A Whole New Year of Mondays!

Wow! There is always something a little exciting to me about the first Monday after New Year's. As much as I love (well, love some years more than others ;-)) the holidays, it always feels good to get back to *real life*, and I always enjoy the planning and goal-setting that seems to go along with that.

I posted last week about my One Little Word for 2008. Shortly after that post, I began to think that I would really like to do a monthly focus word as I work toward making 2008 the year of *Haven* for our family. I was so excited to see this post by Heidi about doing that very thing! A key part of that for me is moving from being a *planner* to a *doer*. I am *great* at making plans and lists...but unfortunately, in the past few years, I've gotten in the *habit* of not following through on many of my plans. So...my watchword for January is *follow-through*. I am really trying to follow-through on the plans and lists I make, and actually work toward the goals.

I've certainly not crossed off everything on my *to do* lists so far this year, and I'm already behind in some areas as far as plans and goals are concerned. But even with a couple of major interruptions, I've *kept on keeping on* and made a *lot* of progress. (I'm involved in an online time management/procrastination busters challenge that has been a great motivator, too.) Hopefully this week will see even *more* things crossed off my list as we work toward a fully functioning schedule:

Bible Study/Child Training:

While we are continuing with some things that we started before Christmas, we are also starting out the year by getting back to the basics. I decided a few weeks ago to read the Bible through chronologically this year (and yes, I am already behind, but I plan to be caught up by the end of this week!). The kids and I are also going to read through the Bible chronologically.

In the area of child training, we are doing some *refresher* work on the basics of first time obedience with a good attitude, and being respectful. After a family session with dad on Sunday, yesterday went *much* better. I'm also planning to do some more detailed chore lists for the kids...broken down into the *parts* of a chore, in checklist form. My children already seem to be *list people* like their mom....so we're going to run with that!

Must Dos/Procrastination Busters:

I am loving the Procrastination Busters challenge I'm involved in right now in an online group. I have already knocked out some things that have been on my list for months! Here are this week's "must dos" (with Procrastination Buster items starred)


~ Kids' room clean so they have a place for Christmas toys. (Toss more than we are adding.) **

~Sort toys. (goes along with #1 but I'm making them two separate tasks, as there is cleaning that has to be done before we sort. **

~Decide on class to teach for our 6 week co-op this spring and submit info to co-op coordinator. **

~Latest photos burned to back-up disk. (I am *so* bad to procrastinate about this...ugh.) **

~ Meat cooked ahead for freezer/banana bread made. (I'm bad about letting bananas get *too* bad even for banana bread, and two weeks ago I had to throw away a package of meat b/c I didn't get it cooked in time. OUCH! **

~Christmas/birthday thank yous finished (this is for me *and* the kids)

~Library trip (our library schedule got way off during the holidays)

~School daily (T-F)

~One hour decluttering daily (T-F)

Home Blessing

This week's home blessing goes along with my Procrastination Busters...cleaning the kids room *well* and getting the toys sorted. I have some other things I would *like* to get to in this area this week, but I'm only going to *commit* to this one. :)

Creative Pursuits

I'm going to be making some changes in my Monday Meanderings categories over the next few weeks. One of those is adding a section for creative pursuits (hopefully I'll come up with a more creative title for that soon!) During the past few years, I have really sadly neglected this area, and that is one thing I want to change in 2008. Hopefully actually listing some plans in this area every week, whether they be scrapbooking projects, gifts, creative projects with the kids, being creative in making our home a *haven*, or something entirely different, will spur me on to actually get the creative juices flowing and *accomplish* some things!

~stealth project #1 (can't list details...it's a secret involving someone who might read my blog! ;-))
~stealth project # 2(different project, but ditto the above :-D)
~spend some time this week working with photo editing program to learn/experiment :)
~Order prints online for future scrapbooking!
~help Bayley finish purse we started a *long* time ago, now that I finally have the sewing machine working (so I can move on to new sewing projects)

Menu Plan Monday

~Chicken salad
~Roast with carrots and potatoes
~Potato Soup
~Smoked Sausage Soup
~Enchiladas and Rice

*Sigh* I actually *started* this post on Monday, but the two days of sleep deprivation got to me before I got it finished and posted. So...I'm just now getting it finished on *Tuesday* morning. Maybe I need to start working on these posts on Sunday! :-)

For more Monday Meanderings, visit Tiany at Less of Me, More of Him. For great menu ideas, pop over to Laura's...I'm an Organizing Junkie.

(By the way, for those who have been following the 2007 Review posts, I hope to have part 3 up in the next day or two...:))