Thursday, September 13, 2007

School Year's Resolutions

*** Check out an earlier post of Emma-isms for today, below***

Kelly over at PTT has a wonderful idea- focus on goals for your family throughout the year. This is such an inspiration, especially since Kelly added her own special note to her idea, which is:
I believe the better me I can be, the better mom I can be.
Nothing could be more true. How can I expect to keep my family happy and on track if I am no where near achieving those things for myself? At first I struggled with this idea. Change is hard, so I began to think about what we were already doing right... things we had already implemented just before the start of the school year.
  • Family reading time, every day.
  • (More recently) Eating healthy by making meal plans and allowing everyone to choose a meal for the week, then finding lower fat versions of the recipes.
  • Being more diligent about our routines and schedules and wavering as little as possible once school started. (Anna's post school routine of snack, 1/2 hour of TV to unwind, home work, clean room... all the way up to bed time routines)
  • Being less negative when disciplining the kids by correcting them, but by also giving positive reinforcement by highlighting and praising them when they do something the right way.

Things I resolve to work harder on:
  • Exerting more patience in my life.
  • Dealing with negative forces as tactfully as possible.
  • Make an actual exercise schedule and stick to it, 3 times a week (dusting off the exercise equipment on the porch!).
  • Take over the bills to relieve the stress on my poor forgetful and over- worked hubby, therefore creating a less stressed family environment because the bills are getting paid on time and our (insert utility here) isn't getting turned off. (Like our water yesterdayLOL!)
  • Being more diligent about returning important phone calls
  • Making appointments for the family (mostly myself...moms, you know how that goes), because a healthy family is a happy family.

I will add more to the list as I think of them, mostly to keep myself accountable. ;) This was actually a really pleasant experience for me because I had not realized how well the improvements we made a month ( or so) ago had been working. if you like this idea, head over to Kelly's blog, leave a comment and/or leave a link letting her know you are participating. I hope you all have a happy and healthy school year!

8 comments:

Holly Schwendiman said...

Great lists! I too so need to be better about setting up my own doctor appointments!

Hugs,
Holly

Kelly Curtis said...

Oh Mary! This is so great! Your resolutions are excellent and it's exciting to think that you've already made progress in the past month. It's going to be a great year!

Thanks so much for participating. It feels good to set goals, doesn't it?

Unknown said...

I should make meal plans. But I don't have the patience. I should have more patience, but I don't make meal plans. It's a vicious cycle.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, girl! I'm on the self improvement plan myself.

Kitchen Cowgirl said...

Good luck with your list! Patience is soooooo hard to find! :) We're cheering for you!

Anonymous said...

Good for you, Mary. Exercise is one of the hard one for me. It's usually the first to go when I stressed for time. It's been two weeks since I rode my bike.

Bananas said...

What a great idea. I totally need to do this... formally.

Not So Anonymous Michelle said...

great lists, I totally need to take a lesson from you on the home cooking/healthy living/exercise thing. I was thinking alot about that on our vacation, but I didn't change my habits this morning as I returned to work either...ugh *BIG SIGH*