January Ramblings

Well hello, blogging world!  Long time no post!  I've started out to write here several times over the past few months, and each time I got sidetracked before I had time to finish and actually post what I had written.  By the time I remembered and got back to it, the things I had written were no longer relevant in the context of the season.  It was (is!) a little frustrating to me that I am apparently so disorganized that I can't even get a thoughtful blog post written, and I've let 4 whole months go by with nary a word here in my little space.  I miss it.

So, one of my goals for 2017 is to post here once a week.  I'm going to try to actually carve out time for either a family-related post, random thoughts, something that's been a blessing to me, goals...or whatever comes to mind on that particular day.  I really love the fact that for over 10 years, I've kept a pretty decent record (at least up till more recent years) of our life here on our back road.  I just can't bear the thought of shutting down the blog or posting so infrequently, because I know one day I'll be kicking myself that there are such big gaps in our "history."  This is the only journal I keep at present, and looking back on memories here is such fun.  Maybe some weeks I'll manage to post more than once, but I figure if I can put up 52 posts a year, I'll be happy...and it'll be so much better than what I've done lately!

So here we go...some January ramblings.  (I do hope to put up another post in a few days with some pictures and thoughts from December, so I can record our Christmas memories and activities in one place, too.)

January Goals and my Word for the Year

It's been a very long time since I set specific goals for a year or even a month.  This year I honestly haven't had time yet to set many goals, but I did choose a few, as well as my "one word" for 2017.  I will start with that...my word is "Thrive."  I thought over several words such as "purpose" and "discipline" (both with the same idea, I guess) but then the word "thrive" came to me and I knew it was just right for this year.  You see, the past two years since Ari was born, I've pretty much felt like I was in survival mode.  I'm not blaming this completely on Miss Ari, and I hope it's abundantly clear on my blog and in real life, just how much of a blessing that little girl is to our family!!!  She's a sweet and precious gift from God, and we all can't imagine life without her now, even though she was not in *our* plans!  BUT...just being honest here...she's a lot of work.  She's our high-maintenance child, and it was definitely a change to go back to little sleep, working around naptimes, juggling school for older kids who still need a lot of Mom's time, paying bills, taking care of the home, etc.  We did a lot of "coasting" over the past two years and I let a lot of things go because a) I was so tired and b) I wasn't managing my time well (partly because of being so tired, partly because I'm a time-waster by nature...oh my, did I just admit that?!).  Anyway.  I know that some things need to change this year, and the word "thrive" hits the nail on the head for what I want my year to be like.  I want to thrive in the area of managing my home and taking care of my family, in my personal walk with God and prayer life, in my friendships with others, and in my health and fitness.  I want my kids to thrive too, in the rest of their school year.  This doesn't necessarily mean that I'll be going overboard trying to do "all the things" as I know that will just lead to burnout and more exhaustion...but it means that I'll be making a conscious effort to improve the way I manage my time (and theirs), determining what things to say yes or no to, and using tools that will strengthen me spiritually.  (More on those hopefully at a later date!)  I know that some of you can relate (and some MUCH more than I can, because you have larger families!) that it is so different to have both older kids and toddlers or babies.  In some ways it is easier...because the big kids can all take care of themselves for the most part, and they're a big help with the little one(s).  But in other ways, it makes Mom so much more stretched, I think.  I'm running the big kids around to activities (not a lot, but a few) while trying to make sure Ari still gets my time and attention (and naps), and homeschooling takes up a lot of our time.  It's so much different from when I was 34 and had a 6, 4, and 2 year old...at that point we only had one kid in school and it took maybe 2 hours start to finish.  I was doing things like baking all our bread, always keeping goodies on hand, etc. and now I find it hard to fit those extra things in.  (I know I need to train the big kids to help with the baking and stuff like that, but sometimes it seems impossible to even fit that in!  We will get there, I think...it just takes time.)

Boy, I really went on and on about that, didn't I?! :D  Thanks for listening to my rambles, whoever is still out there reading.  As for my other January goals, they are fairly simple:

• Read 2 books
• Lose 5 lbs (gotta get back to losing that baby weight, since my baby is actually a toddler now!!)
• Have a daily quiet time
• Blog 4 times
• Use my new planner daily (I got a Happy Planner--yay!  So far I LOVE it.)
• Drink 3 quarts of water daily
• Exercise 20 times

And I think that I'll wrap this post up so I can actually, you know, get it posted before I get distracted!! :)  Happy New Year everyone, and may you THRIVE this year too!