With the new year, we have a new flow to our day. It's pretty similar to what we were doing before, but I've tweaked some things and added a few habits to help me reach my goals for the year.
Ben and I have started going to be at 10 pm and waking up at 6:30 am together. We give ourselves about ten minutes to wake up, use the bathroom, drink water, etc. Then we do ten to fifteen minutes of yoga together. We find a video on YouTube to follow along with and love it. It's easy enough that it's not hard to get out of bed to do it, but we always feel so good afterwards and it really sets the tone for my morning.
After we finish our yoga, we have lemon water. I say prayers and plan my day, then write in my journal while I drink it. Then I write in my novel for about half an hour, until I get the girls, while I eat a balance bar.
I get the girls around 7:30 and get them something to eat (usually fruit and a balance bar) and turn on nursery rhymes for Rylee. Then I exercise. I do hit exercises, so I'll do an exercise and then work on clearing out the dishwasher until I can breathe easily again and then do another exercise. I usually do four to six rounds. Sometimes I do arms (with things like push ups), lower (jumping squats and lunges), abs, cardio, or practice Irish dance. It depends on what I feel like doing that day and how sore I am from previous exercises.
Once I'm done with exercising and dishes, I make eggs for Ben and I and get the girls more food. I eat and then get ready for the day (and shower if needed), while the girls finish eating and are still watching nursery rhymes.
Once I'm ready for the day, we turn off the nursery rhymes and I get the girls going on getting themselves ready for the day while I finish cleaning the kitchen. Then I do the girls' hair and we're all ready for the day in a clean house.
We usually finish this around 9:30 or 10:00. Then we start our homeschool. We keep things really simple so that we can be consistent with it. We focus on reading. I pick a book Rylee will like, one that Parker wants, and we read out of The Friend magazine. Then Ashtyn reads me a book. Right now we're focusing on pre-level 1 and Dr. Seuss books. After she reads to me for five to ten minutes, I pull out the chapter book I'm currently reading to them (currently, we're reading the first Harry Potter book).
After reading, we do journals (I write as they dictate what they want to say and then they can draw a picture in their journal if they want) and a homeschool activity. Our activity varies widely from day to day. I have a couple places online where I collect activity ideas (email and Pinterest) to choose sometimes. These might be things like making trails out of pillows we try to balance on or throwing pom poms into cups. Sometimes we do worksheets or crafts. Sometimes, the girls simply want to draw or play, which I'm totally fine with. On Fridays, our activity is chores.
We then hang out until lunch. A lot of times the girls will ask for different music to dance to (Parker loves ballet music, Ashtyn loves What Does the Fox Say), or just do independent play.
We do lunch around noon. We've been doing sandwiches for the girls lately and salads for Ben and I. This is also when we do supplements. After lunch, it's nap time. I take Parker and Rylee up to put them down and Ashtyn has a quiet time doing something like a puzzle or perler beads. I try to take the chance to read while they are napping, but I'll also do things that are hard to do while Rylee is awake (like chores where I need to go outside or in the basement).
On Wednesdays, I have a presidency meeting for my new calling in Young Women's and Ashtyn comes to that while the younger girls are napping.
Parker doesn't usually sleep anymore (unless she's sick), and I get her at 2:30. Then Ashtyn and Parker play outside if it's not too cold. When they come in, I let them watch Fancy Nancy, their newest favorite show. Rylee usually wakes up around 3:00 or 3:30 and I get her a snack when she wakes up.
This is the hardest part of the day for me. Because I take the break to read and the girls are just watching their show, it's really hard for me to get up and be productive again. I'm not sure how to solve this problem yet.
This is when I'm supposed to get up and make dinner though. We do dinner around five or five thirty and then we do Come Follow Me (our current scripture study manual) right after.
After dinner, lately we've just been hanging out. If Ben and I are having a hard time, we turn on a movie or a Spider-Man cartoon for the girls. If not, we might draw together, get a tea party (with water) for the girls, do play dough, or just hang out. A lot of days, Ben will do perler beads with Ashtyn, and sometimes he plays a video game like Untitled Goose Game or Let's Go Pikachu. Sometimes we go visit Melissa, but we don't go to Ben's parents' very often in the evenings anymore because it's so hard to keep Rylee contained and entertained there.
On Wednesdays, I go to mutual at seven and Ben puts the girls down himself. On Fridays, we do family movie night, so we choose a movie we think everyone will enjoy (rather than something to simply entertain the girls) and have pizza.
We start getting the girls ready at 7:45 and they're all in bed by 8:30. After we put the girls down, we usually just get ready for bed and then read in bed together. We try to be going to sleep around 10:00, 10:30 at the latest. On Tuesdays, we do writing group from 8:30 to 9:30 and it's usually closer to 10:30 before we're going to sleep.
On Fridays, we don't have to go to bed early, so we usually watch something with popcorn after we put the girls down. We go to sleep by 11 most Fridays.
Saturday mornings are Ben's day to sleep in. I get up and get the girls food, and let them watch a movie while I read. After they're done, I clip their nails and then they get to play. We try to keep our Saturdays free and relaxed. Ben and I usually do our date night on Saturday; sometimes we do it during naps or after we put the girls down, sometimes we get a babysitter. It depends totally on what we have planned and how we're feeling. We finish Saturday with a bath for the girls before bed.
Sunday, Ben gets up with the girls and makes breakfast to give me a break, which I love. I stay in bed and plan my week. It's really nice to start off on the right foot and it gets me motivated to get up and get ready for church. We get everyone ready, get our lesson ready if we have one, and do our family scripture study in the morning. Now that we have church at noon, we try to get the girls some lunch before leaving for church. Then we survive church with three kids (during Rylee's nap) and get home as fast as possible to get Rylee down for her nap.
We put Parker and Rylee down, get Ashtyn doing her quiet time, and then Ben and I snuggle together for our own quiet time. After naps, we talk with my mom on video chat and then go to Ben's parents' house for a family dinner. We usually stay at the dinner until it's time to get the girls to bed. Once they're in bed, we get ourselves ready for bed and usually go to bed early after staying up just a little later over the weekend.
It's been a great routine that has really helped me reach a lot of my goals. Ben obviously has work and we have to try to keep up with Rylee (who loves to climb and get into anything she can right now). I also have a lot of projects I'm assigned as YW secretary and I also am currently keeping up a BookTube channel and an Bookstagram account. We definitely keep busy, but we're loving what we do and feel like we're building the life we want.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Habits and Choices
One of the most important concepts to understand in life, I believe, is the concept that we have the freedom to make choices, but not the freedom to choose the consequences of those choices. Many in the world today misunderstand this, or wish to subvert it.
I love this quote by Henry B. Eyring:
"When we reject the counsel which comes from God, we do not choose to be independent of outside influence. We choose another influence."
We are constantly being influenced. We constantly face choices. We not only have a choice in the moment, but we get to choose the things that influence those choices. Sometimes those things are so subtle, or we've just gotten so used to them, that we don't see them and feel that our choices are no longer ours; we feel out of control, and say things like, "It's just the way I am," or "I've tried to change, but it doesn't work."
I recently read a book on habits (Atomic Habits by James Clear). It was very useful and I would highly recommend it. One of the things the book talked about was the different aspects of a habit and what in our environment influences those habits. Habits need to be obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.
So, to create a habit, you come up with a cue (something that reminds you about the habit). This could be a previous habit (after I brush my teeth, I'm going to floss), a phone reminder, or an object in the house (Ben's cue to do the dishes at night is seeing the dirty dishes on the counter). This makes it visible so that you won't forget about the habit. I often make a phone habit, but I also try to the habit to something else, like dinner. If I do the habit enough, then I can stop the phone reminder and use the other cue alone.
To make it attractive, you have to make it something you enjoy. If you want to make a habit of eating vegetables, don't choose vegetables you hate. Choose ones you like, even if it's not salad! If you want to make a habit of exercise, choose something you enjoy. If you hate doing something, it's going to be a fight to do it every single time. That's not sustainable. It's much better to find ways to be striving towards a goal in a way that is enjoyable (or at least not unenjoyable) to you.
Then you need to make it easy, at least at first. If it's not easy, then there are going to be days you skip, maybe from day one! You don't create a habit of running by going out and trying to run 5 miles day one. You start with something easier, so that you can be consistent with it first.
One of the things about creating habits that the book talks about is, habits are about creating an identity for you. If you have habits you don't like, you probably see yourself in a certain way. If you binge eat junk food, you see yourself as an unhealthy person trying to be healthy. If you hit snooze on your alarm clock most days, you see yourself as not a morning person. If you start small habits that you do consistently, then every time you choose to do that easy thing, you are voting on your new identity. If you see yourself as a runner, it's going to be much easier to go running everyday. If you see yourself as a healthy person, you're going to consistently make healthy choices. If you see yourself as an unhealthy person (even subconsciously), then you are fighting against yourself when you try to create healthy habits. Start with something small to create the identity and the habit. Then you can add more in later.
You want to have lower expectations for the short term (a little bit is better than none, even if it's not a lot). BUT you have high expectations for the long term. You expect yourself to do it every single day, even if it's just a little bit. You have a streak, you don't miss twice (meaning if you miss running one day, you go the next no matter what), you do your goal a little bit at a time but consistently.
My goal for writing this year is to write every single day, but writing even just a sentence counts. 99% of the time, I am writing more. Most days, I write three hundred to eight hundred words and work on my writing for about half an hour before the kids wake up. But I know that there are days when I might only write a sentence, or a paragraph. There have been a couple days already where I worked on my writing for five minutes instead of thirty. And that's okay! The important thing is that I am going to work on it every day this year, and in that way, I'm going to make great progress and see myself as a writer, the type of writer who writes every single day.
The last part of a habit is to make it satisfying. This can be really simple, doing something like marking off a box in a checkbox after you do it or keeping track of a streak. After Ben and I do yoga in the morning, we reward ourselves with lemon water, which is very satisfying. One story in the book was of a salesperson who had a jar of paper clips and an empty jar. Every time he made a sales call, he got to move a paperclip from one jar to the other. That was his way of making it satisfying.
To break a bad habit, you do the opposite. You hide it. I only go to Wal Mart and do Amazon orders once a month. This is how I make spontaneous shopping invisible for myself. You make it unattractive. This is what parents are trying to do when they give immediate consequences to their kids' misbehavior. You make it hard. This can be as simple as making yourself resign into Facebook every time you open it. And you make it unsatisfying.
A lot goes into habits (I would highly recommend the book, as it goes into more depth and talks about more). A lot goes into the choices we make. I love that we are in control of so much of our lives. I love that there are tools and information out there that help us improve our lives and our choices. I know that Heavenly Father wants us to continually be improving and becoming better and I'm so grateful for His faith and trust in me to do that.
I love this quote by Henry B. Eyring:
"When we reject the counsel which comes from God, we do not choose to be independent of outside influence. We choose another influence."
We are constantly being influenced. We constantly face choices. We not only have a choice in the moment, but we get to choose the things that influence those choices. Sometimes those things are so subtle, or we've just gotten so used to them, that we don't see them and feel that our choices are no longer ours; we feel out of control, and say things like, "It's just the way I am," or "I've tried to change, but it doesn't work."
I recently read a book on habits (Atomic Habits by James Clear). It was very useful and I would highly recommend it. One of the things the book talked about was the different aspects of a habit and what in our environment influences those habits. Habits need to be obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.
So, to create a habit, you come up with a cue (something that reminds you about the habit). This could be a previous habit (after I brush my teeth, I'm going to floss), a phone reminder, or an object in the house (Ben's cue to do the dishes at night is seeing the dirty dishes on the counter). This makes it visible so that you won't forget about the habit. I often make a phone habit, but I also try to the habit to something else, like dinner. If I do the habit enough, then I can stop the phone reminder and use the other cue alone.
To make it attractive, you have to make it something you enjoy. If you want to make a habit of eating vegetables, don't choose vegetables you hate. Choose ones you like, even if it's not salad! If you want to make a habit of exercise, choose something you enjoy. If you hate doing something, it's going to be a fight to do it every single time. That's not sustainable. It's much better to find ways to be striving towards a goal in a way that is enjoyable (or at least not unenjoyable) to you.
Then you need to make it easy, at least at first. If it's not easy, then there are going to be days you skip, maybe from day one! You don't create a habit of running by going out and trying to run 5 miles day one. You start with something easier, so that you can be consistent with it first.
One of the things about creating habits that the book talks about is, habits are about creating an identity for you. If you have habits you don't like, you probably see yourself in a certain way. If you binge eat junk food, you see yourself as an unhealthy person trying to be healthy. If you hit snooze on your alarm clock most days, you see yourself as not a morning person. If you start small habits that you do consistently, then every time you choose to do that easy thing, you are voting on your new identity. If you see yourself as a runner, it's going to be much easier to go running everyday. If you see yourself as a healthy person, you're going to consistently make healthy choices. If you see yourself as an unhealthy person (even subconsciously), then you are fighting against yourself when you try to create healthy habits. Start with something small to create the identity and the habit. Then you can add more in later.
You want to have lower expectations for the short term (a little bit is better than none, even if it's not a lot). BUT you have high expectations for the long term. You expect yourself to do it every single day, even if it's just a little bit. You have a streak, you don't miss twice (meaning if you miss running one day, you go the next no matter what), you do your goal a little bit at a time but consistently.
My goal for writing this year is to write every single day, but writing even just a sentence counts. 99% of the time, I am writing more. Most days, I write three hundred to eight hundred words and work on my writing for about half an hour before the kids wake up. But I know that there are days when I might only write a sentence, or a paragraph. There have been a couple days already where I worked on my writing for five minutes instead of thirty. And that's okay! The important thing is that I am going to work on it every day this year, and in that way, I'm going to make great progress and see myself as a writer, the type of writer who writes every single day.
The last part of a habit is to make it satisfying. This can be really simple, doing something like marking off a box in a checkbox after you do it or keeping track of a streak. After Ben and I do yoga in the morning, we reward ourselves with lemon water, which is very satisfying. One story in the book was of a salesperson who had a jar of paper clips and an empty jar. Every time he made a sales call, he got to move a paperclip from one jar to the other. That was his way of making it satisfying.
To break a bad habit, you do the opposite. You hide it. I only go to Wal Mart and do Amazon orders once a month. This is how I make spontaneous shopping invisible for myself. You make it unattractive. This is what parents are trying to do when they give immediate consequences to their kids' misbehavior. You make it hard. This can be as simple as making yourself resign into Facebook every time you open it. And you make it unsatisfying.
A lot goes into habits (I would highly recommend the book, as it goes into more depth and talks about more). A lot goes into the choices we make. I love that we are in control of so much of our lives. I love that there are tools and information out there that help us improve our lives and our choices. I know that Heavenly Father wants us to continually be improving and becoming better and I'm so grateful for His faith and trust in me to do that.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
The Beauty of being a Tired Momma
We had an incident this week where Parker had diarrhea and a really full diaper. It leaked out all over the living room floor, onto Ben's new shoes, and then there were footprints of it through the kitchen as Parker came to tell me what happened.
Luckily, because it wasn't on carpet, it was a fairly easy clean up, and Parker was happy because she got to play in the tub. And Ben was happy, because I was actually supposed to be running an errand when it happened, but luckily happened to be home, so he didn't have to clean it up.
The incident got me thinking. There are hard moments as a mom ... as in really, really hard moments. Labor, waking up in the night, cleaning up throw up all day long, potty training and potty training regressions, cleaning up the room when kids draw in their poop all over everything. I've had hard days and harder nights.
But the thing is, the hard moments, for me usually, aren't what make parenting so hard. Sometimes the day in, day out, is what makes it so draining, so exhausting, so overwhelming.
When you get your kids food first, then get yourself food, and before you're even finished getting yours ready, they're clamoring for more.
When you have to get three kids' shoes and jackets on, and then load them into the car, trying to actually get them into their car seats (this get infinitely harder as they learn to walk and climb into the car on their own), and buckle them up.Then you have to undo all their buckles when you get to the store or the bank, keep track of them while trying to do your errand, and then get them all in the car again, in their car seats again, and buckled again. It's honestly the most exhausting part of my day when we run errands.
There are many moments like this, but honestly the hardest part of motherhood is the constancy of the kids' needs. They need someone to get them up and out of their rooms, give them food, get them ready if we're going anywhere, give them some sort of attention, give them more food, clean them up, give them more food, give them a nap and a chance to rest, give them more food, give them more attention, give them more food, more attention, and then put them to bed. And that's the bare minimum. That's not including things like, scriptures and gospel learning, reading together, homeschool, fun activities like baking and playing outside, play dates, crafts, keeping the house semi-clean. And that's just the day to day stuff. It doesn't include the hard days of being sick, traveling, trying to find a babysitter for date nights, or the hard stages like potty training or trying to get a three year old not to whine or chasing a toddler around.
No wonder parenthood is exhausting! No wonder motherhood is so hard! And don't get me wrong, I really love being a mother. I love my children so much it hurts. I am proud of the sacrifices I make for them and am always wanting to be a better mother and find better systems to handle the things I talk about in this blog post. I do love it and I do appreciate the small moments that make all of it worth it.
Just today, I'm feeling tired. But maybe that's part of the beauty of motherhood.
Luckily, because it wasn't on carpet, it was a fairly easy clean up, and Parker was happy because she got to play in the tub. And Ben was happy, because I was actually supposed to be running an errand when it happened, but luckily happened to be home, so he didn't have to clean it up.
The incident got me thinking. There are hard moments as a mom ... as in really, really hard moments. Labor, waking up in the night, cleaning up throw up all day long, potty training and potty training regressions, cleaning up the room when kids draw in their poop all over everything. I've had hard days and harder nights.
But the thing is, the hard moments, for me usually, aren't what make parenting so hard. Sometimes the day in, day out, is what makes it so draining, so exhausting, so overwhelming.
When you get your kids food first, then get yourself food, and before you're even finished getting yours ready, they're clamoring for more.
When you have to get three kids' shoes and jackets on, and then load them into the car, trying to actually get them into their car seats (this get infinitely harder as they learn to walk and climb into the car on their own), and buckle them up.Then you have to undo all their buckles when you get to the store or the bank, keep track of them while trying to do your errand, and then get them all in the car again, in their car seats again, and buckled again. It's honestly the most exhausting part of my day when we run errands.
There are many moments like this, but honestly the hardest part of motherhood is the constancy of the kids' needs. They need someone to get them up and out of their rooms, give them food, get them ready if we're going anywhere, give them some sort of attention, give them more food, clean them up, give them more food, give them a nap and a chance to rest, give them more food, give them more attention, give them more food, more attention, and then put them to bed. And that's the bare minimum. That's not including things like, scriptures and gospel learning, reading together, homeschool, fun activities like baking and playing outside, play dates, crafts, keeping the house semi-clean. And that's just the day to day stuff. It doesn't include the hard days of being sick, traveling, trying to find a babysitter for date nights, or the hard stages like potty training or trying to get a three year old not to whine or chasing a toddler around.
No wonder parenthood is exhausting! No wonder motherhood is so hard! And don't get me wrong, I really love being a mother. I love my children so much it hurts. I am proud of the sacrifices I make for them and am always wanting to be a better mother and find better systems to handle the things I talk about in this blog post. I do love it and I do appreciate the small moments that make all of it worth it.
Just today, I'm feeling tired. But maybe that's part of the beauty of motherhood.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
My 2020 New Year's Resolutions
This year, instead of doing big goals at the beginning of 2020, I wanted to come up with some small, sustainable habits and systems to get me closer to the kind of person I want to be and the kind of life I want to be living.
Here are some of those changes I'm hoping to make.
Yoga in the morning
One thing Ben and I are doing together is being in bed by 10:00, going to sleep by 10:30, waking up at 6:30. When we wake up, we have ten minutes to check our phones, use the bathroom, etc. and then we do 10 minutes of yoga together. We've just been finding a relaxing, ten minute yoga YouTube video each day. It doesn't push us, but it's a great way to start the day.
My goals with this one are two fold. The first is to get to bed and wake up at a more consistent time this year. My second is to start seeing myself as someone who moves and exercises often. My third is to start off with something easy (so I'll actually do it) but motivating, to get me going on the rest of my morning routine. So far, yoga with Ben has been great at that.
Writing EVERY single day
I have a streak and I want to write every single day this year, even if it's just a sentence. I write right after doing Yoga with Ben in the morning, before the girls wake up. That helps me get more than a sentence in (I usually have 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted time to write). This is something I've been doing for quite awhile. The difference is the off days, when my routine is broken. If the girls are sick, or I'm sick, or we're traveling, or it's a holiday, or whatever the interruption is, I want to write at least a sentence every single day. I don't want to miss.
My main goal with this is I'm really trying to drill in my identity not only as an aspiring author and writer, but as the kind of person who writes every day, no matter what. Because consistency is my goal, how much I write on any given day doesn't matter, so I made the amount a low enough one that even if it's eleven at night and we're traveling, I will pull out my computer and still write that day.
Not Eat Pizza 3 Times a Week
Okay, so we didn't actually eat pizza three times every week in 2019, but we ate so much pizza. We had times when we would make pizza after the girls went down as a "special date", pizza for movie nights, pizza when we got sick, pizza when we didn't know what to do for dinner and didn't plan ahead enough, etc.
This year, Ben and I really want to cut back on that, for our health and our budget. We really like to buy pizza and want to continue to have it sometimes, just not as often. Our main system for this is we've come up with meals that are easy to make and easy to defrost that we can keep in our freezer. These include hamburgers and hot dogs (with homemade buns), sandwiches, spaghetti, taco soup, sloppy joes, chicken nuggets, and chicken pot pie. If I can keep some of these in the freezer and replace as needed, then the nights when we are starving (like getting home from traveling with no food in the house) or when I'm trying to figure out dinner at 5:00 (when we normally eat), we'll have something fairly healthy, yummy, and quick to pull out and make. That way we can reserve pizza for nights when we want to do something special, like movie night. I also want to make pizza this year more often, rather than buying it so much.
Come Follow Me as a family
We didn't do great with Come Follow Me last year, especially as a family. We're taking the new year and new program as a chance to change that. This year, we really want to focus on creating the habit together, so we're keeping our expectations really low. We're going for consistency.
Our goal this year (and I have a reminder on my phone for it) is to sit down together before or after dinner each day and open up to the lesson for that week. That's it. That's our goal. Open up the book. Of course, once we open it up, we'll do a lesson. But if we get interrupted or the kids are crazy or we don't have much time and don't do a lot, that's okay, because our goal is to simply get in the habit of opening up the book together.
Visit the temple once a month
I want to get to the temple every month this year with Ben. I have a day set aside each month to go, and I have a reminder on my phone the day before to find a babysitter, so that I won't forget.
Those are my main goals this year and the small habits/systems I am working on to make them happen. I am excited to see how I change as a person this year as I implement these small, simple changes.
Here are some of those changes I'm hoping to make.
Yoga in the morning
One thing Ben and I are doing together is being in bed by 10:00, going to sleep by 10:30, waking up at 6:30. When we wake up, we have ten minutes to check our phones, use the bathroom, etc. and then we do 10 minutes of yoga together. We've just been finding a relaxing, ten minute yoga YouTube video each day. It doesn't push us, but it's a great way to start the day.
My goals with this one are two fold. The first is to get to bed and wake up at a more consistent time this year. My second is to start seeing myself as someone who moves and exercises often. My third is to start off with something easy (so I'll actually do it) but motivating, to get me going on the rest of my morning routine. So far, yoga with Ben has been great at that.
Writing EVERY single day
I have a streak and I want to write every single day this year, even if it's just a sentence. I write right after doing Yoga with Ben in the morning, before the girls wake up. That helps me get more than a sentence in (I usually have 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted time to write). This is something I've been doing for quite awhile. The difference is the off days, when my routine is broken. If the girls are sick, or I'm sick, or we're traveling, or it's a holiday, or whatever the interruption is, I want to write at least a sentence every single day. I don't want to miss.
My main goal with this is I'm really trying to drill in my identity not only as an aspiring author and writer, but as the kind of person who writes every day, no matter what. Because consistency is my goal, how much I write on any given day doesn't matter, so I made the amount a low enough one that even if it's eleven at night and we're traveling, I will pull out my computer and still write that day.
Not Eat Pizza 3 Times a Week
Okay, so we didn't actually eat pizza three times every week in 2019, but we ate so much pizza. We had times when we would make pizza after the girls went down as a "special date", pizza for movie nights, pizza when we got sick, pizza when we didn't know what to do for dinner and didn't plan ahead enough, etc.
This year, Ben and I really want to cut back on that, for our health and our budget. We really like to buy pizza and want to continue to have it sometimes, just not as often. Our main system for this is we've come up with meals that are easy to make and easy to defrost that we can keep in our freezer. These include hamburgers and hot dogs (with homemade buns), sandwiches, spaghetti, taco soup, sloppy joes, chicken nuggets, and chicken pot pie. If I can keep some of these in the freezer and replace as needed, then the nights when we are starving (like getting home from traveling with no food in the house) or when I'm trying to figure out dinner at 5:00 (when we normally eat), we'll have something fairly healthy, yummy, and quick to pull out and make. That way we can reserve pizza for nights when we want to do something special, like movie night. I also want to make pizza this year more often, rather than buying it so much.
Come Follow Me as a family
We didn't do great with Come Follow Me last year, especially as a family. We're taking the new year and new program as a chance to change that. This year, we really want to focus on creating the habit together, so we're keeping our expectations really low. We're going for consistency.
Our goal this year (and I have a reminder on my phone for it) is to sit down together before or after dinner each day and open up to the lesson for that week. That's it. That's our goal. Open up the book. Of course, once we open it up, we'll do a lesson. But if we get interrupted or the kids are crazy or we don't have much time and don't do a lot, that's okay, because our goal is to simply get in the habit of opening up the book together.
Visit the temple once a month
I want to get to the temple every month this year with Ben. I have a day set aside each month to go, and I have a reminder on my phone the day before to find a babysitter, so that I won't forget.
Those are my main goals this year and the small habits/systems I am working on to make them happen. I am excited to see how I change as a person this year as I implement these small, simple changes.
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