2012.

With the new year upon us, like many I like to take at least a moment for some personal reflection and think about some "resolutions". I believe it's important to examine where I am and looks at ways I can continue to move forward. My primary focus is on my personal faith and relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, researching and living out a healthy, simple lifestyle, and creating a loving, educational Christ-centered home.
So, for the sake of archiving, I've decided to share a short list of some of my goals. I don't really make "New Year's resoltuions" mainly because the idea of doing something for a year seems less realistic and attainable for me...so for now these are my monthy goals. Each month I can look at ways to tweak them, adding or subtracting as it seems fit:)

1. Begin each day by getting phsycially and spiritually ready before the children are awake. (watching Micah and joining BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) have made this manageable and pretty much necessary!)

2. Work through and complete the 8 week Real Food Challenge from Vintage Remedies. I'm currently on week 2. So far, we've talked about drinks and sugar. It's interesting and challenging and good:) They provide foods to eliminate, foods to replace them with, recipes, etc. You can do it too! You can join any time of the year, and it's all free-just a weekly email.

3. Read at least 1 book per month (ok, I know to some this is completely lame). My focus here will be on classic literature, biographies, and Christian non-fiction. I'm currently reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and I have a few books on my "read next" list.

4. Eat (heatlhy) fish at least one time per week. So far, we've been enjoying some wild Salmon.

5. Meet with our refugee family at least once per week and commit to praying for them daily. (right before Christmas we began sponsoring a refugee family through Lutheran Social Services)

6. Map out homeschooling shedule for the semester, finding a good place to end before baby arrives.

7. Find a good exerice routine (right now I'm doing zumba but it's only 1x per week, and I would like to do something more often. Unfortunately, it just got too cold to be doing much outdoors).

8. Look for ways to bless and serve Matt.

9. Look for ways to teach and live out the grace and beauty of Christ for my children (little vague-this will need some tweaking:)

Ultimately my prayer is to strengthen my walk and grow closer to Christ, as well as see this for the rest of my family. I look forward to what 2012 has in store!