List of changes for 2011

Listed below are eleven life changes for 2011 in no particular order:

1. Read my Bible more-of course, this is a given, but I am making it a point to read a little bit every day with no skipping. Kindle on my Android is going to make this much easier!
2. Pray more while keeping a journal-I have tried to do this before, and it wasn't successful. I am going to list down the extremely important things in my life and watch how God works the situation out.
3. Exercise-Yes, it is always everyone's New Year's Resolution it seems; however, my husband promises me to move our treadmill downstairs so I can walk or run whenever Allie is asleep for the evening.
4. Spend more time with Allie-After I get off of work, I go to get Allie from day care. When we get home, there is normally a million things to do. For example, cooking dinner, getting the garbage out, cleaning the kitchen, grading papers, and getting things ready for the next day. I have made it an effort to come home, change clothes, and spend some time with Allie before cooking dinner. When I do begin dinner, I make sure to involve her in it-give her a pot and a spoon and let her pretend to cook along with me.
   
5. Keep my nails polished, clean, and tidy-I am terrible about painting my finger and toe nails. I have already begun this change and so far, so good.
6. Do my make-up at home not in the car-nothing needs to be said about this....self explanatory.
   
7. Drink more water-I do like water, but I was just telling my sister-in-law, Kellie, about how much I love diet coke/Pepsi (it doesn't matter which one, both do the job). I really only get it in restaurants when I know there is a lot to do for the rest of the day and I need that extra "kick". I have heard caffeine is terrible for trying to lose weight. I do like coffee; however, I do not always drink the entire cup. Maybe I need to start ordering a coffee and I will get some caffeine, but won't drink the entire cup, whereas if I get a soft drink, I will drink at least two diet cokes/Pepsi's when I order them (plus a "to go" cup).
8. Clean my house once a week while straightening the house every day-I have good intentions about keeping the house clean. The hard part is straightening the house before cleaning. I am going to do my best to keep the house straightened so I don't have to work so hard when cleaning the house.
9. Make time to read more-I have always loved to read. In fact, when I was younger, I would not go to bed until the book I was reading was finished. I would sometimes go to bed at 2 in the morning! My goal is to read at least one book per month...(this does not include my Bible reading, of course)
10. Write my husband more encouraging notes-When Michael and I were first married, I would write him little notes and leave them in random places for him to find. He never really told me that they meant a lot to him, but I know the thought counts....we'll see how it goes.
11. Practice the piano more-I told a friend of mine the other day that the best they would ever be is when they are in college. It seems that once you graduate from a music program, you do not have the stress to be so amazing any longer and begin to let your skills slack a little through lack of practice. I have got to start doing my scales again and getting better classically. I know that when I do this, worship music will be directly affected!

I do have to say it was very difficult to come up with eleven things to change in my life, but I did it. I apologize for being so descriptive at times, but I felt the need! I will be sure to make it a point to look back at this blog and make these LIFE changes to improve the me that God created.

LIFE

I have realized that life is too rushed. Recently, my husband and I made a huge life change and decided to slow things down. I know that God intends our lives to be about others; however, I also know that He doesn't want our lives to be so busy that we cannot enjoy life. Not making a blog since the end of May is exactly my point.

Since this decision to slow down a tad, we have been able to spend more time with family than ever before. We did many family-oriented things during Thanksgiving and Christmas:

• Thanksgiving dinner with Mom, Aundrea, and Spence
• Left for Tennessee to see Michael's Mom, Dad, Aunt, Cousin and her sons, and Grandpa Turman on Thanksgiving day
• Spent Christmas church services with Mom, Aundrea, and Spence
• Had traditional Christmas dinner with Mom, Aundrea, and Spence
• Spending the end of Christmas with Michael's brother and his family-Kelley, Jackson, and Selah (I cannot wait to see Allie's reaction to her cousins as she is finally playing with other children... I will let you know of the new things she learns from them soon.)
  

These family occurrences have never before happened in such a short period of time, and I love it. So, I have decided to keep the joy that I have felt with family over the holidays throughout the year by coming up with a list of changes I will make in the new year 2011.

List coming soon.....have a Merry Christmas night, and I'll see you soon.

My first day of summer

Well, it is finally here, my summer vacation. All of the grading, cleaning, and goodbye's of the last week of school has passed. Last summer, Allie was a newborn, and I was just getting used to being a new mom. Now, we are having the time of our lives. Allie plays throughout the house, and at times, we just look in each other's eyes and smile. I know this is going to be one of the best memories ever, spending QUALITY time with my 1 year old daughter.

How do I begin this new life?

I have recently started walking around a local track that encompasses three schools. I never truly realized how much walking can clear your mind and really put things in perspective. So much so, that when I didn't have the time to walk towards the end of the week, I began to become stressed again with the formalities of life. I am a teacher, a pastor's wife, and a mother of a soon to be one-year-old baby girl. I feel like I never have the time to clear my mind. There are always "to do" lists that I am way behind on. So, until the school year ends, and I find time to walk, I will have to find some other way to release my tensions.

The answer came to me suddenly, blogging. I read my sister-in-law's blog often. I laugh at things she says and moments in her and her children's lives that I miss out on by living in another state. I love how she will have those memories to look back on. So, I decided if Kelley can do it, so can I. Now, this is not going to be easy for me. As an English minor and a teacher of 7th and 9th grade English, I will constantly be worrying about my punctuation, grammatical mistakes, etc., but what the heck, this is my release.

It is now time to begin. Begin this new life. A life of blogging. So, welcome to my world!