Hard at work writing goals playing Balderdash.
We’re home from a wonderful visit with family, just in time to set my goals for 2011! We prepared for the visit by watching old family videos, talking about aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, and describing how the flight would go. I did not meet my goal of setting up an airport security play station, but Johnny did fine on the flight without it – hooray!!! Having my brother and sister along for the flight there and my sister along for the flight home made a huge difference, especially since it meant we had at least one adult per child! We carried on car seats for Emma and Johnny, and as much work as it was to haul the car seats through the airport, it made keeping the kids in their seats much easier. I think it also gave them a greater sense of security. Lily’s stroller made a good car seat transporter, and I took her through the airport in our ERGO carrier. In the past, I’ve been allowed to take her through security in the carrier; this time they made me take her out. I’m not sure if that’s because she’s no longer a small baby, or due to new regulations. I was extremely grateful to the Salt Lake Airport for providing a family security lane – in Boston we kept getting cut in front of by people traveling on their own who were frustrated by how long we were taking. As far as reaching other goals, I got our house mostly organized before leaving on the trip, and we donated four large bags of outgrown clothing. And we had a fantastic time seeing family! We are slowly adjusting to life without twenty extra people around all the time. Traveling with little ones is challenging, but I am so grateful to have been able to make the trip! Emma and Johnny played with aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, and Lily took care of her baby cousins! Lily was especially fond of her newborn cousin, and she gave my new mom sister lots of advice. I enjoyed seeing Johnny’s excitement over snowball fights, Emma’s careful artistry decorating gingerbread houses, and Lily’s excitement over real live babies! And we are all celebrating my brother getting engaged!!! Time to start planning and saving for another cross-country trip, to the wedding in Arizona come April!
We enjoyed the month of December before we left, also. Johnny had his first two speech therapy sessions through the school system in our town, and he enjoyed both sessions. He is lucky enough to share his speech therapy classes with a good friend! The kids also enjoyed Johnny’s birthday party, decorating gingerbread houses, our Christmas tree, and making beautiful advent cards and Christmas wreaths. We all learned about statistics, and I am thrilled to report that Emma is still loving her coat!
For 2011, I’m keeping the areas I worked on in 2010, but I’ve decided to rename charity as generosity, since I feel that it more accurately portrays what I’m working towards. So here are the areas for 2011:
- Health: Helping my family eat well and getting the exercise we all need to be happy.
- Peace: Limiting conflicts, disagreements, and meltdowns – and managing them well when they do occur.
- Education: Identifying my children’s interests and using these interests to teach them. Challenging myself to learn new things too, and to use the talents I already have.
- Gratitude: Teaching my children (and myself) to appreciate what we have rather than focusing on what we want.
- Generosity: Loving, sharing, and giving to others.
Goals for January:
- Get the kids outside as much as possible in the cold weather. Target area: health
- Get the kids back on their 7/7:30pm bedtime. Target area: health and peace
- Investigate class options for Emma and possibly Johnny. I’m thinking dance, music, gymnastics, or possibly art. Any thoughts or recommendations? Target areas: health and education
- Write thank you notes for gifts. Target areas: gratitude and education
- Get more child participation in my quest for a clean and tidy house – suggestions of how to do this effectively are much appreciated! Target areas: peace, gratitude, and education
What are your goals?
This linky list is now closed. |
Happy New Year!!!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I love the way you break down your goals… fantastic!
I found your 2011 goals post after visiting The Toy Box Years. I really loved this idea and have posted about it adding a link to your blog!
I love these monthly posts of yours. You seem so focused and on top of things, yet make it seem really do-able! It’s very encouraging to someone like me who lacks focus, but wants it very, very badly. ;) I like your comment about gratitude – we need to work on that this month too, especially after all the “I want” that goes along with Christmas (unfortunately).
I know you had a wonderful time on your trip and am glad you made it back safely too. Hoping this upcoming week is a good one for all of you and the kids get well adjusted quickly to being back at home and in bed early:-).
Your goals for this year are fantastic Mary Anne and I always enjoy reading about how they progress each month.
As for the clean home advice, I’d tell you what I do, but you’d think I was insane:-). I am way too OCD Mary Anne:-)!!
I’m all for art classes, but gymnastics would be great for both kids too.
I can finally link up! I think it would be so fun to be from a large family. One time I was flying with K in my Ergo carrier (at 12 months old), and he had just fallen asleep in it, and the flight attendant told me that I couldn’t wear him in it during landing. If looks could kill! I always love reading your goals. They are inspiring.
Happy New Year to you, Mike, Emma, Johnny and Lily. Wishing you all the very best for 2011. I hope this year is filled with good health, joy and peace for your family.
Sounds like your trip went wonderfully well and your family had a lot to celebrate – a new baby cousin and an engagement.
I really like how you succinctly broke down your goals for 2011. My goals are very similar to yours for this upcoming year.
I am also looking at activities for my cherubs to do in 2011. I am looking for classes where Blakie and Taleea can attend at the same time as Savvy will be starting Kindy at the end of January for a couple of days a week. I am looking into some music classes. I am also going to re-enrol Blakie into his physical play class as he really enjoyed this last year.
Great list! I am not a goal person, but I should be!
Great goals, and I am glad that you had a great trip! We are thinking of a swimming class for Anna, because swimming is both a great whole body exercise and a life skill.
That looks like so much fun! I love Balderdash! So pleased for you as well that your travels went smoothly. Yea!
You asked about class options, and I would say it depends on what is available in your area and what you’d like your kids to know more about that they are either excited about already or aren’t experiencing otherwise.
To keep our house tidy (I’ll be looking for others’ input on cleaning…) I insist that the kids pick up before (a) going anywhere or (b) eating anything. With this rule firmly in place, the toys and books get put away with minimal intervention from me. Also, having “a place for everything” (basket for balls, bucket for Legos, etc) makes it easy to check that “everything is in its place” when the kids pick up.
Happy new year! It’s been so great to swap ideas with you this year – here’s to lots more in 2011.
I haven’t flown with the girls, but I’m glad to hear some airports have “family” lanes. I would imagine it takes away the frustration for everyone. Happy New Year!
I’m so glad to hear airport security went smoothly.
At some point I’ll work on my goals and plans for this year, but it’ll be a bit.