New Year.....New Resolutions.

Happy New Year my Enlightened Homemaker friends! I hope you all had a great Christmas and are ready for a great New Year! I love the new year. I love goals and the chance to sort of start a new. I love looking back on the year to see where I started and where I ended up. There were set backs along the way, but all in all, I feel I did travel in an somewhat upward path. I feel that I learned so much and gained a deeper testimony in the miracles of God and the love he has for me as an individual. I have learned that this life is a blink and that what we do with it has tremendous repercussions. I have realized that life moves much faster the older you get and that amid the chaos and craziness we must stop and enjoy the moment. We are expected to work hard in this life, but we are also taught that we must have joy. Finding that balance is the challenge. Always a challenge. I have realized the blessing of good friends and influences in my life and a sincere "thanks" goes out to all of you who have sustained me in my efforts and nourished me along the way. This blog has been my journey of enlightenment this past year and I thank you for not only being on the journey with me but contributing greatly along the way with inspiration and insight. Sisterhood is a wonderful thing. We all need each other to get through this life and to become the mothers we want to be. Thanks for sharing. May we continue in 2009 to become even better!

As far as goals for this upcoming year, I have pondered what I need to focus on; what my family needs, what I need, what my relationships need. There are always the basic goals of shedding the winter coat and getting ready for swim suit season, but those goals seem so trivial compared to the tasks we have at hand this next year. We all know that this world is a different place than the world we grew up in and it will only continue along that downward path. Raising our children in this environment is tough, scary and exhausting. We have not only the influences of the world on them to worry about but also the effect of the economy in providing for them. My thoughts continually go to the idea of FORTIFICATION (please read that carefully) . Our job is to make our homes the refuge from the storm. I cannot control the value of the dollar, the cost of a gallon of gas or the lack of morality in the world but I can at least attempt to control what happens inside the walls of my home. To fortify my home I must do so both spiritually and temporally. Spiritually will entail a more valiant effort at scripture study, prayer and family home evening. It will entail a monthly meeting with each child to see where they are and the personal progress they are making. It will entail understanding what is going on in their worlds and how to best protect them from what is out there, ie, internet, cell phones and other influences. It will mean I need to work on my own ability to be inspired so I can know what I need to be doing to make this all happen. Temporally I need to make sure that no matter what happens with this troubled economy that I will be able to provide for my family. I need to make sure that my shelves are well stocked for meals for the year , general supplies are on hand and savings are increased. These goals have always been important to me but this year I feel a more of an urgency that it needs to happen now. I know we all feel this and procrastination needs to not be an option. This year will be a dedication on my part to self reliance. Our crazy world right now has the idea that our government should be the ones to take care of our every need. Pay off our debts, schooling, food. We are in charge of ourselves, our families. It is our job. I am not going to be waiting for Obama to deliver a basket of fruit to my door when the world is starving. I hope that we are all taking this seriously.

May we all be inspired this upcoming year and continue on the upward path. May we focus on what is truly important and what we need to be doing as mothers of these incredible little spirits. I am thankful for another year. Another chance at growth and becoming who I need to be.

Happy New Year!