Just a little note to say Happy New Year. It's been fun to read what some of my friends are planning for themselves this new year. I am excited for them. I am very poor at making resolutions, mostly, I think, because I am relatively unmotivated. MJF makes 3 or 4 at the beginning of any given year and within a week he has achieved his goal. It makes me want to slap him silly.
This year I just want to keep my family happy. Going back to school has presented a whole host of difficulties keeping my home in order and I will have to create an organized system like never before. I'm thankful for the Flylady (www.flylady.net) in that area. I also have to lose A LOT of weight. More than I have since having kids. I am counting on Bruce Ammons (www.lose17in17.com) and Atkins (www.atkins.com) and Couch to 5K (www.coolrunning.com) for help in that area. I'm also committed to cooking more at home which I hope will help the bank account. That is the hardest challenge for me since I am not a good cook and I am very bored with it. Of course the more I try to enjoy myself with the chore, the less my family enjoys what I serve. I have yet to find the help I need with organizing my meal plans although I've been given a couple suggestions from friends. I will probably end up with index cards and the grocery store fliers to help me in that area. Of course my studies will take the most work and I have included study time into each day's schedule. I am counting on my brain to keep me at the current 4.0 I am at. I am also counting on prayer to keep College Algebra from ruining that 4.0. Most importantly though is supporting our church family in the Bible reading and scripture memorization planned for 2010. Ironically, although it will be the easiest, most enjoyable, and most beneficial to the whole family, I know it will be the most challenging of all to keep as a daily part of our lives. Why is that?
There's a lot on my list but it actually fits. I add in a couple hours once a week to scrapbook and my weekly visit to Kate's school library to help shelve books and our Wednesdays and Sundays at my favorite place on earth - Colonial Heights Baptist Church - and I have a schedule that, should I enlist my Holy Spirit given fruit of self-discipline should provide all that I and my family need to end 2010 happy campers.
Today I feel excited and motivated - tomorrow I will feel something very different. And that, alas, is the problem - FEEL. I have always struggled with succumbing to my feelings more than following what I have known to be necessary. Setting goals and writing To-Do lists have always ended in bitter failure because I am not motivated by those things. Actually I am not sure what motivates me at all. So in spite of the list I gave previously, encapsulating all I must accomplish in 2010, the reality is, there is only ONE thing I need to accomplish. I need to end my insistence of allowing emotion to dictate the direction I go. I know how to set good goals and write good To-Do lists. I need to look at them and work them and stop thinking and start doing.
So, in 2010, I am going to find out how to tap the promise of Self-Control that I have been given as a child of God and use it. I will let you know how I manage. Pray for me. It could be a rough year!
