A New Year

I have almost had an entire month to think about the year twenty ten. Each new year brings excitement and anticipation to what "new" goal I will be setting.

This year is going to be a little different for me. Instead of new year's resolutions that I normally jot down, maybe hang on the fridge, and then slowly forget about them one by one, I am going to make a "new month's" resolution!

Research shows three to four weeks is all the time you need to make a habit automatic. I am going to take this year to work on something new each month . . . and hopefully, by the end of the year I will have improved my life a month at a time!

So . . . my January goal has been to spend one on one time each day with each of my children. Reading homework counts. So does piano practicing. Pet shops and Tea Parties for sure. Painting nails. Playing Mario on the Wii. Snuggles on the couch. Watching Dora. Massaging hands with lotion and covering them with gloves at night (Ruby's new thing). Doing dishes together and cleaning up. It can be anything.

Time is ticking. My children are growing up F A S T. I tell Eric everyday at least three times how sad it makes me. I want to remember the "little moments" I have with each child: how we laughed, what we talked about, their smell, their little quirks, their expression, what they were wearing. . .

Time is such a precious commodity for us. There is never enough time in the day to do everything we would like to. I struggle with this. There is so much I want to get done with my day and by the time I crawl into bed at night (earlier than I wish), I often times feel like it was a waste. Time cannot be captured or saved. It's time for me to really pay attention to my days and what are being done with them.

I love what Dave Ramsey, a financial counselor says- "If you don't take care of and pay attention to your money, it will go somewhere else...to someone who is paying attention." I think time is an equally valuable resource, and if not cared for properly...it will be lost, and unlike money we can never get this day back.

Let this new year be the beginning of a new life in each of us where in "old things are passed away." Let all blessed old things stay, but let the clutter of our heads and hearts be removed, that new inspiration and new affections may come in to gladden our lives.

-chester emerson