New Year's Eve Traditions

Well, it's New Year's Eve!  Can you believe it?  What are you going to do tonight?

When I was growing up, we used to have a great party on New Year's Eve.  Now, we didn't invite a billion people over...it was always just our family and, every once in a while, a friend or two.  So, why am I calling it a great party if it was just us?  Well, one of the best parts about our New Year's party was that I was able to spend time with my family.

We would make all sorts of appetizers and goodies to snack on, like stuffed mushrooms, a cheese ball with crackers, spinach artichoke dip, chips and dip, small candies, fudge, cookies, mini quiches...ok, now my mouth is watering.

We played board games all night...and every once in a while I would WIN!

When it was almost midnight, we turned on the TV to watch the ball drop in Times Square.  Our whole family would gather around the TV, with our noise makers ready, and count down the last seconds of the year.

5...4...3...2...1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Suddenly, our house would be filled with laughing, banging, singing, clanging, shaking, popping, dancing, and occasionally crying (sometimes our loudness scared whoever was youngest at the time).  The explosion of sound would send chills through my body as I realized that it was a new fresh year.  I loved watching my dad lean over, kiss my mom, and whisper "Happy New Year."

We would then clink our glasses of sparkling cider, offering "Cheers!" to everyone in the house.

When things started to settle down inside the house, we would go outside to watch fireworks over the mountains, and fire crackers on our neighbors' driveway.  Dad would never fail to have a few boxes of snappers for us to throw down on the sidewalk.

Wow, remembering our New year's Eve parties is making me a little homesick.

This year, we just have our small family of four, but we can still have a great party.  The kids are napping now, but they know that when they get up, we will spend the evening baking, playing, and enjoying each other's company.

Of course, since the kids are still little, we're going to have "midnight" at about 7:30 or 8:00, but it doesn't matter...we will be together, having a marvelous time.

Have a wonderful evening!  I'll see you next year!

Keeping Track of my Resolutions

I needed to find a way to keep track of all of my New Year's resolutions.  So, I looked around to see what I could use.


This is what I found:

 

My mother-in-law gave me this "Mom's Planner and Organizer" for Christmas. (Thank you!)  You're supposed to put the names of everyone in your family at the top of each column. Then, you write down what each person has scheduled for each day of the month.

This will work perfectly for me, although I won't be using it quite like it is intended to be used.  As you can see, I started filling in the columns with my goals.  So far, I have a column for scripture reading and a column for exercising.

Each day, I can write down what I did for each goal.  If you look closely, I have already filled in my resting day for exercising, as well as a place to write my weigh-in each Wednesday (Weigh-in Wednesday).

I haven't decided what I'm putting in the other 3 columns yet.  I'll probably put The Love Dare and my classwork in 2 of them.

I'm really excited about this calendar because I can put it on my wall and it will be a physical reminder of all the great things I'm working on and all the progress I am making.

How will you track your progress this year?

Now what?

I have my list of goals and I've written sub-goals to help me achieve them...so, what do I do now?

I guess I'm going to look through all of my sub-goals and decide when I want each of them accomplished.  I will make a calendar and input all of my goals and sub-goals.  If I need anything (like a dream journal), I'll go to the store and make sure that I have it ready.

So, I need to make sure that I have everything I need and that I'm prepared for the new year.

2011 is going to be awesome!

Are you ready yet?

Fill up my dream journal

Ok, so this is my "last" goal for 2011.  I'll  probably come up with more later, but for now this is it.

It seems like I have tons of dreams.  Every morning, I wake up thinking about some strange thing I was dreaming about.  They are always so interesting to me, but then I get on with my day and I forget about them.

Several years ago, I started writing my dreams down when I woke up.  It was so fun to go back and read my old dreams.  Unfortunately, I only did this for a week or two and then I stopped.

I am totally going to start doing this again!

I love it when conversations turn to a dream someone had the night before because then everyone else starts sharing weird dreams that they have had.  It's interesting to hear how different everyone's dreams can be or how strangely similar they are.

Maybe, for one of my books next year, I will read one of those books about dream analysis.  Dream analysis seems kind of silly to me, but it's hilarious to look through a book and see what it's telling you your dream means.

So, how am I going to do this...?

• First, I need to get a special notebook to write all my dreams in
• Whenever I wake up, I need to immediately write down everything I remember about my dreams
• If, during the day, I remember something about my dreams, I need to write it down

Do you dream a lot?

Go out with my husband at least 12 times

I love going on dates and spending time with my husband!  Unfortunately, we almost never go out...just the two of us.

We have dates at home where we watch a movie, have dinner, or play a board game after the kids go to bed.  But we don't really go OUT on dates.

Before we moved, about 5 months ago, we lived near my parents and some of my brothers and sisters, so if we needed a babysitter, we usually asked them to help out.  But now we live away from family and that makes it harder.

We do have friends, but for some reason, I just feel badly about asking someone to watch my kids.

Well, in 2011, We are going to go OUT at least once a month.  So, I will need to:

• Research what fun things there are to do around here
• Talk to my friends to see who they use as a babysitter
• Schedule date nights with my husband
• Remind myself that it's ok to ask someone else to watch my kids because I need a break sometimes
• Make a babysitter folder, or something, with important information that the babysitter may need to know

What kind of dates do you like to go on?

Only one more week!

There is only one more week until 2011!

Are you ready?

Write a weekly meal plan

Lately, when I'm hungry, I'll walk into the kitchen, look through the cupboards, look through the fridge, and decide there is nothing to eat.  In fact, there's plenty of food in the kitchen, I'm just tired of having the same old, same old every day.

So before I go shopping each week or two, I need to know what we're going to be eating.  Then, hopefully, I can spice up the menu a little.  It'll also be nice to know what we're having each day, so I don't have to stand there, trying to figure out what to throw together before the children have a meltdown.

This will also be good for my goal to lose weight.  I can plan meals based on my caloric needs.  Plus, if I schedule my fruits and veggies for specific meals, maybe I will be more likely to eat them.

I guess I will:

• Come up with a format for scheduling meals (list, chart, whatever)
• Put all my recipes in one place
• Get meal suggestions from my husband and children
• Write out my meal plans
• Save meal plans from previous weeks, so I can use them again in future weeks

How do you plan your meals?  Do you like to know what you're having ahead of time, or do you like to just throw something together?