New Year, New Goals, and an Anniversary!

"The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!"

Numbers 6: 24-26

 This is my prayer for all of you in this new year! I pray that it will be full of blessings, big and small, and that you find what your hearts truly desire! It is a new year for everyone, and while it may have hard times and tears, I know that the smiles and the joys will outweigh them all!

Just a quick note before I go on, this is a long post! So pull up a chair and join me in reflecting on this new year! At this time of year I tend to make the very cliched resolutions! ;) I love to really think about what my goals are going into this year and what I hope to change and learn. These I sometimes keep and sometimes I don't! All I can do is my best and we will see where it goes from there. So I will share with you what my goal is for 2012. I always pick a virtue that means the most to me each year. Last year it was Peace, the year before that was joy. This year the virtue that really seems to be something to work on is Intention. I need to strive to be intentional in my living. Focus on my kids when they are talking, focus on my husband when I have time with him, to clean when I am cleaning, to blog when I am blogging,etc. I have become extremely good at doing a million things at once and that dose have benefits, but it also means that things are done half ass (pardon the expression). So I will be trying my best to focus on the people and the tasks that I am currently doing, without reading a blog post, or checking the email while I am doing it! This is tough for me, but it is something that I need to change.

Another thing that I need to do is to hug and kiss my girls more. I realized that I don't do it often, and they need it. So (at least) once a day (not at bedtime, I already do that) I will hug or kiss my girls. I also need to spend more time playing with them. So after lunch, before rest time, we will have a game or some kind of playtime together for a bit. Not hard, but it will require me stepping away from what I think I need to be doing. I have been thinking a lot and I think that my girls are quickly moving out of the small childhood phase and I;m not sure that I have lived that time with them well. Its a hard reality to know that I didn't cherish the time I had with them while they were smaller. When I got married I thought that I would have a huge family like my mom did. I just assumed that it would be that way. Now, I'm not so sure that God has that in mind for me and my husband. I have prayed alot about it and so has my husband, and at this time I don't see us having more kids. Will that change? Maybe, who knows! God will tell us I'm sure! So instead of having kids one after the other, with someone always being little, I am facing my baby who will be three and realizing that I may have overlooked my gift of time with my kids at their smallest! Yikes! That's a heavy thought and I need to change that now! So we will play together daily and talk and laugh so these moments aren't lost forever!

Something that was said at mass today by our priest really hit me. I think it is something that will make it on my resolution list this year. He said that we need to be like Mary by reflecting on things in our heart. Mary did not always understand what things meant, or what was going to happen, or even what she was going to do, but she "kept these things reflecting on them in her heart". I like that idea of keeping things in my heart, pondering them, talking to God about them as I go about my busy day. Having an on going conversation that never really stops. I think that I do this already to a certain extent, but I want to be intentional about it. Ponder and think about the things in my life that are happening and making sure that I am in God's will as I am going about my day. This I think will really bring peace to my days and to my whole life! (Yes I know I said peace was last years goal, but its an ongoing process!).

Now, for the most cliched resolution, I need to loose wight! Yes, super predictable, but it needs to be done! I hate not eating what I feel like eating. I respond to stress with food (chocolate and cookies are the worst) and I just don't know what else to do! So I am going to strive to embrace Bethanny Frankel's 10 rules, and I am going to work on doing some exercise 3 times a week. Simple baby steps. If I try to do it all at the same time I will fail. So step by step. Wish me luck!

This is my very long list of things that I want do this year in my life! It is alot of changes, but I have tried to keep them simple so that I may have a chance to be successful! :) I hope that it works! What are your resolutions this year? Do you have something that you need to work on or change? I would love to hear what you are going to be working on this year!

I am also shocked to realize that TODAY is my very first blogiversary! I cant believe that today marks the very first blog post I ever wrote here! I never imagined that I would have 140 wonderful followers or that I would have met some of the most supportive and kind people ever through this space! It has been a blessing and I could never have done it without all of you! You all have picked my up when I was down, and encouraged me when I was insecure, and given me ideas when I couldn't think of any more! Your comments make my day and your ideas inspire me! Thanks so much for following me and my family's journey this year! I hope that you will continue to stop by, read my thoughts, and share yours too! I am looking forward to another great year sharing my thoughts, our little adventures, and the homeschooling journey we are on here! So I wish you all very happy New Year and thanks for all of your support!