last year's resolutions

Hello!  I haven't done an update on my resolutions since August, but not because I haven't been working on them!  It's mostly because I was out of town for almost the whole month of September and then got a foster placement and then in October got another one.  Things have been busy around here.  :)  But here's a quick update:

September - I put all my energies into helping my family as we moved my grandma out of her house and into a new place.  

October - I honestly can't remember.  Maybe I didn't have a goal that month?

November - My goal was to feel good about myself as a mom, as this was really the first time I'd been one.  This wasn't my goal because I'd previously felt bad about myself as a mom; I just know a lot of moms do and I never wanted to start.

December - All of my previous goals had been done as someone with no children.  Children busy life up a lot, so my goal this month was to incorporate the year's goals as best as I could with children.  It was hard, I definitely wasn't perfect, and I know how I want to improve this year, but I'm happy that I figured out how to be better at so many things before having kids.  I think it made this month a little easier.

And now... for the big reveal........

I told you in January that I'd be making small goals each month in order to reach an overarching goal.  I also told you that goal was too personal to share - as in, I wanted to accomplish it by myself, without reminders or pressure from others - but at the end of the year, I'd tell you what it was.

No one knows this.  (Even my husband.)

Are you ready?

Drum roll please...

Get ready for the sap fest!

My goal for 2014 was to become more like my parents.  :)

It's sparkling grape juice, I promise. Also, aren't my parents great selfie takers?

My mom and dad are the best parents in the entire world.  Probably the best people in the entire world.  In my completely unbiased opinion.  :)  Joel and I spent Christmas 2013 at their house, and the whole time I was there I noticed habits they had that I wished I did.  Their house runs so well!  Their habits seem more perfect than any other family's I know.  (Theirs is the only house I've lived in, so I don't know what any others are like.  Maybe yours is great, too.:)  I have always admired these things about them, but for some reason, it was in my mind ALL THE TIME during that vacation and after we got home.  So when 2014 started, my mind was full of things I wanted to do like them and my overarching goal was born.  I wrote a list of ways to improve, spread them out through the year, and worked all year to accomplish them.  I also said in January that "this resolution is more important to me than some, and more possible than many, and I know how happy I will be if I keep it..."  I didn't reach my goals perfectly, and many of them only lasted the one month, but I still work hard at them every day!  I don't think a day ever goes by that I don't ask myself what one or both of my parents would do in my situation.  They are amazing.

Told you it'd be a sap fest.  :)

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The door that led to the kitchens was blasted off its hinges.  The house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the entrance hall, screaming and waving carving knives and cleavers, and at their head, the locket of Regulus Black bouncing on his chest, was Kreacher, his bullfrog’s voice audible even above this din: “Fight! Fight! Fight for my Master, defender of house-elves!  Fight the Dark Lord, in the name of brave Regulus!  Fight!”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows