Family Resolutions

As is tradition we did a Family Home Evening last week on making and setting goals and made some resolutions together.

Alan has set a goal to be able to run 5 miles in 45 minutes. A great goal and hopefully one he can reach before the Moorestown 8k in June. He also plans to finish school in May. I am really excited about that one! He would also like to write and publish a paper.

I have set goals to continue to be active through walking and running and to try to keep active through this pregnancy especially after a first trimester of utter fatigue. I also have my sights set on a possible 1/2 marathon in a year in Disney World (if we can get our family out there). I also will be doing preschool at home with Samantha, reading my scriptures regularly and keeping up our family blog.

Gabby has set a goal to eat healthier foods and also be more active. She wants to learn to ride her bike without training wheels (mom and dad are really tardy on that one). She wants to run with Daddy once a week and has a goal to be able to run 1 mile. And she wants to participate in the township sports programs.

Samantha wants to go on a real horse ride. Hmm, I wonder where we can do that? She also has goals to memorize our address and phone number, learn to write her name and learn the alphabet and do preschool with mom. She got the Leap Frog alphabet magnets for Christmas and the other day at dinner on a whim I had her learn A through D. Gabby pointed out that I was preschooling her. The next day at dinner she said "mommy, preschool me!"

Katherine's goals are to keep learning to talk which she is doing really well. She said her first sentence the other day in fact: "I want that", and has been saying more and more each day. We also have goals to potty train towards the end of the year.

Our Family/Couple/House into a Home goals:
3 temple trips this year. (I hope we are still here when the Philly temple is built because I would love to do more than 3 in a year.)

3 Family outings - one has already been done. We went to the Franklin Institute and got a family membership. Guess I know where the other two outings will be. Frankly (haha) I think we should try to do more than 3 family outings but with Alan trying to finish school and a new baby coming this summer it may be all we can do. But this doesn't count time going to visit grandparent's and the Taber beach week in August.

Save money for a trip to Disney World in a year. (Which is a secret from the kids at the moment so shhh...)

Redo our family room. Yep. That will be a job. Ideas for a massive brick fireplace? Personally I think the brick is ugly. Might paint it. Would love to tile it but that may be asking too much. Maybe drywall part of it in and then tile the rest. It is brick floor to ceiling and covers most of a wall. Anyway, we'll save that for another time.

Redo entryway stairs and hallway and finish our living room. The stairs need painting. The entry and hall could stand to have that textured-wallpaper-that's-been-painted-over removed. We did our living room a while ago but needed to touch up the paint around the ceiling and our vents were never put back. Shabby job that needs fixing.

Clean the basement and set up our food storage.

Fix all the drafty windows and doors and check on air ducts (the basement is warmer than I think it ought to be) all done before next winter sets in.

I think that is plenty for one year. Hopefully we can get these things done, meet our goals, be in better health and spend good times together. It'll be a good year I think.