Now that the business of the holidays is over, I've had some time to think about what I want to focus on this year.
1. Taking down the Christmas tree. Yes, ours is still standing proudly in the corner of the family room. All the ornaments are off, and we never turn the lights on anymore, so it is a bit like a light-sink over there, blocking light from the windows, as well as just being 9 foot dark shadow. I keep thinking we'll take it down during the weekends, but we were gone last weekend, and this weekend there's football . . . maybe in February, LOL. But I thought I'd start off with an easy goal.
2. Losing 20 pounds. This next goal is not quite as easy as taking down the tree, yes? I still have 10 extra pounds from Grace, and they have not budged so far. I also have an extra 10 pounds from after I stopped nursing Jonathan. Evidently my metabolism really slowed while we were in Ohio, but I was pregnant or nursing the entire 3 years and never noticed. When we moved here and I finally stopped nursing Jonathan, I just ate as I always had, and I gained 10 pounds in a few months. I was horrified, of course, so I cut back and never gained any more, but I never lost it either (and then I got pregnant with Anna . . .). Well, this year I have a wonderful motivation--weddings!! Bob's niece is getting married on May 18, and my cousin James is getting married around the 24th of May. I'm still nursing, so I'm sure nothing is going to melt off, but we'll give it the old college try. Really I would be happy with just tightening up a few inches around my waist, so I am once again doing sit-ups and crunches like a mad woman (and if I ever told you that years of doing sit-ups have not gotten rid of the extra post-pregnancy pouch before, please be so kind as to not remind me of that, LOL).
3. Catch up on scrapbooking. I have stayed fairly caught up with my individual albums for the boys (if you don't consider that I haven't started one for either girl, LOL). I need to do Caleb's for last year, but that's all. I have 2 Christmases to do in my Christmas album, and I will pick up the digital pictures from Sams this week for them. That shouldn't be hard to whip out. My regular family album is almost 2 1/2 years behind, and includes the birth of 2 kids, so I am looking at a steeper challenge there, LOL.
4. Use more dried beans. I cook with beans a lot, but I've always tended to use canned beans just because they're so quick and convenient. I can have no idea what is for dinner, and then decide at 4:30 to have one of my many soup recipes that use canned beans, and voila! We're still eating by 5:30 or so. But I need to be more organized, cook a lot of beans at one time, and freeze them, like I do chicken and ground beef.
5. Have the boys do more writing. I've actually already started on this. I just want them to get more comfortable putting thoughts down on paper. Last year I started giving them 4 Latin sentences each morning to translate--2 into English, and 2 into Latin. This year I have added having them write a paragraph on whatever topic I come up with the night before (nothing involving research though--something like "Write about your favorite character in the Redwall series" or "Write about what you learned about reptiles at TnT"). One boy is very loquacious, and writes many more sentences than I ask for. The other boy puts down a bare-bones paragraph. The surprise for me was that it's Luke that writes the long paragraphs. Who knew he had all this bottled up?! LOL! Nathan talks a big paragraph to me, but when it comes to writing it down, he just sort of summarizes everything as briefly as possible. He doesn't like the physical act of writing, but maybe this exercise each morning will help with that.
Well, those are a few goals for this year, some easier than others. I'll keep you updated on our progress!
3 comments:
I have to say something about the writing. I have been doing the same thing with Russell and Zeke for the past 2 years. Russell is finally coming around. In fourth grade I was so frustrated with his lack of effort in writing that I made him start writing paragraphs each week about some topic that he really liked from the week before. Russell loves to read and will talk 10,000 pages about a 500 page book, but hates to take the time to write it. Zeke on the other hand is really turning into quite the writer. I expected Zeke to have more dificulty because of the two he has to work harder at all his schoolwork. It is always surprising. Russell has really started writing much better since I have left more of the topic/subject matter up to him. It has also helped him a lot to be homeschooled because I don't make him do the "busy work writing" that he did in school all the time. It isn't the expressing himself, it is the actual physical act of writing that he hates. I also found that he will write a book if I let him type it on the computer. I do this occasionally as a reward.
Is survival a good goal for a year? :-) Just kidding, sort of. We like to make goals for our year too usually. We made goals at the beginning of the school year and need to tweak them. Haven't succeeded at that yet. Hey, maybe my goal is to tweak our goals! :-)
Eric said he didn't see Bob all week. He spent 2 days in VA, 2 in CO and 1 in MD. Nice, huh? Plus we went to PA today. 4 states in a week.
Glad you connected with Marie. Strange, small world, right? We're actually going out to see them the end of the month. Fred is pinning on LtCol and, I think, Eric is doing the pinning on thingy. (I'm such a great AF wife, can't you tell?)
Ha! My tree is still up AND decorated!!! My goal is to have it put away by Thursday when the ladies meet here again for Bible study.
While I thought I had until Fall to lose my extra weight/tone up it was quite a jolt to my system when I realized I only have until May! So crunches have become more than just a vocabulary word in my life!
Scrapbooking?! Oh my! I have YEARS to catch up on!
As for the writing...Nathan reminds me of a story about Pilot. :) His English teacher always gave them a topic when they entered her room and they would have to sit down and write about that topic, off the top of their head. Mrs. Meadows desperately tried to get Pilot to use more adjectives...to expand his descriptions, etc. Alas! He always wrote "just the facts, ma'am, just the facts." Her comment to me was, "He would make an excellent newspaper reporter!" Well, after all is said done, he writes wonderful briefings so God did use Pilot's talents! ;)
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