Not a cliché kind of person

Happy New Year! Yes, we made it through another year. Sinara 2010! Bienvenidos 2011! I have never been a fan of new year's resolutions. Call me a party-pooper, call me a rebel. Either way, I just don't like to jump on the band wagon and create a laundry list of resolutions that last about 10 days. I just like to beat to my own drum.

I do have to admit, however, that I agree we should take some time during the year to reflect on what went well, what didn't go well, what we could do better. It makes sense to do that little reflection exercise now. Now that we've gotten through the holidays, now that we've gone back to work and back to school, now that we can get back into our routine . . . it makes sense that we realign our goals and desires.

For our Family Home Evening discussion, we talked about our goals for the coming year. One of our goals is to read the Book of Mormon one time through as a family. We usually read at breakfast time; we've gotten off our schedule, but we are back on it! Our second goal is make sure we have family prayer at least every night. That's another one that we got on & off the track a few times throughout the year. So, we also shared with the boys one goal each that we as adults have for the year. We asked the boys if they could be helpful in keeping the family on track for the goals. They agreed. Neil continued to talk and Paden piped in that he had a personal goal as well. So cute. He said that his goal is to be kind and helpful. Awe . . . isn't that so sweet? Love that kid. Gunnar may or may not have a goal. I am not sure if he decided or committed to one or not. One idea for him is to work on having a positive attitude and the other was to fight less with his brother. (Paden and Gunnar definitely have issues spending day in and day out for days on end with each other couped up in the house.) Paden decided that Fischer's goal should be to have less fits (tantrums). Smart kid - I wonder if Fischer was paying attention! :)

So, we finished our discussion and went about our evening. The boys were playing video games - what's new?! I was going to do the dishes, but Fischer was being clingy. Eventually, we sent the boys to bed. About 20 minutes later, Paden came down stairs (in his adult-sized snuggie) and said to me, "I got out of bed for a special reason . . . we forgot to have family prayer." He's got a great memory! I am very thankful for Paden; he's a very wonderful kid.

Well, that's our rendition of new year's resolutions. I have a few more personal goals as well. I haven't had too many years in my life when I have felt like I really needed to have a resolution to lose weight . . . that I remember anyway. After Paden was born, I was pretty . . .well, not the size I wanted to be. I am really not so much hung up on the number on the scale as I am about the way that my clothes fit. OK, I am a little hung up on the letter on the tag of my clothes, but only a little. I don't recall making a resolution about it back then or anything, but I just finally decided to get off my duff and do something about it. So, about a year after Paden was born, I started losing weight and really got to a point where I felt good about myself. I was good for quite a while. Then along came Fischer. I could fit back into my clothes after Fischer, but I definitely didn't feel the same in them. Now, 19 months later, I am thinking I have put on 10-12 pounds more than after Fischer was born. Yeah . . . so now I am having issues with the number on the scale. My scale is having issues the number on the scale! Seriously. I am so stinking lazy, really. There are so many kind people that will say to me that it's OK because I work full time, I have three small boys, yada, yada, yada. I am thankful for those people. I am, really. The fact is that I do have some time in there somewhere to get some sort of non-lazy activities. I do have time. I'll fit it in. So, here's to Wii Fit Plus. Now, I am thinking that I am going to need a little more than 45 minutes on the Wii Fit Plus, however, I am so far from being in shape, it's definitely a good start. Two days in a row and my calves are SOOO sore. Do NOT underestimate the Wii Fit Plus! Also, do not underestimate the power of soda. Drinking soda has got to what's gotten me lately. So, I am going to finish off the last caffeine-free Coca-Cola Classic and lay off the hard stuff for a long time!

Well, that's all folks. How do you feel about new year's resolutions? Did you make new goals for 2011?