Make It Count Monday: New Year's Edition

Well, it's here. Today is the last day of 2012. What a year. On New Year's Eve last year, I had just a tiny bump (it felt ginormous at the time, go figure!) and right now, I'm writing this from a hotel room bed, with two littles rolling around playing next to me on the bed. There's a steady stream of "ma-ma, ma-ma" coming from Erin as she grabs her toes, and next to my right elbow, Emily is playing with a plastic frog and trying to figure out the trick to opening a screw-top bottle. My belly might look pretty much the same as last year at this time, but my life has changed completely. And I love it.

I shared my goals for the New Year last Friday. Some will take more time than others, but I think most of them are attainable within a year. There aren't any that apply specifically to Emily and Erin, but all of them are aimed at making our family's home a simpler, healthier, and calmer place - so they will benefit anyway.

It's tempting sometimes to think that you can take yourself and flip a switch on January 1st. Just because the calendar changes, you can automatically start exercising, eating healthier, and keeping everything organized. For the most part, however, the same challenges apply as they did in the past. I think my goal for this week will be to identify the obstacles which prevented these things from being achieved in the past, and then try to figure out how best to overcome them.

Motivation (what I accomplished last week): Last week was one of those where we were really busy, but it didn't feel like anything was actually getting accomplished. I have to remind myself that I did get all of our homemade Christmas gifts put together and wrapped for our friends and family, and we managed to navigate numerous gatherings with family and friends throughout the course of the week. Emily and Erin went with us to six family get-togethers in three days! Since our culture is one that equates busyness with productivity, it can be frustrating to feel busy yet unproductive. Around the holidays, however, simply seeing family and friends is really what matters. My back-of-my-mind goal was to make sure that Emily and Erin were included in everything, and I'm pretty sure we accomplished that :)

Direction (what I'd like to accomplish this week): I want to identify and figure out how to overcome the obstacles that have prevented us from achieving our goals in the past, so we can achieve them this year.

Accountability (how I will make this happen): We have a nice long drive ahead of us tomorrow, so what better time to identify the obstacles and plan to overcome them?

I'm linking up with Megan for Make it Count Monday!