Tomorrow is April 1st! Believe it or not, that means we are a fourth
of the way through 2015. I’ve always
made some sort of goals or resolutions with the New Year, but I’ve never taken
the time to reflect on how I was doing with those goals. This seems like a good time to start, so here
we go.
1. Good health – This has definitely been my biggest
focus and I think it’s going pretty well.
I feel stronger and have more energy.
I’m eating better and working out, although both are ongoing journeys
that I feel still need improvement. I
have lost weight, but I’m keeping my eye on the lifestyle prize of leading our
family down a path of overall good health and activity. Three months in, and we
are off to a good start!
2. Balance – I could have predicted this, but this one
has been the most difficult. Right now I
feel like my life is filled with taking care of the kids and my health and I’m
struggling to find room for more. I am
great at multitasking and juggling, but I really want to have more meaningful
balance than being able to do laundry, make dinner, feed Audrey and play with
Aiden all at the same time – although this is quite the feat and can be
enjoyable. Achieving this balance is not
the same thing to me as finding joy in the little moments of life. I actually think I’m quite good at that and
I’ve found that soaking in these moments has helped me get through the
stressful and overwhelming times.
I
had to focus on this subject recently while making a big decision about the
next year. I had to decide before April
1st what I am going to do about teaching next year. In my district, you can take a second year
leave of absence and still go back to teaching in the same school. I honestly didn’t give this option much
thought until recently, especially since surgery. When we decided that I would take a year off
after having Audrey, we did not know I would need surgery. This year has looked very different than I
originally thought – not necessarily bad, just different. So given this, along with other important
factors, we decided I would take advantage of this second year off option and
stay home with the kids next year too. I
feel very lucky to be able to have this time and look forward to continuing to
find balance.
3. Stop comparing my life to others’ lives – Ugh, also a
hard one. I haven’t made much progress
here, except to say that I do at least recognize now when I do it. I will say that a recent article I read has
helped in the past week or so. It was
about how the pictures we see on Facebook, Instagram, etc. are not
representative of real life, but a moment of captured happiness that we choose
to share with the world. So true and we
all do it. You don’t see me posting
pictures of Aiden hitting Audrey or me cleaning puke off of my shirt for the 4th
time that day. But it happens to all of
us and I need to remember that when I read a blog post by a mom who seems to
have it all together.
4. Spend more quality time with friends and family – Some
progress has been made here. I do feel
like I’ve seen friends and family a little more often, but like all of the
other goals, I still want this to improve.
All four of these resolutions are weaved together and working toward one
means I’m also achieving another. Finding
balance leads to good health, which leads to self-confidence and less
comparisons, which allows for more time and energy for family and friends. If only it were that easy to keep this wheel
turning. I’ve started and have 8 months,
plus a lifetime to go.
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