Happy New Year - 2012

Wow and Horray! A new year! I can't even believe we just finished 2011. We had a wonderful year and we are excited for the future year! I have really been thinking about a few personal and family goals that I would like to improve upon during 2012. This is what I have come up with so far...

1. Daily personal scripture study. The Lord does not ask for us to be perfect, but he does ask that we work to improve ourselves each day. I am beginning this year by striving to improve my personal scripture study. My goal: I will ready my scriptures every day. I am super excited because I really do love reading the words of the Lord and His prophets. I know that in keeping this goal, my days will begin with light and strength... which I need desperately from the Lord while being a mother to and nurturing my sweet children with which He has blessed me.
2. Improve on meal planning, preparing meals, budgeting meals, involving my children in meals, etc. This is really an all encompassing goal for me and will take some time... but I really have a desire to improve and do better for 2012. I have been reading on the blog Chocolate on my Crainum (homemaking for beginners), and I have been inspired to improve greatly on meal planning so I can also help my children to learn and improve in this area. I feel like she has some great ideas and I am excited to implement some of them and then figure out what works for our family. I am going to start slow and make realistic goals for myself for where I am at (which means... "Plan dinner for each day... and make it"), but I also hope to start incorporating and learning to cook with our food storage and plan meals accordingly.
• Here are the links to the "Teaching your children to cook", the 3 part series on the blog mentioned above. Cooking and Baking - Meal Planning - Grocery Lists and Shopping. This will make it easier for me to refer back to them in making my plan.
• BTW: Don't think that my mom didn't teach me this, all of this ... she most certainly DID, however, learning something and actually doing it are two different things. Now, I actually have to do what I have been taught, and I am going to "start at the very beginning... a very good place to start!"
3. Entering a blog post on this blog each Sunday afternoon. I do enjoy writing and getting my thoughts down on this blog. SO, to have a better "family journal" of sorts, and to clear my mind and write, I am going to make a blog entry each week on Sunday afternoon. I would have you know, that some of them may not be actually posted, depending on the personal content of my post and if I really want "the whole world" to read it, but I will make a blog entry and save it under my drafts if necessary.

Cheers! Here is to a brand new year with much to look forward to. Don't think that this is an all incompassing list of what I want to do this year... or that if I accomplish these things, I will be perfect. These are just a few goals that I wish to improve upon to strenghten my family and I.

So, lets start now! Today is day #1! Happy New Year!