Well, it is officially Black Friday.  Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is around the corner.  This time of year can definitely be bittersweet.  If you savor every joyful moment and really “live in the NOW”, it is a wonderful, rewarding season and the holidays are great.  But if you put all your time and effort into decorating, planning, shopping, and cooking, and never really get to relax and enjoy it all, it can be quite depressing.  December 26th will get here, all the festivities will be over, the family has gone back home, you’re left with a giant mess to clean up, three bins of decor to put away, and ten pounds to work off!  It’s all about priorities.  What are your goals for the holidays?  Are you trying not to spend as much this year?  Do you have any community service projects planned to help the needy or reach out to another family in your life?  You have to think outside the box in order to get the most out of the holidays.  For me, I love spending time with our families.  I love watching my boys play with their aunts and uncles, I love our family traditions.  I enjoy do my regular household activities and chores with Christmas music in the background.  This year, I’m trying to let my boys take on more responsibility by allowing them to help me bake our Christmas goodies and deliver them to our neighbors.  I’m trying to teach them about humility and having a servant’s heart.  It is so easy for kids these days to be self-focused and self-centered.  ”It’s All About ME!”  It drives me crazy when commercials come on while they’re watching cartoons and I hear them shouting out, “I WANT THAT TOY!  I WANT THAT CAR!  I WANT THAT GAME!”  I know that kids will be kids, but it really bothers me that they are so oblivious to other people and their needs.  We are working on that this year.  

Anyways, I digress.  I also love this time of year because it is like ending a short story.  The year is coming to a close, wrap up your loose ends and prepare to start over.  Set new goals; not like “new years resolutions”.  I don’t believe in those.  But set new goals or update the ones you already have.  For my husband and me, we’re on a severe debt diet.  We’re following Dave Ramsey’s plan and our debt snowball is gaining momentum.  So when January 1, 2009 gets here, we’ll update our debt snowball and see how things are coming along.  How about your health?  For me, I have about 30 pounds to lose before I want to get pregnant again.  I’d love to have our fourth and final baby in 2009, but I have no desire to be pregnant at the weight I’m at now.  However, I’m not waiting for January 2009 to get started on that goal.  We leave to go home tomorrow and I plan to start losing weight and getting healthy as soon as I get home!

Also, I’m looking forward to starting and exploring new things in our homeschooling.  January marks the start of the second half of the school year and we’re going to be making some changes and joining ranks with some friends of ours who have decided to homeschool starting in January.

Regardless of your goals or your life circumstances, it is up to you to determine how your holidays will pan out.  We always have the power to choose joy in our own life.  We’re having a very, very small Christmas this year.  We’re not doing gifts at all with my husbands side of the family and I am very excited about that.  We will all save money and our focus will be on the important things rather than who got what.  It takes a lot of stress off, thats for sure.  This time of year is supposed to be about love, generosity, thanksgiving, and joy.  Live your days with purpose.  Decide each morning that you’re going to choose joy.  Trust me, people will notice.

~audrey

Good grief this week went by fast!!  I’m overwhelmed with how much ’stuff’ I have to do over the next five or six days before Thanksgiving.  Of course, I’ve already started my to-do lists that are full of cleaning, shopping, cooking, baking, traveling, working, but it really helps me to put it all down hour by hour on my planner.  I have a really great “homeschool planner and record keeper”.  It is made by Homeschool Inovations and I actually bought it on Ebay, but it was by far my biggest ‘can’t live without it’ item that I bought since  beginning homeschooling.  Anyways, my planner leaves room for all of MY things, in addition to lesson plans and schedules for the boys.  My goal for today is to write out the details of each day, tomorrow through Wednesday, so I don’t miss anything important, and hopefully I’ll find time to get ahead so I can just have some fun days with the boys before heading to my mom’s.  Of course, one of my favorite things about going out of town, is preparing my own house for our return.  I like to make sure the entire house is clean, there are fresh sheets on all the beds, the laundry is caught up, and everything smells good when we get back!  I actually like to have my house in this condition (or something close to it) every Friday so I can relax over the weekend, but that just ain’t happening today.  I’m going to take a break from the hussle and bussle and take the boys to see my mom.  Have a wonderful Friday, a relaxing weekend, and a productive Monday and Tuesday!

~audrey

I don’t know about you, but I always do a better job at something, or stick with a commitment longer, if I have accountability.  Whether it’s a workout partner, my husband, a weekly meeting with my best friend, accountability is always effective.  This goes with cleaning and organization as well.  I love www.Flylady.com.  Flylady is a free service offered online to help you get your household in order (mostly in regards to cleaning, but they do some financial stuff now too).  One of the best things about Flylady is they teach babysteps.  They’re motto is, “You are not behind, you’re just getting started!”  It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you feel like you’re years behind on your clutter control and cleaning, but if you look at it as a brand new challenge that you’re beginning today, then somehow, it seems more attainable.  Flylady sends you emails several times each day asking you how you are doing with your routine.  Have you done taken five minutes to drink your water and take your vitamins?  Have you taken 15 minutes to declutter a hotspot?  These are things you’d be held accountable on with Flylady.  If you’re interested, I encourage you to visit their site.  It is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my house.  Flylady teaches you how to make a household notebook (they call it a ‘control journal’).  I call mine a household notebook because mine is SO much more than just the stuff in their control journals.

Another example of the power of accountability is in my homeschooling.  I’ve really enjoyed our first year of homeschooling, but I’ve just gotten an extra boost because my best friend Ashley has informed me that she’ll be pulling her five year old out of his public school after Christmas and will finish out the year homeschooling.  That accountability and motivation is just what I need to give me that extra push to be more creative in my teaching, think outside the box, and also the promise of more ‘adult conversations’ with Ashley throughout the week since she won’t be working anymore!!    We’ve already started brain storming about how we’re going to do this together and make sure the boys get the most out of their kindergarten year at home.  We’re planning field trips, teaching rotations, art projects, sharing material and curriculum; I’m really excited! 

Everyone benefits from accountability.  What are the areas in your life in which you need the most accountability? 

~audrey