It's a new Year!

Wow! I cannot believe it is really 2009! I mean - it just seems like after you have a child time flies by - in good and bad ways!

We had a great ringing in of the new year - photos to be posted later! We had a fondue night for New Year's Eve and turned in early since we were driving out first thing on Jan 1st to Mississippi. We then were able to spend the weekend (Thursday thru Sunday am) in Mississippi with my Aunt & Uncle. The kids had a blast and really enjoyed visiting with my relatives! The weather was fairly good despite the rainy forecast. And we ended out visit on Sunday just after attending the Methodist church in Madison and watching my Aunt sing in the choir. Just a great way to start the year, spending time with family. Did I mention that Robert got his fill of Football watching too - since both my uncle and aunt are AVID football fans! Robert was in heaven and I even learned (really relearned since it had been a while) more football jargon & rules.

Well we are into the new year today - we started back to school and even got lots done around the house. School went better than expected - but not great. So really that is just good. We hung around the fire most of the day since it is cold & wintry out - there is ice on our tree and bushes and it is just rainy too! So it has been a great day.

I actually made it up about 5:30 this morning and spent some good time alone with God and just had a great quiet time! I think this really helped get our day focused! Then I applied something I heard on Focus on the Family (on my IPOD on my way home from MS while everyone slept) about spending 15 minutes a day cleaning. I have heard this before, but tried it again. I think you are supposed to plan to spend 15 minutes, then if you spend more you do not feel bad about it. I mean if you approach it like you only need to spend 15 then you can spend more if you feel like it and it is just freeing. SO we spend "15" minutes in the boys room (more like 60) then "15" in our rooms (full of Christmas left overs, gifts, and trip stuff) which was really more like 90 - but hey - the house looks great. I feel so good about it and really just spend a few minutes in each room at a time and got so much done!

So if I keep this up we will have a very tidy and organized year. Mind you this is all new to me since we have never not had a baby at this point. This is all new territory - having some time, having kids who can play and do not need nursing or strict supervision. So I am able to actually organize something and sometimes it stays that way more than 10 minutes. It has been nice doing some deep cleaning and seeing it stay clean for a while!

Well enough about all that. So far, I like 2009. I hope to keep quiet time in the schedule and for school to keep going well. I would like to keep a cleaner house than before, but really that is not a big deal. I hope that my kids continue to long for knowledge about their Savior like they have this past year and I hope to be a mom that makes them feel loved and accepted while encouraging them to seek who God is calling them to be!