Goals

Goal 1.
The last few weeks have been a blur. So much going on, sickies, feeling out of sorts, lots of making cakes, birthdays, celebrations, the good and the bad.

2 weeks ago I started, I don't know what to call it, a challenge?, a new way of life? a commitement? . We don't necessarily practice Lent, however, both Trent and I do something significant for us during this time.

For me it has been giving up dessert, candy, chocolate, you know, the yummy sugary stuff! Even though this is my goal, I did allow 2 times of indulgence, both for Trent's birthday. But that is it until Easter.

But more then giving it up, my goal is to rely on God when I am tempted to eat the forbidden. It is so easy to think, oh, I'll just have a piece of candy with the kids, or a piece of birthday cake would really be nice with decaf while watching tv with Trent, etc. Any other time I have tried to limit or cut out the dessert stuff, I have failed. Even being threatened with diabetes when pregnant with Thomas, I tried and I failed. Today, and the past 2 weeks, I have not failed and I am indeed thriving. The difference between then and now, my reliance on God. There have been plenty of thoughts that have sneaked into mind, lying to myself that I can partake. And I could, I know that I could. But I have made a commitement, and I am not going to break it, not today anyways.

Goal 2.
Spring Cleaning
I think I am going to start this next week. I need to make my plan of attack and map out when I can get it all done. This year the kids are helping. They love to clean and I might even work the actual cleaning times into our school day. I am also going to do a deep clean of all our stuff.

Goal 3.
Curriculum
I have most of Charlie's Kindergarten curriculum picked out. I just need to find materials for a few subjects and order what I have picked out. We plan on starting Kindergarten in May and going year round, 8 weeks of school, 3 weeks off, with some exceptions. My bloggy friend Susanna has been a great source of inspiration and help in pointing me in the many directions to make this process much less overwhelming...thanks Susanna!!

Goal 4.
Plan Tommy's bday party. This year it falls on Easter and we are thinking of doing a family party on Easter/Easter Dinner and a friend party the day before. Yesterday he wanted a "Mimi" party (Mimi stands for anything rescue related, fire truck, ambulance etc. even though he can say those words now, we all seem to fall back on the Mimi) and today he wants a tow truck party...sigh! We will see what he wants tomorrow and stick with that :)

Goal 5
Get back on track with household organization.
* I enjoyed doing the once a month cooking and have even been cooking in bulk lately. However, I want to set up a rotating meal plan for the year. I know, crazy, but I think I will feel so accomplished if I can do this and it will make shopping/preparing meals even that much easier.
* I also need to do a freshen up of our budget as we have new goals and plans that we want to implament...such as putting up our house for sale in the spring of 2011!! But in order to do that we need to have a significant downpayment savings first.
*Besides the spring cleaning that will start next week, I need to come up with a better cleaning/laundry plan. Before Tommy was born I had a plan down and it worked really well...umm that was 3 years ago. Needless to say it has been a little haphazard and now with our furry friend Bo, we need a cleaning plan and we needed it yesturday!!

Goal 5
Giving to others.
Finalize plans for giving to Amazima. Get involved with food pantry at church. This includes have kids pick out food items to take each week. The plans for all this will be completed once the budget is redone.

Goal 6
Relax and enjoy this season of life.