Resolutions

I read somewhere that 70% of people don't keep their New Years resolutions. They said it was mostly because people have so many other things going on in their lives that they can't/don't incorporate their resolutions into their lives. Its a bit discouraging actually because I've made some goals for myself and I really want to keep them so hopefully I'm one of the 30% that will actually keep their goals. My big unspecific goal is to be more proactive, I feel like since I've had Abigail I've been doing good at meeting my family's basic needs but I've been letting other things slide that are important to me. For example having a clean house, folding the laundry, and actually getting myself ready in the morning. Even little things like making my bed and putting the dishes in the dishwasher after each meal. So that's my big not super specific goal, to start reincorporating those daily tasks that I've been neglecting. Two specific goals I've made are first to be more healthy by being more aware of what I'm eating and by exercising. These last 5 years my body has been threw the ringer having children. With both Savannah and Abigail I gained 50 pounds and with Olivia I was good and only gained 30. Its taken quite a toll on my body to gain and then try to lose so much weight. I know it comes with the territory when you have children and I'm so proud that I've had 3 successful pregnancies. I know that I will never have the same body that I did before I had the girls but I can improve my health and be in better shape then I am now. My third goal is one I'm actually pretty excited about because its one I've been wanting to do for some time. I found this link on Pinterest for reading the entire standard works in one year. That's the Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. On average you're reading about 7/8 pages a day and I can't wait to accomplish this goal!
So there you have it blogger world my 3 New Years resolutions. We'll see how well I do at actually completing them and I'll keep you posted threw out the year too. Have you set any goals? If you have good luck in meeting them.  What is it they say? It takes 21 days to turn something into a habit?

Goals

So I've felt like I've been in a bit of a slump lately. It shouldn't surprise me that I have been because I usually get in one after there has been some kind of change to happen in my life. Life here is going good, we're all settled but I'm still trying to figure out where I fit in and what my life will consist of here in Arizona. I'm basically a single mom since Jacob is busy from 6am-9pm Monday thru Friday. I've felt a bit lost and overwhelmed at times as I try to juggle everything that goes along with moving and restarting your life. Setting up all our utilities, changing our address with from all our previous bills, getting insurance set up, finding a new doctor for the girls, making new friends, trying to fill our days with something so we don't all go crazy, and so much more. This past weekend we had General Conference, it was wonderful and this was the first time that I've watched having certain questions I wanted to find answers to. It was amazing to me how I could find something in every talk given that answered my questions. During the Saturday afternoon session I decided I needed to set some goals, I needed something to strive for each day to bring more structure into my life and in turn the girls. So to make my goals even more real and to help me try to achieve them I'm going to share them with you.

Read my scriptures every day and read my lessons for Sunday classes at Church.
Say my prayers morning and night and say them on my knees.
Work out Monday thru Friday even if its something small.
Limit time spent on the internet.
Have school at home with Savannah Monday thru Friday.
Do 1 act of service each week.
Say kind words at all times.
Put an effort into how I look everyday, no pj's till after 6pm.
Have structured meal times for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.

It was amazing to me to see how quickly I stopped doing these things after we moved, we were just flying by the seat of our pants and really lost all our structure. I hated it and I hated how it made me feel. I don't need to have every minute of my day planned out but just having the basics planned has made all the difference. Not wearing my pj's all the time has been a huge difference for me, I'd get dressed if we were going out but as soon as we got home I'd put my sweats back on. I just felt so lazy and unmotivated to do anything. Today I know we aren't going anywhere, its raining and I had Jacob take the car to work and school so we'll be home all day. I knew I couldn't stay in my pj's so I put this on instead, its still super comfy and something I won't mind wearing all day even though we're just kickin it at home plus its the first time we've had colder temperatures and I was quite excited to bust out some fall clothes.

In addition to my goal setting Savannah and I sat down and made a set list of chores that she is now responsible for. She's always had tasks she needed to do around the house and she is always a good little helper but now she has specific things she has to do everyday. In addition to these chores she also gets an allowance each week, I think Jacob and I decided on .25 cents for her to start with. I know she's going to be bringing in the money, lol. We both felt like this was an excellent way for her to start understanding the importance of saving money and being responsible. So far this week has gone well and she has done all her jobs, I'm working on making her a chore chart which I'll share later with you. Well there you have it I think I'll do well keeping my goals so far things have gone well but its only Thursday. The thing is though that I've already seen the biggest difference in myself and who I am as a mother by doing these things that I really don't think I'll want to stop.

Week Two

So this past week was crazy! I won't lie I wasn't perfect at this new thing I did but I also think I did a pretty good job with all the things I had going on. I started working out that's right I work out now. I've always been fairly slim but if you read my post awhile back I did just turn 30 and I have now given birth to 2 kids. We'll just say that I don't exactly have the body I did when I got married 5 years ago. You also read correctly, Jacob and I just had our 5 year anniversary on the 4th. Since we've gotten married and had two kids I've gained 34 lbs and I want it off! From last week's post you know that we've started to be more conscience of what we eat but now its time to put in the work. My goal is to work out 6 days a week but I know that sometimes it just won't happen. Last week I worked out 3 of the 6 days so this week my goal is to do better. Working out showed me even more how out of shape I am and it got me quite excited to actually work out and I actually want to which is a first. I think it just took me a bit to find something that I actually like doing and that I wouldn't mind doing on my own. So I'll totally keep you posted of my progress because even though this is a new thing I stared this week this will become a habit and something that I do on a regular basis.

Copy Cat

So whenever I read another blog I usually end up getting ideas of things I'd like to do or I realize something I should probably work on to improve myself. This has once again happened. I was reading my friend Mary's blog and she made a new years goal to do one new thing a week, it can be anything but just something new to her. I've had fun reading about what she's done the past 3 weeks and I have come to think I would like to do the same. I feel complacent and a bit board with my life. Now don't get me wrong, I have plenty to do sometimes too much to do but I feel like I personally have hit a wall and I'm not growing. I want to grow. Therefore I have decided to do one new thing each week. Sometimes it will be just for me other times it will involve the girls and or Jacob. It might be a big project I want to work on that I haven't gotten around to starting or something small that's just new to me. So thank you Mary for inspiring me to be a little better and to finally getting around to doing new things. I'll even try to blog about it like you but I don't know if I'll be as good about posting each week like you.

You Read Correctly

So I'm going to brag about myself for like a second and also share one of my favorite things. I am super proud of myself! I'm due in 5 weeks and so far I've gained 27 lbs this pregnancy. So why am I so proud of that? Well when I delivered Savannah I had gained 48 lbs even though I typically tell people I gained 50. I just end up rounding up which is ironic because whenever I tell Jacob the cost of something I always round down as a side note. So I ended up being 2 lbs away from weighing 200 lbs when I delivered Savannah. Jacob told me I should just shoot for 2 more to make it even and I just couldn't bear the though. Hence I'm excited I'm doing so much better this time around even though I'm bigger then I was with her, funny how that works isn't it. Another side note is I was 4 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight when I got pregnant this time around. So yes I feel like I'm bragging and I don't care, I know everyone gains different amounts but as of now I'm super proud of myself so I thought I'd share.

Now onto one of my favorite things, its kind of a two things really but whatever. So I think I've mentioned before that getting Savannah to take a nap is a struggle. I basically have to physically exhaust her to get her to even consider taking a nap. We've been super busy this week so she's only had naps in the car which suck because they're never long enough and she still ends up cranky in the afternoon. So today I took her for a walk where she had to walk with me. I knew she was tired because she kept trying to get me to hold her which is basically impossible now because my stomach is HUGE! So why do I like taking her for walks? Well if you haven't figured it out its because once we get home we have lunch and then Savannah goes right down for a nap and will sleep anywhere from 3-4 hours. Needless to say this is fantastic for me because then I get 3-4 hours to have quite and I can do whatever I want which is awesome! Now another thing I love which Savannah kept doing on our walk is telling me "luv you". She kept speeding up her pace so she could get in front of me and then she would wrap her arms around my legs and look up at me to say "luv you" over and over. It was so tender and clever of her because typically after telling me she loved me she would then ask me to pick her up. She already knows how to get what she wants, its a good thing I'm so on to her tricks. I will also say though that "luv you" is one of her new favorite phrases because she says it all the time and she's very willing to say it to anyone. I still feel special though because she tells me just because.