I'm Back?

It's been a while. I know. I honestly considered just scrapping the whole blog idea all together, but then we had a lovely Relief Society lesson all about journaling, and it prompted me to get back on it. This takes a lot of time and effort, but in the end it is worth it to me, and now that nobody ever looks at it, I have a lot more freedom with what I write, so that's a plus. I stopped back in November because my trusty little lap top stopped working. It has been hanging in there for years now with one problem after another all of which have been fixed with super glue and prayers. Finally, the screen started going out, and there is no fix for that, at least not one that will let it continue to be a lap-top, which is what I need for my online job. Now it is set up in the basement for the kids to use for computer school, and I have a new little lappy friend. However, the blog posts haven't been rolling out because all the pictures are still on the other computer. I will make an effort to get down there and post from there or to have Ross go and retrieve those for me so I can post from my new little buddy.

The last few months have actually been pretty hard. A lot has been going on, some of it really awesome, but very busy, and a lot of it really frustrating and depressing. People I love are hurting, people I don't care for are forcing their way into my life, and sickness and injury seems to be making continual rounds through the ranks of the Goodman home.

I remember once posting a list of all the tasks I had completed in a day that felt rather unproductive to me at the time to help me see how busy I was even on a down day. Man, time with 2 kids really was nice, even if I didn't realize then how much more complicated my life would get with each child. I think the busiest day from that period of my life would feel relaxing to me right now. I love my family and I love my life, but sometimes I wish I could have just a little bit of down time without a zillion undone tasks running through my mind. In fact, the main reason I can come and post here is because our washer is broken (yay) so I can't do laundry until it is repaired. I would say I hope to slow down a bit, but that isn't totally realistic, so instead I will say that I hope I can pull out of this dark and lonely place and regain the joy in this journey.

We have all set goals for the new year, and we are really striving to keep them-- even the kids.

Emma has a goal to read the Book of Mormon with me. We read it every night and have a little chart she gets to mark off for each chapter. We should finish 1 Nephi tonight, and that means we will get a special treat tomorrow. She is reading so well and I am so proud of her diligence with this goal. There have been some nights I just want to go to bed, but Emma keeps us on track by insisting that we read.

Sara's goal is to learn to read. She is doing really well and is so close. She is already sounding out short words and gets excited when she can recognize words in real life settings. The other day at the store she read the Milk and Eggs sign and was so excited I thought she was going to cry.

Jack's goal is to keep his room clean. This isn't that challenging as his room isn't that hard to mess up, but I am glad he understood the concept and he really has tried to keep it tidy.

Ross and I both have goals to lose some weight and get healthy. We are also going to try and have the 4 nights that we posted about a few years ago:
1. Family Night EVERY WEEK
2. Date Night EVERY WEEK (sometimes this means the kids watch a movie in the basement while we snuggle alone in our room with some yummy take out food)
3. Temple Night EVERY MONTH (this can count as date night)
4. Over-Night EVERY OTHER MONTH (we will probably count this as a date night and a temple night)

We think this will be much easier to do this year since Luke is sleeping through the night and we are out of debt so we have more available funds to devote to strengthening our relationships.

I also have some other personal goals. I want to get caught up with this blog since it is very much my family Journal, and I have been commanded to keep a record of my life.

 I was recently called as the Gospel Doctrine teacher, and my lessons so far have been pretty good, if I do say so myself, but they have taken a lot of preparation and I am still very nervous delivering them. I hope to continue to devote that time to preparing the lessons, and I hope to get more comfortable in this teaching situation. I want to be able to stand up and deliver my prepared lessons without sweating through my dress and shaking.

My mom has also asked that I write down my lessons so she can read them since she is in Primary now and misses the discussions from her ward. I am going to try and do that, which might be hard since I rely right now on erratic notes and arrows in my margin that make perfect sense to me, but look like the scrawlings of a crazy person to anyone else.

Another goal of mine is to not turn down service opportunities I can reasonably accomplish with the caveat that I not accept service opportunities that will be too burdensome to myself. When I am feeling stressed and alone, providing service to others really is a way for me to lift my spirits and bring me closer to Christ. That is an amazing gift to receive at the simple cost of taking dinner to a sick friend or driving a child to school or subbing in the Primary on the weeks I am not teaching Gospel Doctrine. When I think about the people I respect most in my life, I see a running theme in the way they handle themselves. They are amazing women who are devoted to their families and are constantly serving others. I would like to emulate that, and I am finding such habits come with practice.


We have decided to do a tree for the Festival of Trees this year. We already purchased the tree and some of the basic decorations at the after Christmas sales. Emma decided we are doing a bird themed tree, which perfect because not only will it be really cute, but it will also be easy to collect things for it all year round. One of my goals is to do a craft with the kids every month to add to our display.

 

So, maybe this wasn't the most exciting updates of all time, but there will be lots of pictures coming soon.