Our holidays were nice and quiet-ahhhh. We of course would have loved to spend them with our families in California or Minnesota, but it didn't work out this year again. Times are tough and it is expensive for a family of five to travel! So, it was just the five of us. Nick came home from school in mid-December for a 2 1/2 week break! He just went back to Clearfield last night. It is looking like he may finish up his certification within the next month or so, then hopefully a job and an apartment will be next for him.
So, today was back to the regular routine of homeschooling and activities. I didn't make any resolutions this year, just loose ideas of what I'd like to do better. With chronic illness, I think I beat myself up enough throughout the year when I can't do what I planned to, so why make it worse on myself with resolutions? Some things I"d like to improve this year are:
Food/menus/meals: I already started this last year, and I've done pretty well. I'm trying to make home cooked dinner from scratch most nights. We stopped eating fast food (except for the occasional big treat) a few years ago, and aside from frozen pizza and leftover nights, I'm trying to not use any prepackaged, processed foods for our dinners. I'd love to make out menus far in advance, but I buy each week based on what is on sale, so it doesn't work out well to plan too far ahead.
Budgeting/couponing: I'd like to get a tighter reign on our budget, and keep better track of my savings using sales, rebates, and coupons. I don't want to have to use Credit cards at all (had a few emergencies last year that we had to), and work on using Dave Ramsey's plan to pay down debt and increase savings. I'd also like to completely pay for Christmas gifts with earnings of gift cards, etc. from rebates, surveys, points earned in various programs. This past year, I earned about $200, which was just a little short of my goal of covering everything.
Exercise: This is a very vague one. I'm really not supposed to exercise in any way, except pool therapy, which is too expensive. The fear is all the hardware in my neck and upper back and base of skull-there is just way more than there should be, and the neurosurgeon worries something will break. But, I can handle very short walks or pedaling a stationary bike for short bursts. So, I'm going to try to do that more often. My semi-regular diet of steroids puts on about 5 lbs. each round, and in the past few years I've gained about 25 lbs. from my normal weight. That may be a losing battle, but who knows?
Reading/Bible: I want to continue reading more and watching TV less. I'll continue reading one fiction book at the same time as at least one non-fiction book (mostly bible studies). I also want to spend more time in the bible this year, and I think I'm off to a good start! I'm participating in The Bible in 90 Days!
Today was the first day. I'm on a team of several other women and one man, many of us are homeschooling moms. Many have blogs. Some are living in other countries-China and Africa are where two participants live. We have a mentor, who is encouraging us and I'm enjoying getting to know her as well. We check in with each other and are getting to know each other along the way. It is a lot of reading to get this done in 90 days, so obviously not much 'studying'. What I'm looking to get out of this, aside from reading through the bible completely, is to make a better habit for myself by spending a large chunk of time daily in the bible. I'm really excited about this!
That's all I can think of at this time, not that there isn't a lot more rolling around in this head of mine! This year should be an exciting one in our family, with lots of changes, especially for our oldest two, Nick and Alyssa, as they navigate these older teen/young adult years!
