This New Year.....

I love New Years' Resolutions.  I really, really do.  I love making goals and working towards them.  I especially love enjoying the rewards from attaining these goals.

A lot of the time, my New Years' Resolutions are private and I work towards them throughout the year.  But I'll be honest....there has been a time or two that I have forgotten what my goals were half way through the year.  So, this year I decided that I would make an inspiration board for my goals.  Some people call them dream boards.  Some might call them a poster to mock your inadequacies.  But this year I made one.  And so did my girls.  My goals varied this year.  I have a goal specifically geared to the way I parent each of my children.  They are different goals because they are different girls.  I have goals about my home, family and my own personal development.  As I looked over my goals I did see an underlying theme.  And with that theme also came an unintended word for the year. 

Simplify my house by getting rid of things, simplify my finances by not buying things, simplify meals, simplify my clothes, simplify everything.  And this is hanging in my room to remind me everyday.  And hopefully, by simplifying my life, I can also learn how to be a little less hard on myself.  That particular goal is becoming increasingly more important as I watch my girls growing up and looking to me to learn how to become the people they are meant to become.  And I certainly don't want them to grow up and spend their lives trying to be unrealistically perfect and unkind to themselves.  We all know that children don't listen to what we say, they learn from what we do.  Which is too bad because every once in a while, I have a pretty good way with words.  But for now.....I will simplify.