2014 - The Year of Transformation!!

2013 was a long year for me, and for the family in general.  Lots of changes happened, hard decisions made, mountains climbed and valleys walked through (though it felt more like all mountains) and continued change for myself.  I haven't gone into great detail on my blog, because it just doesn't feel right to air a lot of that "stuff", but trust me, it has been one long year of learning...

This year, 2014, I have no resolutions...

I have a word:

TRANSFORMATION

I am looking forward to watching my finances transform.  I am already on the path and can see the changes starting.  Budgeting, being creative when I need an expensive item (I bought a car on payments, with no interest, from my amazing mechanic!!), landing some kind of permanent contract at work and being able to support my family myself, not having to rely on anyone else.

I can't wait to see the transformation in my home. Selling our house and renting or buying a new place for us. A fresh start and being out of limbo finally.

My own, personal transformation.  The chance to see myself as an individual, a successful person in every area of my life. To not have to be "attached" to anyone, because I am just fine on my own!  To change my expectations of people so I am not "let down".

Relationships are going to be transformed.  I want to be able to build new relationships with people who share the idea of mutual respect.  To find relationships with people who I can have real conversations with, and who "get me".  Relationships outside of my current circle of friends...time to expand that line!!  To continue working through the relationships with my kids, to show them that I respect them and to keep the lines of communication open...and we are already on that road now!

I want to be able to bless others.  Like I want to be able to "BLESS THE SOCKS OFF" people.  I want people to wonder why and how I am able to do these things.  I want to transform my life so much, that people may wonder, but it will be evident that God is the one in control and is the one who is able to bless me so I can bless others.  I want to grow and transform in my relationship with God.

My health is a bit harder to tackle...

I really do have a desire to become healthier, to lose weight, to break bad habits...this is my year.  This is the time that I am going to be able to look things in the eyes and say NO, I am stopping this now!!  And I WILL be able to follow through and finish what I start. (I will need lots of encouragement and, you know that bad word?  Accountability...I will get there!)

So, while I don't see these things as resolutions, per se, I do see them as goals that will be achieved naturally as I start the year off with the right spirit.

This is my year of FREEDOM!!  As Shasher said to me:

  "2014 - a year of recovery and open doors baby!"

Monday Menu Planning...

In the spirit of making changes in the new year...cause we all do it, one way or another, we want to change our eating habits.  That means, less junk and more at home meals.  Oh, and no midnight runs to McDonalds!! 

Blog Dare Day 1 - Resolutions

I am going to add random pics on these posts:-) Faith showing off Hopes mad makeup skills.

I have decided to join the Blog Dare (blogging every day) at Bloggy Moms this year.  I like that I will be able to meet and connect with some other bloggers and look forward to the new community that this will be for me.

So, here is day 1.  I am going to start with the writing prompts, since I have been super busy lately.  Here goes:

Resolutions!

What is your resolution for 2011? Do you often make a resolution and not keep it? What is the longest you have kept a New Years resolution? What is your most often chosen New Years resolution? What do you think about New Years resolutions?

In the past I have made various resolutions and always felt like a failure, to some extent, when I have not kept up with it.  I had started making goals instead...and then the same things would happen and I would feel bad. 

This year I am not sure how I am going to handle this.  I like the idea of goals.  I just think that instead of big goals, that aren't quite reachable, I am going to pick some smaller goals.

So, first and foremost, I want to take a more active role in moving to a healthier lifestyle.  This may sound like a big goal, but when I say that I actually mean starting some exercise (not a regimented plan, just moving more) and paying more attention to the foods we eat (not a diet, or a drastic change, just being more aware of what we eat).  Health.

This year we would like to do some work around the house.  We have been here over 3 years now and it is time that we make it ours.  We want to start with the washer and dryer, moving it upstairs to the main floor.  We have the plan, we just need to get someone in to tell us how it can be done and what the cost would be. 

And the last goal, that is reachable, is going on a vacation.  I have already talked about this quite a bit here, so my regular readers will already know that hubby and I have planned a vacation.  He now has his week booked off and we are starting to look at deals.  It seems that the 2 choices for us are Cuba or Dominican.  This is something that we have never done since we have been married - go away for a week without the kids!!  It is definitely time...

And that is it for day 1 of the Blog Dare.  I am looking forward to this year long journey with this great community of bloggers.

Out With The Old, In With The New...

Happy New Year!! (A little late, but better then never:-)

Some of us make New Years resolutions and others of us can't be bothered. I fit into the latter category. In the past I have made resolutions only to have them broken. Then I feel like a failure and I get quite down on myself.

This year, I am bound to make NO resolutions...just some welcomed changes. Change is good, and I am preparing myself to go through some major changes in my life this year. At our church we used to do these goal setting sheets each year, and I thought they were a good reflection forward, for what we wanted to happen in our lives.

These sheets covered all the major areas of our lives, spiritual, social, financial, physical, emotional, home life, etc...I loved working through these things and finding out what I was desiring in my life.

I am going to work through some of these here each day this week. I figure it will give me some good content (or maybe really boring;-), but this is where I seem to get most of my work done:-)

Today I am going to look at my home life. What goals do I have? What is going well? What changes do I need to make to reach my new goals?

What is going well?

I think we have become better at organizing our lives. I use a daytimer regularly and now I am lost without it. LOL!! Our kids are learning that living in a slightly larger then average family requires them to take on some bigger roles then kids in other families may not have. I have tried to do little bits each day in the way of housework or cooking (NOT my fortes), with a little bit of success. All around though, we enjoy our family. We enjoy playing games with the kids, or going to movies. We enjoy each other, which is more then some families out there. Our house may not be the cleanest, but we are pretty well rounded in other areas, and I think that is ok.

What goals do I have?

I want our house to be more organized. In a practical way. Everything needs a place and we need to keep up on putting things away. I need to learn that it is ok to not have a lot of jackets for each kid, just in case...God will provide if and when we need another one. I have gotten to this point with clothes, just the jackets keep tripping me up;-) I would love to organize the basement with some special shelving, I really like the workbenches that are meant for garages. I don't necessarily have a garage that needs to be redone, but these workbenches could be used in our basement for so many other things. Rubbermaid also has some pretty cool units and storage solutions. If we had an unlimited amount of money, I would totally redo the basement with some of these items. But, for now we just need to come up with some creative ways to store our things. I also want to spend more time with the family, you can never have enough time. While I do enjoy my time away from them, I enjoy the quality time that we do get even more. My husband and I need to get more time away from the kids. We need to continue building our relationship, something that seems to get lost so easily in the hustle and bustle of having kids.

What changes do I need to make to reach these goals?

To start reaching our goals we need to schedule our time better. We need to make sure that when we commit to going out, or taking our kids out, that we follow through. Finding more free events would be helpful as well, as money isn't always readily available for "fun stuff". We are planning 2 vacations this year, one for the family and one for us. We will probably go camping with the kids, which will cost a bit, and we would actually like to leave the country for our vacation. Maybe Florida, Dominican, Cuba, Mexico? Not sure yet, still researching all the areas. In order to enjoy these times we need to start saving our money and really stick to a budget. We figure altogether we will need $3000-4000...so saving starts now!! For the organizing I would like to look at some different affordable options we have. Can we find any solutions that are free or very cheap? Will they last? We need to research what is out there and be creative with what we have. We also need to pare down on some of the "stuff" that we do have...less "stuff", less storage needed, what do we really need and what can we live without. We will be able to do this after we deal with the other areas that I am going to be working through this week.

Anhyhow, there is a glimpse into my first main goal for this year.

How do you handle New Years and "resolutions" or changes, or goals?

Year End Ponderings...

Well, the Christmas holidays have come and gone, quickly, I might add, and here I am thinking about this past year. Our successes, our failures, our happy times, our sad times. I think that altogether my/our year has been great.

This was a year of big steps for us. First year having a kid in high school, first year having a kid in Junior Kindergarten, first year for me to go back to school, a lot of firsts and big ones too!!

We have surpassed a lot of potential health issues. We have and are continuing to overcome many more health issues, in regards to Faith. We have, as a family, remained quite healthy (except for a few days over this past week).

We truly have been blessed beyond measure!!

I usually like to try to put together some Christmas/New Years (which ends up becoming a "Looking Forward" Spring update) to send to family and friends. I haven't managed to get around to that yet. I have been busy working and writing and learning and studying and mommy'ing'. I will get to that soon.

I am looking forward to this next year. I would really like to have some of a book written, at least started (past the first chapter), about Faith. I also would like to look into having the seizure book that I wrote, published and see if we can do something with it. There is nothing else out there like it right now. I also think, that when we see the outcome of the brain damage, there will be another book written, in a similar fashion, that we can share with people. I have learned that knowledge is power, in more ways then 1!!

With this writing bug going on in my head, I have been looking into some freelance writing opportunities. I am not sure how to navigate the scene/sites/networking factors that are out there. It seems like such a large prospect to wade through. There are all kinds of sites out there to do with it. I would like to look into something that I could manage in my spare time, that will earn me a decent amount of money and will give me a nice portfolio that I can share. Blog writing, article writing (which I have been trying my hand out at), eBooks (like the seizure one...how cool would that be in an eBook??) things that are small enough and easy enough to start with.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Any companies that you have had experience with? What is the pay like for someone like me? Is it even worth doing or looking into? I am so curious about this line of work. As I said before, the writing bug has taken me captive!! Who knows what this year will bring? Maybe I will be published one day??

Anyhow, Merry Christmas to everyone, Happy Holidays to all and Happy New Year to come!!