Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Happy New Year

So it is now day 5 of 2011 and we're back into real life with our crazy busy schedules and hectic lives. I've only been back at work for 3 days and I already feel like I need a vacation because of how busy things are, but truth be told I love it when it's busy and I bring a lot of the extra work on myself! The extra things are the parts of my job that I love the most and the reason I keep teaching! I'm going to keep telling myself this over the next month and half as I move into what I like to call "DECA season!" DECA is the club I sponsor at my school and we're now the biggest club at Kecoughtan. We have two state officers this year, a national officer candidate, two state officer candidates, tons of students participating in competitive events and a school store to run. None of those things are requirements of my job, but they are the parts I like best so I do them anyway and complain when they stress me out :)

Noah's classes have started up again so he is at school on Monday nights and Izabel has gymnastics on Wednesday nights. Tuesday and Thursday nights I get home late and of course the weekends are always booked solid. I start my classes in another week so as you can see....busy just isn't the word.

But even though our lives are crazy, January seems to be the time that I handle the stress the best. I always make resolutions and I can manage to stick with them through January at least :) This year I will renew my resolution to have an empty sink every night before I go to bed. I made this one a couple years ago and have stuck to it almost completely since then. Now I can't imagine leaving dishes in the sink over night! I also gave up soda again. I've done this a few times unsuccessfully (as you can probably see in a post from this time last year) but I thought I'd try it again. I drink more water when I'm not drinking soda so it's good for me and I feel better.

Our biggest resolution is one Noah and I made together. We want to be more patient and interactive with the kids. It's hard to admit but in the afternoons/evenings when we get home after a long day at work we just want to chill out on the couch. Of course the kids want our attention and they are hungry and tired so everyone is cranky. We lose our patience much easier than we would like. Our goal is not to yell and to use time-out when necessary, but to get down and play with the kids more or let them help do whatever we are doing (i.e. making dinner or folding laundry) in order to avoid the unacceptable behavior. So far we've been doing well for the one night we were all home :) We all took down the Christmas decorations together. Our biggest challenge is bedtime when Izabel stalls for an hour and we are exhausted, but we're trying and in time I know evenings will be smoother and we'll all be happier!

So here's to New Year's Resolutions that we keep and those that we try to keep! Do you make resolutions??? Leave a comment and share them. I think putting them in writing and sharing with others will help keep us all more accountable! I'll keep you updated on how ours is going:)
Happy New Year!