Hey all, farm-girl Emily here.  Oh wow, its a new year, and where to start with those goals?  I am so glad I talked to my sister in law, Katie, because she said, she heard a great gal say, instead of being sad about taking down the Christmas decorations down, one can feel excited about that new year and what new things will go up!

Farm-girl stuff:

I think there are lots of things itching in my soul to improve on, one, is, obviously to be a better FARM GIRL.  Say why not plant some seeds and get started with some nice herbs in the winter?  And definitely use this website, The Sprout Robot [given to me by my sister...in spirit, Heather. (cousin in law.)] which helps me know when to plant.  Then I heard Mary Jane Farm-girl has a good forum I can join to help me with my farm girl, lack of skills and knowledge.

Preparedness:

Or how about each month I catch up some way on my food storage?  Like this month I can get some dried onions at the cannery, I really love those dried onions.

Knowledge:

(George singing “Friendly Beasts” since Milly had read and sung it to him, he knew the ropes.)

Heavenly Father helped me see my lack of taking time to read, which I used to do, and he taught me so gently and excitedly through many wonderful sources, Stephanie, Angel, Miriam, Eirene, and Stake President Nachez, thank you!  I am starting up by reading Joan of Arc, I am reading Mark Twain’s book.  He researched for 12 years and has a major crush on the girl.  Thats one my 4th grade teacher read to us, giving me my first intonation that I love history.  Thank you Ms. Strand.  Ms. Strand was an avid knitter and taught me to, well freshened me up, my first lessons came from my Grandmother.

And I really am excited to be teaching Sunday School this year, this is going to be awesome for my spiritual hunger needs and spiritual fuel I need to teach my children and maintain my soul in a staunch place of love and patience.

Character:

Oh every year it seems, I work on ‘temper’; but this year, one morning when I felt hurt, I decided to be a stream, I can give like the little stream.  All this love flooded my heart when I decided to be a little stream, so instead of thinking about ‘NOT’ getting mad, I am thinking about how I can give:

There may be some who would argue that this goal will only increase my cheese-ball nature, however, in the end, giving is a lot more healthy for my inner health, and I will by and by iron out the wrinkles…so I am not worried.  I know that it is a great goal and that it came from the Lord’s guiding, helpful spirit.

Heck, I will sing this song Give like the little stream.  This might just be the ticket to amplified growth this year, I can’t wait to give it a gander.  I know I’ve been employing it somewhat already, but now, its labeled, its pegged as ‘goal’, and I’m ready to sing it.  Just you wait complaining, will-full, teasing, children, I might draw you a picture.  Or give you a funny face, or who knows what, this is interesting, can this work?

Fitness/Health:

I flat out couldn’t believe when I stepped on the scale, that through the holidays I stayed the same…I skipped out on exercising for a month, how could that be?  I ate treats.  Ok, I feel like one of those ladies who says, “Don’t hate me because I am beautiful!”  It MUST have been a fluke.  But mainly, I am just impressed of my body.  Somehow it knows that this is temporary eating, that I will be back to norm soon, and over all I’ve been trying to eat till I am satisfied, then stop.  And I don’t always, but doing it mainly, its way amazing, what a great technique.  Body, I love you!  Its ok that I now have a little motherhood bald spot, and that gravity is taking its toll on the tugged upon chest.  I feel healthy!

…So I think my goal will be in this venue, to try for 3 days a week for early morning work outs for my mental health picks up so much from that.  I literally felt my hips growing last month, literally, and they weren’t, how funny is that?  So psychological.  And eating-wise…just keep trying to cook healthy food mostly that lends itself to not wanting too much, and eating like a breakfast shake or a salad for one meal if I know one meal is going to be larger or that I will have dessert.  That technique really seems to work great for me.

And I bet my mother in law would be thrilled to know that Riley, out of his own motivation, decided to get a gym membership for his health this year.  I always decide to save money in this venue, but as it turns out gym memberships are pretty much essential for Riley to keep up with consistent work outs.  So I am proud of him for taking this step this year!

Social:

Lots of personal goals here, but still processing this one.  I likely won’t post this but I will write it in my journal.

Discipline:

I think we will focus on 7 things this year.

1) “LIfe was made so enjoyable for us as a family that we wanted to follow in your footsteps, to continue on through experiencing the same joy that had been ours in our younger days.” Elder Perry October General Conference 2012  

My first goal is keep life fresh, fun and always something to look forward to, for all of us, so that what I teach sticks.

2) When I say, “That’s 2″ (and I usually say, I’m about to say That’s 2 as a warning), then the child will have to do a little chore….(This is to help with obedience, obedience, obedience.)  Once a child has that first law of heaven down, they can move on to higher laws like acting before being asked, etc.

3) Practice, both in thought and action when trying to help change bad habits.

4) Work on ‘Calm Down’ and “Change Heart’ process for conflict resolution with the children.

5) Loss of a blessing from complaining.

6) Technicals on being consistent:

~A ‘bug’ (tease, little hurt, etc) needs one small chore to mom (like pick up that toy) and one small kindness to the person (like “I’m sorry.”)

~A hurt (unkind words, and all physical hurting to cause another pain, gets 3 small kindnesses or 1 big service, and one chore to mom.)

7) And one woman I read about, as her child woke up for 2 years, she read a book so that child’s attention span could stretch and grow.  For me, I think a certain child needs a sunshiny reminder to serve others rather than wake up bugging others.  So for me that is the big big goal, to desert other engaging projects so I am completely present to help prevent said child getting their day started on the wrong leg….oh help me be patient and willing to last this through a year let alone two like the other said woman did all in the name of improvement for one child’s life.  And Charlotte Mason teaches us about habits, and what better habit could I help a child develop then to start a day on the right foot?

—-That’s enough to keep me BUSY!—-

Household:

Maybe if I calendar in the household duties that need attending like a map over the year, they will get done?  For those technical things to upkeep a home including chores and household up-keeps?

~And BOY I’d like to work on all of us picking up right after we do, what goes out must go back in, super nice and clean again, all of us, including me, are a bunch of SLOBS!  Never putting back what we take out right afterwards!!!  If we could only habit this, why my house wouldn’t always be running away with me on such a large scale!

~And other than that I think I am going to let my house be messy at times to make sure my priorities happen.  Like I need a goal for that but its amazing as messy is my house is how often I’m not keeping priority!  Children, spouse, talents first, house 2nd.  (And if I can include house/children and house/spouse then I will.)

 

Dating/Romance:

For a few years there I made a goal to listen to my husband because he’s so smart that I tune him right out!  Finally I was able to listen with a lot of practice, and how much more enhanced my life is!  My husband has helped me think in ways I never would before.  He’s helped me so much with being over sensitive and how to be ok with others feeling differently than I.  He is really clever and makes me laugh!  But I think this year, I will make sure we actually GO out on dates one a month or even two, and also…in the romance compartment, I could just be more into it and excited for those hubby needs, and also make sure we have at-least one romantic session a week.  Please only read the following if you are interested for yourself in the family planning method, other wise just skip the following paragraphs:)

(We are doing family planning which is a method that takes a lot of discipline on the man’s part, and a lot of homework on the woman’s.  We decided to do this so that we could let the Lord have the ultimate hand in the pie of when we had children, as we decided we could put our trust in the living God, and then do our part to plan for when we feel emotionally ready.  We are cautious and by this method, we had Bridger 2 months early, which I finally realized, he wasn’t a surprise baby, because with this technique, we let the Lord into the planning, and therefore, he was completely, ‘planned’.)

(This technique takes a lot of time to get the ropes of, out of 3 checking methods, we do two of them, mucous and highness or lowness.  You’d have to do research to find out what that means.  Taking a daily temperature sounds like insanity but I do know a lady who I met at a garage sell who uses Lady Comp, and loves it.  This woman, not of my specific faith, but we share Christian-ness from was lovely through and through.)…But ladies, if you love dancing with your husband, or having sweet cuddling and together time without always ending with love making, why this technique is for you.  And men, I can say for sure, that my husband has grown in deeper love and respect for me, and that he is the one who chose this method.