Goals for 2021

Each New Year when I set new goals, I usually start out pretty ambitious. Then by February I’m burnt out and by March I’ve adjusted my goals so I don’t feel like a big fat failure. This year, I tried to keep it manageable from the get go. My simple goals are to drink less caffeine and be healthier. I’m down to one soda a day now! Soon I will only be drinking it every now and then.

Kender teaching Rhett to play chess

I admit I did feel like a failure when I tried to start our new "manageable" school routine on Monday. All I wanted to do was add in daily family scripture study and one lesson per child from our favorite curriculum. Oh, and make the boys make their beds and brush their teeth every morning. That’s it. Well, I ended up fighting with Rhett for about an hour because he thinks making the top bunk is too hard... and I don’t disagree... But we were both feeling stubborn, and tears were shed by both of us. We ended up doing  school as usual, with none of the "reasonable" things I wanted to add in.

I love watching Mason use his imagination to play with toys! He’s growing up so fast. 

Feeling defeated, I started listening to my current audiobook, "Call of the Wild and Free". It talked about all the homeschool curriculum out there, and how it’s great, but not really necessary in this day and age with all the information and resources we have constant access to. It talked about the importance of letting kids learn at their own pace, and nurturing their natural passion for learning. I decided I’d rather have a messy bed and a happy boy than start every day making my sweet 6 year old cry. Today, I didn’t mention the bed or the teeth brushing, and he actually decided to get started with school on his own. It was a much better day for us!

So my new goal is to start each day with a family scripture lesson from our church’s Come Follow Me curriculum and then have the boys continue doing our school routine that is working for us right now. I hate that there isn’t as much "one on one" time available with each of them that I’d like, but at this stage in life, I need to remember to give myself some grace. 2020 was nuts, and 2021 is kind of starting that way too. We are doing pretty dang good all things considered!