Goals for 2014

Jenna (age 11) at McDonald's on Monday

Last year I made a really long list of goals for the year. This year I was determined to make a shorter list. Although the list might still seem a bit too long, it is definitely more focused. If I had to boil it down to one word, that would be TRADITIONS. I really want to focus on establishing our family traditions - how we celebrate holidays, etc. I have started to accumulate a list of traditions and want to come up with more ideas to add to this list throughout the year. I'm planning to read this book and hoping it gives me new ideas also. Because many of the things contained in that list aren't new, I am going to list a few that are specific goals for this year. I realize that some of these probably should fall under the category "habits" rather than "traditions," but I'm not going to worry about separating those.
1. Continue to tweak our daily routine. I want to find a specific time when we will work on Bible memory every day, when Nadia will practice her piano five days a week, and when I will have my quiet time every day.

2. I want to try making crepes, pies, and cheesecake this year. If I can succeed with the crepes and others like it, we'll add this to the breakfast for dinner rotation that already includes pancakes, waffles, and French toast. I also want to try some more pizza dough recipes until I find "the one" we can use regularly. We used to buy pizza more often, but now that we take turns picking where we eat or get food once a week, we haven't been buying pizza as often. All five of us love pizza so I'd like to make pizza once a week during the weeks that we don't buy pizza.

3. Continue to come up with more ways for the kids to help around the house. One example would be that I want to start having them clean up their toys twice a day. I shouldn't be the one doing this! Nadia and Ian put away their clean clothes after I do the laundry.

4. I want to start making a soup, chili, or stew once a week. This will mean trying many new recipes!

5. I want to start doing a craft or art project with the kids at least once a week. I need to pick a day and time to increase the chances that I stick with this plan. I also want to start perusing Pinterest at least once a week for craft and recipe ideas.

6. I want to start involving the kids more in my communication with our three sponsored children.

7. Work more on fleshing out the "special occasions" portion of the traditions list. I'd like to read this book, and hopefully I'll glean some ideas there. For example, we haven't done anything special for New Year's Eve or New Year's Day yet. Yesterday I bought an Elf on the Shelf kit (I got a boy) because they were 70% off at Target. I don't plan to emphasize the part about being good because he will make a report to Santa, but I think it will be fun to put him in a different location each night and have them find him the next morning. I hope they have fun with that next December.

8. Implement a plan for giving Nadia and Ian a small amount of money each week so they can start learning important financial skills.

9. Keep working with the kids at expanding their enjoyment of a wider variety of foods. I want to implement a policy this year that each person has a list of a few (still trying to determine how many) foods that are on their "no, thank you" list that they can decline. Everything else we each have to eat at least a little bit of it.

Oliver loves lasagna!

10. Five goals for Nadia - completely break her thumb sucking habit, eat vegetables without raisins, ride her bike without training wheels, sit in her chair during mealtimes (lately she has had trouble with this although it was never a problem when she was younger), and do a better job with making her bed and keeping her room neat

11. Six goals for Ian - feeding himself dinner in an hour or less, writing his uppercase letters, less fussing/crying throughout the day, buckle his own seat belt, swing himself, and play games with rules

12. Five goals for Oliver - walking, feeding himself with utensils instead of his fingers, responding to the word "no", potty trained, and talking more