I found this photo on Facebook the other day and I thought it summed the New Year up perfectly!
For me as a mother, I have found this new and refreshed feeling comes about two times a year, January and September, when the kids go back to school. It is at both these times of the year, I find myself with the overwhelming urge to organize! I approach each new year with optimism, this will be the year I get it all figured out! I will finally form those good habits of going to bed early each night with a tidy house, full refrigerator, empty dishwasher, laundry folded, meals planned, lunches made, children bathed and tucked into bed. It is not long however, that reality sinks in and there never seems to be enough hours in the day.
I think we need to not be so hard on ourselves and stop creating unrealistic expectations. If we don't cut ourselves some slack who will? I think its great to set goals and make resolutions, but we also need to allow ourselves room to fail, allow time to pick ourselves back up, and be okay with trying again.
I can't tell you how many times I have tried to set a family schedule to follow, I had such great intentions, and I loved having things spelled out in front of me to follow. But, inevitably I would leave very little room for failure, and after only a few days in, the planned meals were not being cooked, the routine was not followed and I gave up with a feeling of failure. So... I am working on being okay with failure and allowing myself to be picked back up and to get back on the saddle, but this time I am going set myself up for success with flexibly and understanding built in, and I am going to be kind to myself when I fall off, offering a helping hand rather then a judgmental one, as we really are our own worst critic sometimes!
Over the years I have learned to not go too crazy with the New Years resolutions and to allow myself some blunders along the way! But, I do enjoy the fresh feeling of a new year, it feels like you have opened up a brand new journal with pages and pages of crisp white paper awaiting your next story, I think it's the possibilities that excite me, the unknown can be scary but it can also give such hope for the infinite possibilities of what the year has in store. You never know..... maybe this is the year, I go to bed early each night with a tidy house, a full refrigerator, an empty dishwasher, laundry folded, meals planned, lunches made, with my children bathed and tucked into bed!.... a girl can dream!!
