New goals

This year has started with a bang. I've given up on making resolutions in life. They just never seem to get anywhere! So instead, this year I set goals.

  1. Lose 6" around my middle. Setting a number of pounds to lose always seems so daunting and overwhelming. If I concentrate on inches instead, the pounds automatically go away and it's a much smaller number! To meet this goal, I have been working out with my Wii daily. That's been really hard. I spent the entire month of December coughing my lungs up with bronchitis. When I first got back to working out, I would get about 5 minutes into my run & have to stop because I couldn't breath. I've worked back up now so that today I'm trying a full workout - basic run, hula hoop, step, advanced step, boxing, basic run. Then after dinner I do the Island run. I also joined a FB group that is Christian Moms working to Get in Shape, Lose Weight, and Feel Better. We're really encouraging each other to eat healthier and work out every day, whether it's just a walk around the block!

  2. Daily devotional time. I've never been very good about reading my Bible or praying on a daily basis. I just kind of have conversations with God throughout the day. I joined another FB group that started a daily bible study based on the book of Luke today. We're also doing a family version on the book 'The Dig' which is a kid friendly version of Luke with a lapbook that goes with it. For the last 2 weeks I've been doing a morning devotional Monday through Friday with Crosswalk Devotions. They have one called Girlfriends in God that I'm enjoying.

3. Get our house in shape and sold. We've started going through each room and getting rid of everything that we don't want or use anymore. I've put quite a bit on ebay and will end up putting a good portion of my stash up for sale. We're going to get a storage unit next month and start packing up everything that we want to keep but won't be taking on the road. We basically want to just leave in the house what we need to function daily and what we'll be taking with us in the car. It will make it much easier to keep clean and sell the house. I'm hoping to have it sold and be able to spend the entire month of June in Las Vegas with family.

4. Patience. This is a hard one for me. I forget sometimes that my daughter is not a normal 9 yr old and has a hard time with some things. I also have a hard time remembering sometimes that my husband is mentally disabled and doesn't always understand things. I get frustrated and yell and I need to learn to find other outlets for my frustration.

  5. Stitching only what I already have started until it's done. Unless it's for a gift. This will be HARD!!! I've promised myself that I will only buy what I need to finish projects that are already started. I've been really good so far. I won 2 GC in the last month for stitching shops and used them for supplies only. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can do this!

6. Read 100 books this year. I've gotten 2 books finished already and halfway done with the third. I'm currently reading 'The Colour Purple' and have a huge list in waiting that grows daily! Mariah got a Kindle for Christmas and has been enjoying reading books on it so much that she has joined my book club. If she reads 24 chapter books this year, she will get an American Girl doll for Christmas (but she doesn't know that). She's doing well already. Besides reading 'Ramona the Brave' for her schoolwork, she's also reading 'Stuart Little' for fun. She loved 'Charlotte's Web' and asked me to find her more books by E.B. White.

I think that if I can meet those goals for this year I'll be doing really well! Last week we got a lot accomplished. Mariah started back on her lessons. It was a rough week, but by Friday she was pretty much back in the groove. This week I've written up her lesson plan and told her that if she gets it all done by Friday she may have Friday off. Since we're planning on going to Grandma's on Wednesday, this should be fun! She has math, her lapbook on the planets, her lapbook on American Indians, reading 19 pages of 'Ramona the Brave', as well as our bible study lapbook. She went back to art class Saturday. They had the month of December off because the library was too busy! She painted a beautiful portrait of a little girl. This was the original picture:

This was her painting:

Her talent amazes me! She asks me to help her draw something new & I have to tell her I'm sorry, but Mommy can't draw a stick figure! On a stitching note, I've been working hard on 2 pieces, but can't show either one. The first is a new model for X's & Oh's which is going to be beautiful. The 2nd is a gift for someone for Christmas so you'll have to wait until the end of the year to see it! I have, however, been doing a lot of crocheting too. I'm getting lots of orders for hats and having fun making them. I finished this one for one of my nephews:

This one was a custom order:

I have another one of those to do this week as well as a 2nd hat for the customer. Then I'm going to be making a baby blanket for someone.

Well, that's all for this week. What's everyone else been up to?