New Year's Resolutions

     I have never been the type of person to make new year's resolutions, but my husband is. He makes them every year.  So since we've been married I have also made a list, and then we talk about them.  To be honest, I have not always kept them.  I suppose that almost every one could say this, but I wish we all could make goals and keep to them.  How much more productive would I be if I kept all my resolutions?  So I thought maybe I would put a few down.  Maybe if I write them down for others to see I'll be able to keep them. : )
     1. Spend more time with God and spend more time in the Word. I would say that most Christians would say this, but I always put this.  Who of us can honestly say we spend enough time?  Who of us knows God too intimately?
      2, Spend more quality time with my husband.  Spend more time in prayer and in the Word with Him also.  We had a lot of time with each other while we were sick.  It was great, although we wish maybe we had not been so sick.  We talked a lot during that time, and we realized that we don't spend enough time talking to each other in the way that we need to.  Sometimes we let our kids take over our lives, which in our defense is really easy to do.  We are going to try to spend time in the mornings before he goes to work in a devotion, evenings in the Word after supper, and then have a date night twice a month.  This will probably all not come about, because time seems to be hard to come by at times.  But we are going to try.
     3. Improve my mind and skills.  I want to become more old fashioned, which may be hard to believe for some of you.  I do.  I admit that I still think that knitting could give me a migraine and sewing tends to frustrate me to no end, but I am going to try and do these type of things.  I even want to try and make more things from scratch.  I have been making my own bread and things but I also want to try different things.  I'm going to start canning and even try to make my own graham crackers and marshmallows.  My husband and I have decided that we have too much distraction in our lives and so the tv and other things are going to be turned off and we're going to learn new things.

      4. Create more order and control in my life.  The last couple of weeks my house was completely out of control.  I mean, it was a total disaster.  There were toys everywhere, dishes stacked high, and dirty laundry over flowing in the hampers.  And the thing about it was that I have been too sick and tired to even try to bring any order to it.  I still am not 100%, but yesterday as I looked around I just broke down and cried.  I felt so stressed and off kilter about everything.  I realized that I had to do something to start getting the house back in order, even though I could not do a lot.  I read this post on a blog called passionate homemaking, and she was talking about order, and how a woman's job is to create order in her home because God is a God of order.  I am not organized, and I am not the best housekeeper.  I struggle all the time to keep up with the demands of being a homemaker, and most of the time I fail to do all that I need to in a day.  As I read this, I felt convicted.  I do not think that keeping your home should be something that is legalistic or a pride issue.  That would not be pleasing to God, but I do want to fulfill the role that God has for me.  I also need to try and work on my health and be intentional to regain some sort of discipline in this area.  I have had a hard time bouncing back from bed rest and then having a c section, but I have to start somewhere.
     5. The last one I have already mentioned in an earlier post, but I should put this down to make my list complete.  It has to do with finding a ministry that my husband and I can do together.  We need to find the place where God has us, and serve together as one. 
     Well there is the list, and like I said some of you will be like "Who cares about her resolutions?"  But I just thought that maybe if people knew them, that I would be more apt to keep them, instead of the list going in the cover of my Bible for a year.

New hat from my auntie

Me too!

  I wanted to make a quick note for those of you that prayed for my family while we were sick.  You will have no idea how much it touched me to know that you were praying, and we did feel the Lord's presence as our kids began to heal from their sickness.  I am still not great as I said before, but I do feel that I may be on the mend.  Again thank you, and I thought that I would show you a couple of pictures of my kids who are looking ten times better!

A box.  The best thing EVER to sit in.

Little princess and her new pillow pet