Happy New Year!

This is a picture of one of the fireworks we lit off on New Years Eve.  It was below zero and we were all outside freezing our tails off in the middle of the night. Only in Idaho!

Happy New Year!

I am really sad that 2010 is already gone! It was a really interesting year. It was both exciting and exhausting. I learned a lot and I cried a lot. But, overall, it was a good year.

In church on Sunday, our dear Young Women's president gave a really good lesson on Eternal Perspective. It was a great lesson and it's really made me think quite a lot. I love being part of the Young Women program. I had forgotten how much goal setting and spiritual progression is taught at that age. It's funny how growing up sort of changes things. I feel like most of my days are a complete blur and although I know this isn't completely true, it feels a lot like I'm stuck in an endlessly repeating day. Wash the dishes, wash the laundry, pick up the toys, etc. I love being a mom and I wouldn't trade staying home with my kids for anything in the world. I'm exactly where I want to be and I feel incredibly blessed and thankful.

That being said, I also feel like in the midst of all of the laundry and the dishes, I can take time to improve myself and become a better person. So, being that it's the new year, I decided to set some goals and try to make 2011 an even more incredible year. I normally don't really make New Years resolutions - I have a long track record of not keeping them. I really struggle with structure and would rather just live my day the way it goes instead of planning every minute.

So....I have a plan and hopefully having this blog will help me not only be accountable, but motivated. I've set goals in a couple of different areas and I plan to blog at the end of every month reporting on my progress. I apologize in advance if this sounds completely boring and dreadful to read. Please humor me and skip to the end where it says "comments" and tell me that I can reach all my goals. I need all the motivation I can get at this point.

Yesterday morning, according to weather.com, it was -9 outside. I hate it when it's that cold, but it's so beautiful when all the trees get frosted over. This is our willow tree from our backyard.

Home & Family

• Take time to enjoy our kids. Sometimes I feel like I'm so busy that several days at a time feel like one big blur. I want to take time to slow down and be with our kids.
• I want to focus on one room of our house every month and clean/organize that room. (obviously clean the other rooms too, but really focus hard on one room)
• By the end of the year, earn an average of $1000 per month by working from home. This might sound crazy...and it may very well be. But, let me explain a little of my reasoning. We have this neatly organized "get out of debt" plan (and I do realize that posting this to my blog is confessing that to the world - WE HAVE DEBT!) Anyway....we want to get out of debt. Our plan is a really great plan if only we could execute it. But, in order to execute it, we have to have a little something called money. So, I want to help do my part and I'm very grateful because I've been blessed with many talents that have allowed me to work at home and generate income while still being a mom. This goal to me seems a little daunting, but I'm almost 1/2 way there already, so I think if I work hard enough, I can do it.

Spiritual

• Work on my Young Woman award - the Young Women have a schedule this year that has a value associated with every month. My goal is to follow along with the Young Women's program and work on that value each month
• Read the Book of Mormon - which also goes with the goal above....this has to be done in order to get the award.
• Attend the temple once a month - I have a dear friend who is willing to trade babysitting with me so we can both take turns attending the temple, and I have yet to take advantage of that. No more. I'm going!
• Be a better teacher - Per Elder Holland's instruction, I want to read my lessons at least a week early.
• Be a better visiting teacher.

Myself

• Exercise. I'm not necessarily going to set a weight goal or a specific workout schedule. My plan right now is to exercise every nightish before bed. I know the exercising at night thing doesn't work for everyone, but it really wears me out to exercise and it helps me sleep better at night.
• Blog more. Our poor, poor neglected blog. There are so many things that happen that get forgotten because I haven't been taking time to record them. My track record the last couple of months has only been once. No more! My goal is to blog at the very least once a week. I have some ideas of how I'm going to do this, but again....let's just see how it goes.

In order to accomplish my yearly goals, I've decided to set monthly goals. And, to keep me on track with my monthly goals, I decided to start a new blog to help me.  It'll be more like a journal, so if you want to read it you can, but I promise, it'll probably be completely boring and totally not worth reading. This way I won't clog this blog with all my goal setting and progress.

Happy New Year, everone!!!