Like I said, I'll break anything down into categories and sub-categories! A few more musings and inspired ideas!
My Finances
My Finances
I'd like to become more disciplined about making and keeping a budget. The hardest part about budgeting for me is to track everything I spend. I have the app "Budget Touch" for my iPad and I've totally let it slip this month. So that's a goal for 2011. Keep up with Budget Touch.
Additionally, I'd like to save more money than I am currently. Starting a savings account would probably be a step in the right direction! Beyond CTB and UCCB from the government, we have no regular income. That's the way ranching is. This makes it very hard to save because you tend to make do until the big check in the fall when the young animals are sold and then buy everything you need until the money runs out (seems like there's never enough!). I think if I was frugal enough, I could put some money aside for emergency car and household repairs and the like if necessary. I can certainly try!
I had a family cow all lined up to join us last September. Three weeks before the day of arrival I got a call from her current owner. My cow had broken into the grain room, bloated and died. I was incredibly disappointed and hadn't the heart to search any further. But I know I could make a nice sum of money selling milk from my own home as well as provide delicious, fresh and pure milk for my own family. My sister and I were also going to be making cheese, butter, yogurt and so on with the extra. Imagine the help for my grocery bill! I really hope to accomplish this one in 2011.
Family: Remember to enjoy the journey!
I know I lack perspective when it comes to my kids. I know that. Somehow this should give me perspective, should make me realize that a sick kid is only sick for a few days, then the whining stops. Just put the project aside (with grace) and cuddle the poor thing! And while you're at it, amaze at the healing, soothing, restorative powers a mama has to her sick little one. If you stop and think about it without being grumpy about supper not being cooked, you'll be amazed too (and serve them a can of beans if necessary. I dare anyone to complain about supper being inadequate when a child is feeling truly yucky). A baby is only so helpless she needs you to roll her over when she's bored for a very short time. Put down your coffee for a minute and help her out! Kids' lives are only completely centered around themselves right next to you for a few short years. Why not enjoy it? Heck, revel in it!
Everyone says this, tells us that. But how many of us are able to let go of our own expectations of our day on a regular basis? This is a goal for 2011. Caring for my family is not a series of to-do lists. It's not about what everything (and everyone) is once it's completed. It's about how it got that way in the first place. And I know that if I were to go about my family in this manner, chances are the results would be closer to what I pictured in the first place!
I know I lack perspective when it comes to my kids. I know that. Somehow this should give me perspective, should make me realize that a sick kid is only sick for a few days, then the whining stops. Just put the project aside (with grace) and cuddle the poor thing! And while you're at it, amaze at the healing, soothing, restorative powers a mama has to her sick little one. If you stop and think about it without being grumpy about supper not being cooked, you'll be amazed too (and serve them a can of beans if necessary. I dare anyone to complain about supper being inadequate when a child is feeling truly yucky). A baby is only so helpless she needs you to roll her over when she's bored for a very short time. Put down your coffee for a minute and help her out! Kids' lives are only completely centered around themselves right next to you for a few short years. Why not enjoy it? Heck, revel in it!
Everyone says this, tells us that. But how many of us are able to let go of our own expectations of our day on a regular basis? This is a goal for 2011. Caring for my family is not a series of to-do lists. It's not about what everything (and everyone) is once it's completed. It's about how it got that way in the first place. And I know that if I were to go about my family in this manner, chances are the results would be closer to what I pictured in the first place!
My Marriage
I've been married now for five and half years. I've been with my husband since I was fourteen years old and we've been friends since I was nine. I think it's safe to say that he is pivotal in my life and I in his. So it seems odd that my marriage and our relationship isn't listed first in my musings, don't you think? How is it that kids and home take over, squeezing such important people out of the main picture? It certainly not intentional. And that's my point. My goal for 2011 is to be more intentional with my relationship with my husband. One important thing I'd like to do is sit down with my husband after he's eaten for fifteen or twenty minutes each day with a cup of tea. Send the kids off to play and just enjoy each other. Talk to each other. A date night, because of his hectic and unpredictable schedule, is usually not even a possibility and this used to really bother me. Everyone else was going out on date nights, everyone else was making their marriage a priority. Now, instead of focusing on the problem, I'm trying to come up with solutions and I think this one's a keeper. It's something I've been trying to do lately and it's been working. It's not perfect, kids come and interrupt often, but they're getting the idea too and it's better than doing nothing at all. Of course, I won't say no to a date now and again either!
I've been married now for five and half years. I've been with my husband since I was fourteen years old and we've been friends since I was nine. I think it's safe to say that he is pivotal in my life and I in his. So it seems odd that my marriage and our relationship isn't listed first in my musings, don't you think? How is it that kids and home take over, squeezing such important people out of the main picture? It certainly not intentional. And that's my point. My goal for 2011 is to be more intentional with my relationship with my husband. One important thing I'd like to do is sit down with my husband after he's eaten for fifteen or twenty minutes each day with a cup of tea. Send the kids off to play and just enjoy each other. Talk to each other. A date night, because of his hectic and unpredictable schedule, is usually not even a possibility and this used to really bother me. Everyone else was going out on date nights, everyone else was making their marriage a priority. Now, instead of focusing on the problem, I'm trying to come up with solutions and I think this one's a keeper. It's something I've been trying to do lately and it's been working. It's not perfect, kids come and interrupt often, but they're getting the idea too and it's better than doing nothing at all. Of course, I won't say no to a date now and again either!
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