New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season this year!  I certainly did!  I felt very blessed to be surrounded by so many precious family members.  After Christmas we were able to take a trip to relax after the busyness of the holidays.

As we enter 2014 though, I was thinking about resolutions.  Do you make resolutions?  Usually when I think of them I think of "Beauty and the Beast" when Cogsworth is giving the Beast ideas for what he can give Belle and he says that there are the "usual things; flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep."  I feel like most of the time when I make a resolution, I actually have no intention of keeping it.  Through the years, I've stopped making resolutions because of this.  I figure I'm not really resolved if I'm fairly certain I won't follow through.  Every once in a while though, I find something that I really feel needs to change and I make a resolution for that year.

This year is one of those years.  I always say that I'm a good stay-at-home mom, but a lousy housewife.  I take good care of my kids and they grow and thrive, but my house is always in disarray.  We have clean clothes, but they most likely are sitting in a hamper in the laundry room.  I fix them dinner, but we may have to wash a few dishes before we can eat.  I have at times actually considered throwing away all of my dishes and just buying new ones.  It's never a trait that I've been proud of and I've tried to change it before.  I would love to not be hesitant to have people over because my house is too messy.  What usually ends up happening though is I clean my house and then we have a birthday party and my house is back to what it was before I cleaned or I end up getting sick and no one helps while I'm sick so by the time I'm well, the house is a disaster again.

So here's my plan.  I don't expect perfection.  I have three kids and they're going to make messes.  I want to start making lists (I respond well to lists) every day of things that need to get done.  It will take a while to get the house clean from it's present state and it's not going to happen over night.  After it's clean, I want us as a family to take a few moments right before bed and pick up any dishes, toys, clothes, etc. that are left out.  I've already told my husband that when I get sick, I'd like for him to help so that I'm not needing to start back at square one and he's agreed to do that.  I'm hoping that sharing this with all of you will help me be more accountable as well.

Now, I know what you really want to know is how book three is coming along.  I did get some work done on it last night and I feel like it's going well.  I'm wondering how I'm going to resolve something right now.  I'm not really sure what's going to happen which is always interesting for me.  I have to remind myself sometimes to slow down.  I find myself wanting to push through to certain events, but if I go too quickly then things don't develop as thoroughly as they should.

I wish you all a very blessed New Year!  Feel free to share your own resolutions - especially if you feel that you could use a little accountability.