Doin' Fine in Twenty-Aught-Nine

Alrighty! It is time once again for the New Years' Resolutions and the announcement of the family theme for the year! Hip hip hooray! And yes, it must rhyme. It's no secret, it's up there at the top: "Doin' Fine in Twenty-Aught-Nine" will be the theme to live by for the year! Now for the Resolutions....

Oh! Wait, before I go on, let's review how last year's resolutions went. If you need a reminder (because I sure did!), you can see last year's post here (well, maybe, I still don't know if I have this "link" thing down yet, maybe that should be one of my 2009 Resolutions, eh? If not, you can find it down on the sidebar in archives for 2007, December).

OK, to review:

Colleen #1-99.99999% accomplished. I had soda twice this year, once when my dad, who did not remember my resolution bought me one at the movie theater without me realizing it, and come on! Those cost like $4.00 a cup! I couldn't NOT drink it! And I can't remember the other time, but I am almost positive there were two. But yay for me! Two times! While I won't swear soda off completely again for another year, I definitely won't have it very often. I feel much better without it!

Colleen #2-I didn't lose 13 pounds, but did lose some and got in good shape for our trip to PV. I have a weight line that is hard to bust through, any advice there would be welcome (and don't tell me to cut out all sweets, because that ain't happening. I mean what's life without good food?), but I felt great, and thought I looked just fine, and that's what it's all about right?

Colleen #3-Complete and utter failure. And I am OK with the fact that I am a lazy, sleepy kind-of girl. I will probably not resolve to do this again. Which is why I am sure that at some point I am going to be called to be an early morning seminary teacher for our church.

Adam #1-Not perfect results, he didn't get to climbing Pikes before PV, but I think that had to do a lot more with lack of time, rather than lack of desire. And he is exercising about twice a week. Not too shabby.

Adam #2-Zach and Adam didn't get through the whole BOM, but did get through the Book of Omni and they both would like to continue their reading together.

Family #1- No, we definitely did not reach the shout-less home as I foresaw in my dreams. But we did better this year, and I think we will continue this one on to next year. Unfortunately the limited shouting has led to extremely long lectures for the boys, I don't know which is worse. I will have to ask.

Family #2 and #3-We did so much better with family prayers and scripture reading. We didn't bat 1000, but we were probably around 650. So I am calling us safe at third.

Josh #1-While we were never quite sure what this one meant, we feel he had an excellent year of play, so hurrah!

Josh #2-Josh is one of the best-sharing four-year-olds I know. We're not just talking toys, he even shares treats! Without being asked! He brought a big cupcake home from his Sunbeam teachers the Sunday before Christmas and asked if we could cut it into fourths so his brothers could have some. Man, that kid rocks!

Zach #1-Zach is a pretty respectful guy to everyone outside the family, and more often than not to us as well, but there is still room for improvement on this one, especially towards his bros and parents. Primarily in the "stop-when-we-say-stop" and "not-argue-about-everything-we-ask-you-to-do-or-not-do" categories.

Zach #2-Done! He did a great job this year making good choices and was baptized less than a week ago!

Ben #1-Ben loves getting dressed, and does so now on his own, without being asked, all the time. It is great! Although, he could use some help on his matching. But beggars can't be choosers, right?

Ben #2-He has become a great listener. Really, no complaints here; keep it up buddy! If all of his brothers could listen as well as he, maybe that "no shouting" thing would have been a bit more successful. Hopefully Joshie will choose this one for '09!

Luke #1-Over and done with. He still isn't what I would call a "big" eater; but he eats, if slowly, most of what he is given and any and all treats.

Luke #2-He sleeps like a champ for nap and night, unless we happen to wake him up while checking on him before we go to bed. Then it is up all night for us! Ug. But that's our fault, not his, so way to go Lukey!

Whew! That's done with then...so now on to our Resolutions for 2009:

Family #1-Continue to improve on scripture reading and family prayer.

Family #2-Continue to work on shouting less

Family #3-Start our compost bin. We moved from a state where the waste management actually sends an extra bin for you to compost in, to a state where people just toss their compostable items, and if you do compost, it is so dry that you have to water it to actually get it to decay. Lovely. But we want it anyway, especially since this summer we want to plant a victory garden...I know they aren't called that anymore, but it sounds so cute.

Family #4-Get a better budget nailed down and stick to it.

Family #4 1/2 (an addendum to #4)- Have a lot of good, inexpensive fun. We are on a quest to find the most amazingly fun things to do together on the cheap! We do a lot of hiking already, but we are searching out more. For example, we hear there is a good place to BMX bike around here. That's at top of our list once it warms up a wee bit!

**I know, a couple of these are rather un-original considering they were last year's Resolutions too, but we like them, so we will keep them.**

Colleen #1-I will work on reading my scriptures daily, as well as reading the manual they give us at church for our women's group before every Sunday meeting.

Colleen #2-I am determined to live more in the moment instead of waiting for the...well, waiting for whatever...there are so many things that pull us from appreciating the moments we have. And they go by so quickly. I want to be more present.

Adam #1-Be more patient, especially with the kids.

Adam #2-Focus more on the boys while they are young (while they will allow me to focus on them)!

Zach #1-Ask less to play video games and stop when my time is up.

Zach #2-Play nicer with Ben and Josh, and everyone else.

Ben #1-Be less whiny.

Ben #2-Be less bossy with my friends.

Josh #1-Be nice to Ben and Zach and Lukey.

Josh #2-To say, "Thank you!" instead of "That's not what I wanted!"

Luke #1-To talk more and more.

Luke #2-Stop head-butting my brothers and sitting on Ruby.

So there you have it, folks! Those are the ways we will be Doin' Fine in Twenty-Aught-Nine! We are looking forward to an amazing year, and hope you are too!