Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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LLMom
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Posted: Dec 30 2009 at 2:09pm | IP Logged Quote LLMom

Does anyone do New Year's resolutions or goals? This year I have come up with categories
and written goals in those areas. I hope this will help me to meet those goals better. I have included areas such as reading, writing, homeschooling, spiritual, exercise, hobbies, etc. I like to see what everyone else does.

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TxTrish
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Posted: Dec 31 2009 at 9:31am | IP Logged Quote TxTrish

I am so happy to see you doing this -
I am working on my list now, and so are the kids.

Will post when I finish.
I love New Years Resolutions and Goals.
Looking over last years (I can't find them, actually)

I was pondering this 20 questions for a New Years Reflection a bit today.


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teachingmyown
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Posted: Jan 04 2010 at 11:12am | IP Logged Quote teachingmyown

I am terrible at making resolutions or writing down goals. I always have been. I love that list of 20 questions, but I quickly become impatient and my eyes glaze over. Must be my ADD shining through!

My word for the year is surrender. This needs to be my first goal. Last year's word was intention, which still needs to be tattoed on my forehead so I can remember daily that this is the real thing- this is my one shot at life and at raising my kids and I had better make it count!
But I do have other specific goals for myself and my family:

I want to get physically fit again. Yes, that is mostly weight loss, but also endurance and energy.

I want to simplify- I am reading along with the Simplicity Parenting thread and reading the book. I need to break my fearful attachment to things (i.e. I can't get rid of ___ because I may need it) and clean out my home. It is ridiculous the mess that we live in.

I want to bring some beauty into my home. In many ways, I have given up. The carpet is hopelessly stained and we can't afford more. The walls are dirty and colored on, with various nicks and dings, but wouldn't it be a waste of time to paint them before all the kids are 8? This has been my thinking, but I am re-thinking that now. I am thinking, instead, that maybe beauty will inspire more respect for our home, greater care of our things.

I need to find my niche with homeschooling and stop floundering around. Again, simplifying is the start.

I need to brush up on my parenting skills. As I sat in the cry room at Mass yesterday with my 3 and 2 year olds running rings around me, I felt old and tired. Only, I can't be old and tired because I have a 3 yr old and a 2 yr old! I need to get back in the game and on top of things like I was years ago. I am only halfway through this mom thing (if that, there could be more babies). I need to raise these children well with the same enthusiasm and idealism that I had with the first several babies. It should be easier, having gained perspective over the years. Right?

So, am I being overambitious? Even little steps in the right direction with each goal will make a world of difference in my way-too-lax life.

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LLMom
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Posted: Jan 04 2010 at 11:45am | IP Logged Quote LLMom

Trish, Thanks for the link for the 20 questions. Lots of reflection. Molly, vocalizing or writing something down is the first step. Take those goals and divide them into daily or weekly managable activities. One of my hobby goals is to learn to knit socks. So I wrote on my daily planner 3x this week to work on my socks. I also put that I am going to jog three times (wrote those in on the days) and do muscle toning/stretching on 3 other days. You can do the same with decluttering. Pick a room for the week (or 2 if you need). Then pick something in that room each day (say a drawer or shelf) and set the timer and declutter. Turn on some music, sing and dance while you do it. You may even entice a few children to help! I know you have heard this stuff before so just a little reminder (for myself as well )

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SuzanneG
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Posted: Jan 04 2010 at 2:15pm | IP Logged Quote SuzanneG

teachingmyown wrote:
The walls are dirty and colored on, with various nicks and dings, but wouldn't it be a waste of time to paint them before all the kids are 8?


No!!!!! It's not a waste of time! This is SO WORTH IT, Molly! I am in re-paint-mode and it's SO INVIGORATING! (lots of work, too....but worth it to me).    It makes everything so much better. Not only re-painting, but choose a couple new colors!!!

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greengables
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Posted: Jan 08 2010 at 12:53am | IP Logged Quote greengables

I just came across this thread and decided to add my goals as the idea (having goal categories)was quite similar to what I posted about several days ago.   I still feel very new to posting here so I hope adding this (which happens to be a blogpost) is okay.



January 5th , 2010

I begin my new journal today with new hopes for keeping it up for the benefit especially of advancing my endeavor to do good.   I have so many dreams in mind of plans for improvement, but especially in mind are my goals to be a better wife and mother and most importantly to be a better child of God.

I have decided upon, I think eight, or was it seven areas of enjoyment and areas of focus that may help me in my journey. I focus on these because of the hope of order and joy and good they may bring. This list was generated as I was planning out 2010 school goals and trying to decide how to motivate the children to get up, get organized, etc… I decided that there were 8 or so things that I would love to do each day. I then asked the children, “What would you like to have time for in your day - EACH DAY?” Following is my list of items I enjoy and/or would like to do or Need to do in order to help me in my daily duties.   Except the first, the order is not necessarily “IN ORDER“.
GOALS:
1. Focused and Regular Prayer Life
2. Sewing
3. Dejunking
4. Gardening
5. Mothering/ Teaching/Training
6. Cooking
7. I will get back to this when I remember!J Oh yeah, JOURNALING was one of them.
8. There still may be another. Oh, another goal was READING!
9. There may be more. SLEEP? Yes, important for a mother though I am off to a horrible start on this one!
10. I added this after my post. It was on my original MENTAL list, but never made it to my original post.

MISC JOURNALING:
In my journaling, I want to regularly do at least two things and I may think of more as I go. In the past I have journaled on paper. I am going to try computer journaling this year. Does anyone do this?
1. What are some of the things I did today.
1. In the home,….
2. With the children….
3. On the farm,…..
4. How current goals are going….


HABITS to form! Current habit for myself and children for the next two months - Habit of Obedience! (Few commands with prompt, cheerful, and exacting obedience)
No nagging or bribing on my part!
We’ll see how this goes! Can you tell I am reading Laying Down the Rails?

JOURNALING ABOUT MY GOALS AND MISC JOURNALING
GOALS:
1. So far so good - for the past few days. I am using the morning prayers from my Grandmother’s Missal to aid me each MORNING in my daily prayers.
2. Sewing - I have been embroidering LOTS and LOTS lately. (This evening I embroidered names on 4 hand towels. DD will be FIVE tomorrow and she will have three little girls guests for cake and ice cream. I added the towels to the goody bags we have prepared for them.)
3. De-junking - NOT doing so good here. There’s always tomorrow.
4. Gardening - Oh, I better water my plants tomorrow. No outdoor garden right now. Oh well except our strawberry plants which DH added mulch to over the weekend.
5. Mothering/Teaching/Training: Prayer Life begging God’s help first and foremost. Also reading Laying Down the Rails. Working on staying focused on children’s curriculum and goals for helping them progress - Not just academic here!
6. Cooking - Trying to begin a plan here! Thanks to my DIL Mary Clare, we had a wonderful roast (one of our freezer pets) and potatoes.
7. Journaling - Yeah, I have begun again - this time utilizing the computer.
8. READING- Besides Laying Down the Rails, I am reading a book a dear friend gave me after a difficult day at Mass (with the children) entitled Eleven, Thank God. Cute book and quite fitting as I too have eleven children on this earth - THANK GOD! AND I forget the name of the other book right now, but it is good! HUMMMM???
9. We’ll see, but one area of importance will most likely be sleep as it is now 6:22 a.m. and I confess I never went to bed unless you count laying with the baby until he fell asleep. As I gaze out the upstairs window toward the East, I see the early morning winter light visible through the leafless branches. HONEY, please forgive me. I know this is a pet peeve of yours and already I have been unfaithful to my first goal of new habits - OBEDIENCE! You know I would never have done this had you been home, but I miss you sooooooooooooooooo and I have soooo many thought and goals I wanted written down. I will go to bed early tonight!


1. What are some of the things I did today. Today and yesterday, I focused a LOT on school especially with my young son who is a slower reader!
1. In the home,….The children watched a movie as tomorrow is not a school day due to DD’s birthday - We never do school on birthdays if the child is a student at home.
2. With the children….Oh, I took DD 4 yr old shopping and HER cake was waiting on her. She loves princesses and asked if she could pick out her cake. Imagine her delight and my surprise when Walmart had a beautiful cake with three 3-D princesses on it. The lady in the bakery kindly added her name on the cake after Happy Birthday and off we went!
3. On the farm…..Very cold… While we were out, we stopped by the Feed store to check into a way to keep water from freezing - FOR chickens especially.
4. How current habit goals are going…. NOT GOOD AT ALL in the sleep category. But I can be sure to be tired tonight!   I am OFF to morning prayer. I look forward to a wonderful day with renewed strength in God’s grace. No school today, but cleaning for the 12:30 birthday party!

Blessings,

Jill
I would add a link to my blog, but though I have tried I still have NO idea how to do this.





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mary
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Posted: Jan 08 2010 at 6:42am | IP Logged Quote mary

i love to make goals for the new year. i've been slow at putting them down this year and this thread is helping me to think about them. thanks, greengables for your ideas, i love the idea of online journaling. do you use a website for this or are you just using a word document?
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LLMom
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Posted: Jan 08 2010 at 6:51am | IP Logged Quote LLMom

blogs are great ways to journal your days.

Greengables, thanks for sharing. These are wonderful ideas and some similar to how I am setting up my goals.

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Posted: Jan 08 2010 at 8:04am | IP Logged Quote drmommy

OOOO, these are good.

Goal: Family prayer time earlier than bedtime...seems a lot of distractions happen at this time for some reason.

Journal (always wanted to do this, but would rather read instead! But so important to do).

Walk more.

Keep my mouth shut. I can get super enthusiastic at things and love humor, but then my opinions (which no one asked for) comes spurting out. Then I have to apologize. I am so going to work on this in 2010.
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greengables
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Posted: Jan 08 2010 at 1:22pm | IP Logged Quote greengables

Mary,
I am glad some of you ladies liked this idea. I am excited about it. Since I don't have Word on my computer yet, I just use my microsoft Works Word Processor. I find I will be able to keep it organized and add parts to my blog easily or copy and paste elsewhere. I am still new to this - NO EXPERT HERE! Is there someone else that journals this way?

Blessings,
Jill

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stacykay
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Posted: Jan 08 2010 at 1:33pm | IP Logged Quote stacykay

I was just discussing this with my dearest friend, who is down in FL. She said she has kept a small notebook, storing it with their Christmas things, and every New Year's day, they go over and record their favorite memories, books, whatever of the previous year, and also what they would like to work on or do in the coming year.

I am going to take some time to look at all of your ideas and the links. Thanks for the motivation!

God Bless,
Stacy in MI
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