Resolutions - My Four "S"s

WARNING: This could be boring - more for my benefit.

We borrowed a tradition many years ago. Instead of New Year resolutions, we do "Wisemen" gifts. Like the 3 Kings who bought gifts for the Christchild, we give gifts to Him also. The premise being that since we were celebrating His birth, He should get a gift. Somewhere in the chaos under the tree, the Wisemen statues stand next to a gift box containing our past goals. I'm not sure calling them "wisemen" gifts gave us any more resolve to complete our goals, but that was the idea... I do enjoy opening the gift box each year and seeing the girl's handwriting on the outside of their envelopes and how it has changed over the years.

My 'gifts' this year weren't much different than previous years. Catch up on scrapbooks... Hmmm, still stuck in December 2004. I mentioned in a previous blog about the "stop procrastinating" goal - failing already. I seem to be stuck in a "moment by moment" pattern. I woke up in the middle of the night (and no, I hadn't fallen asleep on the couch watching the news as I typically had, I was in my bed - now I watch the news standing). My mind started racing through everything I wanted to accomplish in 2009. Simplify, service, scrapbooks, and of course, and stop procrastination - or 'stop being slackers'. We have made progress in a few areas.

Thanks to friends who are better at finding service opportunities, we've adopted the "Giving Tree" - donating clothes, supplies and making dinners for the homeless. We also copied other friend's traditions - giving service gifts to each other instead of actual gifts - service and simplifying - awesome!

Simplify - as far as 'stuff' - we've had some success. It's amazing how many beanie babies are stored in the garage. Bethany and Marah donated 5 tubs of stuffed animals. The 'gently used' ones went to an orphanage in Mexico, and the 'like new' ones went to neighbors collecting for 'Toys for Tots'.

Simplify - like as our lives and activities - hmm, failing so far. For some reason, I feel like I'm waiting for some event to happen before I can move forward, but I can't seem to put a finger on what I'm waiting for - Coby to move out, getting a job??? The ward change definitely 'changed' things - and simplify isn't what happened to Russell's life... Xbox hasn't been touched for two weeks - other priorities. He is still finding time for basketball!

We (Russell, Bethany and I) definitely fell into slackerness. 2009 brings a return to what we call the "Megan rules" for Bethany - she gets to cook once a week, clean dishes once a week, work on her YW personal progress on Sundays... (The oldest three all lived by the "Megan rules".) Nothing like have three older daughters to remind me that I've become a slacker mom. You'd think with just one child left at home it would be easier, but I've decided that was a false assumption. The girls used to 'police' themselves. If someone wasn't doing their chores or was watching TV before homework was done, another sister would correct the situation. Now it's just me, and if I'm busy in another room, distracted or not home... She (and Marah) both counted on my old-age forgetfulness to get them out of chores and other responsibilities.

Four "S"s = service, simplify, scrapbooks and slackerness.

I'm hoping that by blogging failures, successes and goals, it will give me added incentive to keep trying! If nothing else, this blog has reminded me that Bethany hasn't cooked this week - except for a 'southern dish' for a school project...