Some Not So New Year Resolutions

At our home, after the hustle and bustle of Christmas and December birthdays, we have a few days to figure out how to get all the Christmas decorations down and put into some orderly fashion, before we dive head-first into Jack's birthday...which, maybe because he's the youngest, we tend to do each year. Dive in head first, that is. There are always lots of events to post about, and lots of pretty pictures to share, but honestly, not a lot of time to think, or process information, or contemplate about the future.

But then after January 10th and all it's trimmings are put away and organized neatly, I usually get a mild case of the January Blues. Which, really, just means I start feeling a bit sorry for myself, and the weather is usually a little less blue here than we're used to. (I know, absolutely no reason to complain from the Central Coast of California) And it's not as if I'm bored or anything, we certainly have lots of THINGS to do to keep us busy. Four children wanting to be part of the school's variety show, piano lessons and practice, (which I always try to re-commit to after the new year) Scouts, both Boy and Cub now, Activity Days, so many things to do to keep us busy and running. But we sort of put ourselves on auto-pilot and fall into the routine of these very busy lives we live and sometimes forget that there is a purpose to all the things we do.

A couple of nights ago, we were tyring to sit down to dinner. We were having pot roast stroganoff over egg noodles. It may sound odd, but this is a pretty standard meal at our home, probably made once a week, and basically just means that Joe and I and a couple of our more experimental children actually eat the pot roast stroganoff over egg noodles while the rest of our children eat large bowls of egg noddles with butter and Parmesan cheese. We do insist that they use a fork to shovel the noddles in...and even that is sometimes a battle. I know that family dinners are important...you hear about it all the time...it may really be true, or it might just be propaganda given to us by all the Stauffers and Krafts of the world. Anyway, it was one of those nights, and everything was SO loud. People were talking over one another, people were putting one another down, food was being spilled orders were being shouted...it was just one of those nights where it didn't really even feel like it was worth it to try. I was just about ready to take my dinner up to my bedroom, lock the door and let everyone fend for themselves, when suddenly, my brilliant husband had a brilliant idea. He said, "okay everyone...it's 6:04 right now. For the next 10 minutes, or until 6:14, we are going to do nothing but whisper. If you can make it the whole ten minutes, you get out of helping with the dishes."

Ahhh...the silence...it was amazing...even though with seven people whispering and Jack prattling along in his normal voice, it wasn't really silence. But still, the whole level of sound went down, and it was then that I decided I could be bothered to stay at the dinner table with the rest of my family. And for ten minutes, I looked around at my beautiful family, and all their beautiful little faces (even covered with food) and for a moment I really just felt the blessings of my beautiful family and life.

Last year, I made a resolution to decorate my home for each holiday. This was kind of a worldly resolution. It didn't really do anything to grow my testimony or bring my family closer together or to the Lord. But it did serve an important purpose. It got me out of bed most days and helped me to mark the passing of time. The passing of time was the only thing I had going for me last year as far as my health getting better was concerned. All the doctors could say was, "give it time, let the medicine work, each new medicine will take time" But when raising six kids, daily and chronic pain was not something where I wanted the time to pass slowly. And for some reason, the little bits of decorating as the seasons and holidays progressed helped me to remember that maybe my health was progressing too. I had fun too...and the kids enjoyed it as well.

This year, I have another new resolution, and once again it's kind a worldly one. I want to get rid of, or organize, or do whatever it takes with all the STUFF my family has accumulated over the past few years, so that I don't feel like the stuff is controlling me. I want to be in control of all the stuff. I want to know where it is and how to get to it, and what shape it is in, and basically just get things organized and compartmentalized. My ulterior motive for this is kind of a sad one. I don't know what the future holds for us. I don't know if living in this home where I brought home each and every one of my six little babies is going to be a reality for our family in the next year. So, I want to be prepared if and when that happens. Coldstone is officially up for sale. We didn't return our Christmas decorations to the storage area there this year. We had to find room for them in the garage that is already filled with bikes and costumes and tools and lawnmowers and other stuff. And as we worked last weekend in the garage I looked at each item to be put away and tried to decide whether I was in control of it, or if it was controlling me.

The other night, during our ten minutes of "silence", I made another resolution. I'm not ready for any of my children to get lost in the noise that a large family can create. I want to find time each day or each week, to really look at each child, to really see where they are. To take their testimony temperature. To listen to them and to hear from them what they need from our family to succeed in this life. And finally, to put other, perhaps less important things aside, (like laundry, a clean home, sleep) to actually DO something about what I learn during those moments of inquiry. To call the teacher of the child who's having a hard time. To sit down and work through those hard measures of music, or to sit and read a book or even just snuggle up with a child instead of turning on a show for them so that I can get one more craft done, or one more nap in, or one more toilet cleaned - obviously that one shouldn't be a hard choice to make!

And just in case any of you are also experiencing those January Blues, go to eighteen25 and print yourself some of these. Then, get some pink and turquoise spray
paint...there's not much better for those January Blues than some pink spray paint!