That Whole Resolution Thing

Do you do the resolutions? Do you resolve not to resolve? Personally, I set goals. I figure they are more attainable that way. I have some areas that I want to work on or continue to work on. Let me break them down for you.

House:

Keep it picked up - we have been doing a pretty good job at this one. I'd like to get it so we have the dishes almost completely caught up, the laundry almost completely caught up (I'm not deluding myself into thinking there will EVER be a point where they are both completely caught up, I live in a house of 7/8 people after all. Someone will always be using a dish or getting clothes dirty, it's the law of averages after all), and the office picked up.

Declutter/reorganize - This overlaps with a crafting goal because it means using materials that I have on hand, which will help declutter.

Deep Clean - The kitchen especially can use a deep clean and reorganization. This includes the back hallway/pantry area

Make progress on James' room. I'm not sure exactly what this will entail, it really will depend on our own funds, skill set, and when my dad is available to help us out. I know it will start with a deep clean of every surface in the room. It used to be a kitchen so it's kind of gross and wasn't cleaned well before we moved in.

Wall in the extra doorway in the Mid-Kids' (Jayden and Izzy) room.

Put up privacy fence. Fence materials will be bought with our Income Tax Return. We'll borrow a fence post hole digger from my dad.

Get a Super Yard Gate so that in the warmer months I can have the twins outside with me and not worry about them going where they shouldn't.

Gardening:

Get the gardens into the ground in a timely manner this year so that we can have fruit/vegetable harvests in the summer and fall.

Build at least 2 above ground vegetable/fruit boxes in the back yard. These will be for plants that grow above ground and/or take up a lot of room like melons and gourds, fruit, beans, and peppers.

Till the ground area for all below ground veggies (potatoes, carrots), tomatoes (they will use the fence for support), and other crops giving it a try like onions and garlic.

Plant at least one blueberry bush.

Seed grass early.

Till and maintain front flower and herb beds and back vegetable/fruit beds. This includes planting seeds and weeding as needed throughout the season.

Craft:

Use materials on hand to make the stockpiles diminish. I have plenty of yarn and scrapbook supplies and fabric to start and finish all kinds of projects.

Finish the multitudes of started projects and give them to the people I intended when I started it.

Learn to knit socks on DPN's

Have more pictures printed and scrapbook. I haven't scrapbooked in well over a year. It's something I enjoy doing but I just haven't done it. The kids also enjoy doing it and it's something we can do together.

Make more jewelry. I like doing it. Maybe at some point I'll start an etsy page, but we'll see how that goes.

Work on improving my knitting and crocheting techniques. Learn how to do 1 new stitch/technique each month.

Cooking:

Learn to bake a nice loaf of bread

Bake more

Learn some new recipes and get them in our monthly rotation.

Rotate the monthly shopping pattern with one month stockpile from Sam's and the next head to Meijer/WalMart to get what we need each week. This will allow us to use what is in our freezer over the next couple of months.

Cook with the kids regularly. This teaches them a good life skill, works on math and reading skills, and gets them helping.

Kids' Schooling:

Get them using the computer more. It's more interactive and engaging. This will be easier once I have a laptop (a planned purchase with our income tax return in Feb) so that I can work on the laptop in the living room and the olders can use the computer for schoolwork

Plan out a unit study and follow through with it at least twice a month.

Figure out how to use lapbooks and integrate them into our weekly work. This will go well with doing unit studies.

Work on the Feelings/Perspectives workbook.

Keep better track of their activities on the boards. This includes tallying points at the end of the week and having them "shop" in our prize box. I am also changing the board so that the week starts on Monday simply because we don't usually do any kind of "schoolwork" on Sunday.

Start utilizing all of the educational programming available with the Netflix. They usually find the programs really interesting and are learning things. Try to incorporate the programming into our weekly lessons.

Learn more ASL, even possibly take a class, and teach it to the rest of the family. Izzy is finally beginning to understand that motions are a way of communicating and I want to take full advantage of that.

Personal:

Work online more with either ChaCha or Amazon Hub. These two will allow me to get homeschool materials (that I have to pay for) as needed, get what craft materials I may need to finish a project, pay to print pictures, and help pad our income for expenses that come up between Jason's paydays.

Finish the SSI applications for James and Issac. Start researching SSI lawyers for when the denial letters come in.

Eat more fruits and vegetables.

Exercise 3-4 days a week. This could mean going for long walks, yoga, pilates, or wii workouts. To start with, I'll be focusing on yoga to strengthen and tone.

Take more pictures of everything. I feel like life is slipping by and there aren't enough pictures to document it.

Blog 2-3 times a week. Blogging helps me sit down and take stock of what I'm doing, what we're all doing, how we're doing, where we're going. I think that is important.

Talk and listen to the kids, all of them. No matter what it is that they are saying and if it bores me to tears. I want them to feel like they can come to me with anything so I need to show that I am willing to listen to everything.

Spend quality time with Jason on our kid free weekend each month. This means more than just being in the house together. I need to make time to spend with him, doing things.

Is this the year to be debt free? I don't know. However I want to work on paying down our debt. I want to get us living easily within our means so that we can also start having some savings. We are already on the road to doing this so it's a continuance kind of thing.

Stop self deprecating. Appreciate my value and worth. Know what it is that I offer to my family, to the world as a whole. Acknowledge my talents and faults and work to improve them both.

Un-Christmas each month. We (Jason and I) have decided that instead of one huge pile of presents at the end of the year, that we will split that pile up to 1-2 gifts each month. This will allow the gifts to fit into our budget better. Seasonal gifts (like bikes, skateboards, bubbles, chalk, etc) can be used at that time. Also, with the kids getting older, it will allow them to use gifts with their current interests in mind. We have found that likes and interests change within a 6 month period so buying something in May to use in December is hit or miss as to whether it will be liked/used. I bought a very small table top tree (on clearence for 1/2 off) for the kids to decorate with hand made ornaments each month. They'll wake up one day (a day chosen at random by me) and find their Un-Christmas set up for them on the dining room table.

I suppose that is all for right now. I've been thinking about these things over the past couple of days. Last year I tried to keep the goals simple, and I think I was successful. However I wanted more specifics this year, to give me better direction. I know these are year long things and can't be accomplished within a few days or even a few weeks.

Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season and the new year finds you in good spirits and health.

The New Year

Has come and gone and I'm a slacker. Oh wait, I'm NOT a slacker, I've just had a busy "real life" lately. Now that the holidays are gone things might settle down. Though they may not. The twins are 5 1/2 months old which means they are awake more durning the day which means they need and want more during the day which, in turn, means I have less time to do things on the computer.

Anyone have New Year's Resolutions? Have you broken them off yet? I wouldn't say that mine were "resolutions" really. Just goals. I've decided that this is my year to be more actively involved in life. I have 3 Big C's and an E and I think everything stems off of them. Cooking, Cleaning, Crafting, & Exercise. Just to do them more. The Cooking and Exercise makes for a healthier me, and a healthier family. I know that once it gets warmer, I'll drag the family along. As it is, I'm trying to organize a Walking Club with our homeschool group to start up once the temps are more consistently in the 40's, so mid to end of March. I'm also trying to organize a Craft Club, to do twice a month. The big inhibitor in that one is finding a location, though I think we may be able to use a room at one of the library branches.

Jason is being considered for a move to a different department at WalMart. It would be full time and quite possibly 3rd shift. The 3rd shift would be nice simply because it would mean an extra $1 an hour. He keeps getting talked to about it, but it hasn't happened yet. He keeps mentioning it to let "The Powers That Be" know that he is still interested. We are hoping that that takes place soon.

I have pictures from Christmas to post. And some that I did of Abbey. And some of Jack. It just seems like I've been out of it for quite some time now and I'm trying to find the swing of things again.

In my crafting goal, I finished a hat I was knitting for Abbey. It's made out of Pink Fun Fur. It's a little on the big side, and very stretchy, but very cute. So I'll leave you with the pics of her for right now. Enjoy. Prayers and blessings and I hope you all are getting back in to the swing as well.

Clarification

And more Rambling. After all, what else is there?

Ok, the clarification. Yes, I'm pregnant. We've known since the beginning of December. Given my history, we played "wait and see". At the moment, I am 8 weeks and 3 days along. I'm due August 12, though I think I'll have the baby around the 25th of August.

I don't know what we are having. I think it may be a boy, however I was very wrong about Izzy, so who knows. We have names in mind that we would like, however nothing is really set in stone until we know what the baby is. Odds are, we'll find out around the end of February or the beginning of March. I'm not in a big rush to find out. I haven't bought anything for the baby, though I've looked. Part of it is because I want to see the baby on an ultra sound or at least hear the heart beat first. The other part is it is ALL either BOY or GIRL. The middle ground no longer exists it seems. Why is it that I HAVE to dress my boy in all blue and brown and my girl all in pink? It seems wrong and out of place to me at least.

My poor van. My poor poor van. The axle and tie rod on the passenger side need to be replaced. We have taken to driving the van as little as possible. We are nursing it along until we get our income tax return in, hopefully, February. I can take the bus to a lot of places, or walk. It'll be good for me to get up and moving like that more often. We'll use the van only when ABSOLUTELY needed. As it is, I'm not sure if I'll be able to go pick up Katy at the end of January. I am going to talk to my sister about using her car, but she may not be available.

It'll cost us less to repair the van, it also needs a tune up, and possibly some transmission work, than to buy a new one. The van has about 140,000 miles on it. It's old, a 1999. The only way we could afford a new van would be to get one that has payments. That is bad. We don't have payments now and we really can't afford them.

I left our camera at my mom's house when were there for the Christmas festivities. We were very neglectful in taking pictures as it was, so we have none of the kids opening their gifts. Oh well. My sister will pick it up for me on the 10th, I hope.

That's all for now. Oh, I do consider growing a human a New Year's resolution. I resolve to make it to the end of the pregnancy and give birth to a human being. Seems like a good one to me! Prayers and blessings everyone. Have a great weekend.

My New Year's Resolution

I'll explain more about this later, however I'll leave you with this pic.