2009

Well, the new year is in full swing. I'm sure it’s going to be full of ups and downs, twists and turns, crazy days and lazy days, but right now I am just trying to get organized and have some sort of a plan for ‘09... Every time I’ve thought about trying to pin down my hopes and prayers and resolutions for ‘09, my mind has seemed to naturally break the year into three parts... so, that is how I wrote out my goals and plans for the year. With the Lord, all things are possible, so it may or may not turn out anything like I planned, but either way, here goes...

January through April - Preparation, Routines, and Money Matters

1. A time of preparation and getting back into a routine... preparing for the new baby, and preparing James to start preschool. A fresh start for our bodies, minds, and souls. And a routine - like time daily in the word, daily time set aside for James to learn, and to work toward his PT goals, and a routine for getting back to the gym - for both mommy and daddy. Maybe adding some new things to the weekly schedule – James is starting KinderMusik again tomorrow, so that’s a great start. We have to take advantage of the time before preschool and the new baby take up all our free time!

2. A time of "out with the old and in with the new" - literally... throwing out and giving away things we don't need anymore... organizing, designing, and rearranging, and maybe even painting the boys’ room – deciding how to best utilize the guest room / office… stuff like that… last weekend, Seth and I both worked on cleaning out and organizing the garage… The Salvation Army came and took a bunch of junk off our hands! Seth is building a clean storage area with a loft in the garage for “my” stuff… It’s a start…

3. A time to focus on our budget and working toward some goals that we have for paying off debt, preparing for tax time, saving for projects we want to do on our house, and building up our emergency fund, Seth's new IRA, and our general savings. I just put $500 away for taxes… it feels good.

May through August – Rest, New Life, and Fun in the Sun

1. Prayerful monotony … Ahhh...summer time. A time of rest and relaxation, and for us, it will be a time of enjoying new life! A newborn baby in the house. What could be better than that?? A big transition time for our family… When I am 9 months pregnant, and can’t do much, and then after the baby comes, when I will spend a ton of time nursing and just caring for basic needs, over and over and over again… I will have a lot of time for prayer. I hope that this season provides bonding time for, not only our “new” family, but also between the Lord and I.

2. Gardening … currently our front yard is grass and gravel, and our back yard is nothing but dirt. I hope that this spring and summer (whenever the weather finally gets nice again) we will be able to spend some time outside at our own house, working on the yard as a family. We probably won’t be able to invest a lot of money into landscaping this year, but we can do something. We will leave the hard labor for Daddy, but when it comes time for planting, even a pregnant lady and a disabled 3 year old can get their hands dirty! And a newborn can watch all of the excitement from his baby seat, and sleep those lazy summer days away… Daddy wants to re-side the garage and paint the whole exterior. Projects, projects, projects….


September through December – Travel, Traditions, and Time Alone

I can’t anticipate this season as clearly as the first 2, simply because it seems so far away from now, and a lot is going to happen between now and then, but I do have a few hopes and dreams for Fall and Winter 2009…

1. I hope that we will be able to take at least one family trip together, even if it’s just a short one, close to home….although the baby will still be young, Seth and I both love traveling, so hopefully we will find a way to make something work…

2. During the holiday season next year, I want to continue the traditions that we have started as a family, and hopefully add some new ones, too! James will definitely be old enough to soak in the deeper meaning behind Christmas, and I hope that Seth and I will have the wisdom and creativity to find ways to lift Jesus up during that time, especially to our kids.

3. And finally, starting around September next year, when the baby is 3 to 4 months old, I really hope that I will be able to sneak in some “mom’s day out” type of days just for myself. I cherish my time alone almost as much as I cherish my time with my family, and know that some long, lazy, time alone, shopping, sitting at Barnes & Noble reading and drinking coffee, walking around downtown Chico, taking some pictures of the beauty of the Autumn season all around us, and all of those things, will do me much good!