A Resolutionary Life

Here's something you may not know about me -- I LOVE New Year's Resolution time.  Love it.  Why exactly do I love it so much?  I don't know, it's kind of hard to explain.  Being the extremist that I am, I tend to have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head at all times.  Aside from all the ideas and other clutter taking place in my brain, there are also millions of things to remember and to do and to stay on top of floating around there as well.  Whenever I start to feel overwhelmed and stressed about dropping the ball in various aspects of my life, it always helps me to make a list.  Any kind of list.  Whether it's full of "To-Do's" or just things to remember, goals or dreams and wishes.  Lists make things manageable.  Aside from getting it all out of my mind and onto paper, there is a tangible satisfaction that comes from crossing things OFF those lists once they've been accomplished.  

And then there's this tendency I have to wait until I have a metaphorical clean slate to write my life's story upon.  Surely I'm not the only one to do this, but it is just part of my nature to put off any new starts until there is a literal new beginning on the horizon -- whether that new beginning is the dawning of another day or the start of another month or {as is most often the case} the coming of a brand-new week.  I am forever waiting for Monday to make any real changes in my life.  

When you combine the commencement of a new year -- {the ultimate of fresh starts and do-overs} -- with the chance to make lists of things you want to do, well, that pretty much sings to my soul.  Never mind the fact that chances are highly likely I will never accomplish everything I have written down {I've already got 12 major bullet points going on plus 3-4 supporting goals asterisked beneath each one}, any kind of improvement is better than the alternative.  Helping my cause this year is that I've gone with very broad, almost un-quantifiable, resolutions.  For instance, it would be difficult to NOT "Do a better job feeding my Family." Hahaha.  Other examples from my list include: "Stay on top of stuff more" and "Work on Family History" and "Early to Bed, Early to Rise" {notice I didn't specify exactly what those times of "early" should be}.

Is my front-and-back filled page of resolutions a bit much?  Sure.  BUT -- here's the thing.  What I have learned about MYSELF {emphasis on this is ME and who I am} is that if I were to make a list with only one goal on it, by the end of the year I would probably have accomplished that one goal.  On the other hand if I were to make a list of a hundred goals, I might not complete all one hundred, but I would definitely accomplish a lot more than one. 

So there you have it.  My resolutionary life.  I haven't yet roped the kids into sitting down with me to spin out a dream session for the new year but it will come -- don't you worry.  Hahaha.  What I HAVE roped the kids into doing, however, is nothing short of miraculous.  As I made mention in my last post, this year heralds the beginning of a "No Junk January" revolution.  I created this concept to go under the broader category of "Do a better job feeding my Family" {other sub-categories include: cutting out processed food as much as possible, make 5 real meals each week, and try new recipes}.  Basically what No Junk January means is no treats, extra sugar, or junk food for the entire month.  I've also included time-wasting junk to be included in that definition and as such the kids are on an electronic detox for the month as well.  No TV, Wii, computer games -- nothin'.  Scott and I have agreed to make only a couple of allowances for that in the form of our Friday movie night (and that's only if chores have been satisfactorily done that day and optimally week) and POSSIBLY some electronics on Saturday if we can get everything else done that we need to. 

The results {at least thus far}?  Color me shocked and tickled pink.  I must have made the coming of these changes ABUNDANTLY clear, because no one has tried to fight me on it yet -- they have all basically accepted the fact that we are in major detox mode!  Hahahaha.  With all this extra time on their hands, they've resorted to all KINDS of fun new things to keep them busy.  Such as:

Art

 Grace's new desk set-up in her room.

 Just a few masterpieces she created while in her room yesterday where I made her spend the ENTIRE day because she was "feeling sick" and wouldn't go to school.  Hmmmm.

 From "Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy."  Isn't she really good???  She didn't trace this at all!

Playing Nicely with Each Other

 Sophie and Jane whipped out the crayons and coloring books yesterday after dinner and managed to play together really nicely for a good 5 or 10 minutes before things began to disintegrate.

New Projects

 Ethan and Grace have been bit by the cross-stitching bug.  Ethan more so than Grace.  I've been impressed that they've been able to do it slightly more independently than I thought possible.

 I'm thinking this owl is a bit more complicated and labor-intensive than she has the patience for right now.

Chores

 "If I do my chores, can I play with play-doh?" Jane asked of her own volition today.  Why yes, my child.  Yes, you can.  Hahahaha.

Don't be too impressed.  That whole "Stay on top of stuff more" goal spurred me to action in getting started with teaching her how to do chores.  I'm pretty sure the others were already doing more than one thing by her age, but we're baby-stepping here.  For the entire month of January, Jane's chore is to unload the dishwasher.  Isn't she adorable?

And that is that folks.  I'm sure the rest of the month won't be quite as smooth sailing as this first week, but enough positive changes have come about so far that I'm tempted to extend the junk ban for the rest of the year.  We'll see what the kids have to say at the end of January.  Hahahaha.