New Year 2012

With the insanity of the holidays, I didn't get our Christmas letter out until the new year:

As I mentioned in the letter, my main goal this year was to slow things down.  It was a very hard decision to make, but I decided I needed to stop taking cake orders.  I love the work, but it's WORK, and is usually a 2-3 process between baking, decorating, and cleanup.  I found myself ignoring my kids, or worse, being irritated or snappy with them because they were 'interfering.'  Turns out I can't be a good mother and a good cake decorator at the same time.  And so it's something I have to put aside until later, because right now there's nothing I want to be more than I want to be a mother.

I made my other goals very realistic.  With two little ones at home, my time to myself is very limited.  I came up with a 15 minute system that has been working really well for me.  Basically, every day (with flexibility on weekends),  I do the following:

15 minutes of scripture study

15 minutes of reading to Seth (he usually gets more like 30 because I love it so much.  Oh, and I would add Catherine in here, too, but she still prefers to eat the books instead of read them.)

15 minutes of exercise

15 minutes of regular house cleaning

15 minutes of deep cleaning

15 minutes of working on one of my projects

The first two are priorities--they happen EVERY DAY.  And the last one doesn't happen very often, but it's a nice idea.  But just having some idea of what I should accomplish every day--that has been a huge help for me.  Ask Jon--our house has stayed fairly tidy, I feel like I have so much more energy, and I feel like I'm getting 'something' done every day.  

It's funny because I feel like this isn't very much, but I still have to get up at 5:30 with Jon in order to accomplish it all.  Days where we sleep in...things don't happen.  Funny how that works.  

I've promised myself a new pair of jeans if I keep this up until my birthday.  And I will get a pair that I like and that fit how I want them to, no matter how much they cost!  Here's to a good year!