It’s that time of the year when the majority of people start to think about what went right and wrong last year. We tend to think about the changes that we want to make in the months ahead. Over the years, I have approached this in various ways:
– Straight resolves/resolutions
– Have/Do/Be Lists (I write out 10 things that I want to have, do and be in the upcoming year. I even convinced my husband to start doing this one. He is sweet to humor me.)
– Dream boards (I cut out pictures of what I want my life to “look” like for the year.)
Normally, I do some combination of the three. For this year, I wrote about my “3 words” for 2010 on this post. Before coming up with those three words, I looked at the list of hopes for the new year that my family had done together. It was really cute to get the kids involved. There are 50+ things on the list, so I’ll spare you the details. A few that I wanted to share are:
-Sean added “not getting angry” to his list. Well, he does have a temper…
-When we were talking about “Careers”, to my surprise Michael chimed in that he wanted his own video game blog (?!) We compromised and I gave him his own little vlog (video blog) where I’ll post a weekly video of him talking about Rated “EC” or Rated “E” games. He was so cute giving his input as I set it up. Check it out: gamerkidvlog.com.
And
-I really want to make sure that my family life remains a top priority. The kids are getting older, so my husband and I are going to leave them overnight (for the first time ever!) while we go to a marriage retreat in February. I am very fortunate in that I am married to an awesome man and we have a light, fun marriage. I don’t want to take that (or him!) for granted though. Actually going on outside date nights was much better in 2009. I still noticed though that we were too flexible with switching our dates around in order to do other things that came up. The reality is that something is always going to come up if we let it. I’m much more “ruthless” this year regarding protecting our special dates in 2010!
Also, we have missed far too many family dinners together since school started in September. Now, my husband and I are just forcing ourselves to eat earlier or (at the very least) sit at the table while the kids eat. For me, it is my third favorite family bonding time of the day (walks to/from school and bedtime routine are the other two).
Your turn…
Do you make resolutions/resolves/goals/dreams/hopes/whatever you want to call it at the beginning of the year? If so, is there one that you would like to share?