A New Year...a New Blog...a New Life.

Almost everyone makes a "New Years Resolution".  I have not been one to be big on them and if I do make one I tend to not keep to it.  I still am not making a "New Years Resolution" but, I do want to do some new things starting in 2012 and they already have begun.  
Anyone that knows me knows that I have lived an incredibly busy life the last few years.  It seemed like the only way I could survive was filling every minute of every day with something which usually kept me and my family away from home.  I have only in the last few months began to slow down and take a breath.  It really has been...fun!
Before I had Aidan I was working full time.  Whether it was Substitute Teaching or being a Customer Service Representative at my Grandpa's Insurance Agency, every day I was working.  As soon as Aidan came that all stopped.  Suddenly I am home every day and I love it!  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy teaching and I enjoy helping others with their insurance needs, but being home every day with Michaela and Aidan has been wonderful!

Now that I am home more often some of the things I hope to accomplish this year are:

1. Organization (a lifelong process):  I have always been a collector/accumulator of things which causes a lot of clutter.  I have also always liked the idea of organization and have tried several times to get organized but quickly get discouraged and the organization goes down the drain.  I wanted more immediate results.  So this is going to be a slow process, but my goal is to declutter my life a bit and have a warm and welcoming home.  As I journey through this organization process I am going to let you into my home.  You will get to see the transformation of my home...the before and after.                                                                                                                                                                                                               
2. Planning and Trying New Meals:  Before now I would leave home at about 8:00am and get home at about 6:30pm and be exhausted from my day so meals were quick and simple to say the least.  A common sentence from my mouth when I would get home would be: "What sounds good?"  I feel that planning meals ahead of time helps me save money and eat healthier.  So far I have done a decent job at planning the meals, there have been a few flukes but Dave commented that he enjoyed the meals I made.  That encouraged me to really want to do more with meals and not just have the same thing all the time.  I will share some of my meal plans with you, recipes and some meals that we enjoy.                                                                                                                                                                           
3. More Activities for Michaela:  Most of Michaela's time has been spent with Grandma Janice.  I have been so blessed to have my mother live near by and willing to watch Michaela while I worked.  Now that I am not working so much and have more time home with Michaela I want to do more fun activities with her.  For Christmas we did a countdown chain with a verse or Scripture Passage to read every day along with an activity to do.  Some of the things we did were: make angels, bake cookies to give to others, make a Nativity, sing songs, memorize verses, etc.  As we learn and have fun together I hope I can give you some ideas that you can use with the little ones in your life.

So these are 3 goals I hope to accomplish this year in my home and I hope that you can be encouraged by them and that you will be open to trying some of these ideas in your own home.

~ Bethany