clean up kitchen, swish and swipe, 5 minutes on scrap booking/pictures, Bible time, plan for the day - NO COMPUTER at this time. It's my biggest help and hindrance!
3. Work on my two week menu plan using my pantry. Post information at my other blog. I know for a fact I'm saving a lot of time and money by doing a big shopping trip one week and buying just a few items the next week. There are definitely some kinks to work out, but that will be my focus the next few days.
4. I know we have financial stuff that I need to work on, 401K rollovers, kids' savings bonds, etc. That is a completely different post! I need to have some concrete dates for my financial goals.
5. One other major thing is cleaning my house. I will NOT spend a ton of time cleaning my house. I swear every time I mop someone immediately spills something on it. What good does it do me to spend hours on something just to have it get dirty again. That's what I used to do and a cranky mama is not a good mama. So now I try to keep it maintained and "good enough". Doesn't need to be perfect. Having said that I don't really like to see cobwebs and dirty baseboards, ceiling fans, etc. These things don't really work into my maintenance schedule though. So again because of FLYLADY, I've learned to work on a zone a week. She has the schedule on her website and recommends 15 minutes a day in each zone. I don't do 15 minutes...for some reason that overwhelms me, but 5 minutes I can do. With Christmas I have fallen off the wagon big time! So my goal is to get that habit back! It makes a huge difference! You would never believe the things you can get done in 5 minutes. I set my timer and work very very quickly. Click on the flylady link above for all of the details.
6. I need to figure out how to make money off of my blog. I don't need much, but I do spend a lot of time on it. My goal is to help others, but the time that I spend doing that is time I could be spending on something else to make money. I'm confident that I can make this work! Again, I need to have some concrete goals in mind. Hopefully over the next few days I can work on this as well!

I think that is enough goals for now! Obviously I need to spend a bit more time writing my specific gaols if I want to accomplish anything.
So here is what you need to do - if you are still reading this rambling post:

• Figure out the big picture first! What do you really want to accomplish in a day, week, month or year.
• Then, you can set specific goals with dates if needed, in order to achieve the big goals

Note: I'm not going to re-read this and correct it...this is a post from the heart so I'm sure I made mistakes. Right now I'm going to spend some time with my kiddos!
This post is linked to Life As a Mom.