2011

I've given a lot of thought to 2011. I've decided that my word for this year is going to be "Order". A lot of things have ran though my mind and it's hard to put on paper but I kept coming back to the scripture in D&C 88:119

Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a ^bhouse, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God

1) Organize yourselves: I will be going through everything when I get back home. I'm going to whittle down things we have, throw some out, give some away, craigslist others. Everything is going to have a space. I don't want our lives to get cluttered up with useless things. We also will be doing our will.

2) Prepare every needful thing: My goal is to "finish" my food storage this year. (Ak! This one is hard!) Our family goal is to finish Dave Ramsey's baby step 3 and start 4 and 5.

3) A house of prayer: We will be holding family prayer morning and evening. We will say prayers over our food. We will have individual prayers. I will help Claire have hers before bed. There is no time like now to get her in the habit and to help us get back in it.

4) A house of fasting: It's been a long time since I've fasted, since I've been pregnant or breastfeeding straight for over 3 years. But I don't think a house of fasting is just talking about not eating. The other part of fasting is the fast offerings, of charity, of helping those who don't have what you have. We will be giving more this year. It doesn't have to be more money, but maybe babysitting, or delivering groceries, or bread or cards.

5) A house of faith: More trying to listen to the spirit and do His will. To trust more. Having kids makes it seem even more important. I need faith that He will help me not mess them up!!

6) A house of learning: We will be having family scripture every day and Family Home Evening every week. I will read a scripture with the kids in the morning. I am going to get a picture every few days from the gospel art kit and putting it up on Claire's wall and we will talk about it. I am going to spend more time reading books with the kids. My goal is 1/2 hour a day at least.

7) A house of glory: Teaching the kids to obey and be honest. I'm going to get a book called Teaching Self Government to help facilitate that. I need to be more calm and Christlike with the kids.

8)A house of order: Routine. I've been thinking a lot about routine. I need to get out of my pajamas every day. I just feel better when I do. I'm debating about having a laundry day again where I only do it once a week. Jack is doing less poopy clothes so maybe it will work again. One thing I'm going to try that I'm excited about is have a baking day. The Saturday before Fast Sunday I am going to bake for the month. I will make the wheat bread, biscuits, english muffins, bagels, and then do mixes for white bread and pizza dough to keep in the fridge. I decided on that Saturday because that is our one eat out day for the month. We thought it may make fast sundays more special if our eat out day is that Saturday. Who knows? lol I know I will want to be eating out after doing all that baking!

9) A house of God: My number one goal for 2011 is to make our house more of a house of God. That is the most important thing I can do.

So those are my "resolutions" for 2011. Will we get them all? We can try. Will we have bad days. Yes. But I figure it's like a diet instead of a broken resolution. Get up and carry on. I love my family and I want to be a better person for them and I want to help make our family the best it can be.