New Years Resolutions

I'm plowing full steam ahead into 2012 - resolutions & all! Happy New Year!

Here they are - the serious, the silly and the simple. Cheers to a new year of God's grace, mercy, peace, love, forgiveness, provision, healing, and faithfulness.

Great is Thy faithfulness, oh God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

New Years Resolutions 2012

1. Read 3650 chapters of the Bible in 365 days. That's 10 chapters a day. I'm joining a group of over 1,000 who are taking this challenge. There is a 'system' in place to follow - see this link for info on the plan.  I'm excited to, as others have put it, "drink from the fire hose" of the Word. I'm looking forward to seeing connections in Scripture that maybe I haven't seen before. I'm anxious to wear out the pages of my Bible this year. 
2. Pay off debt. Marc and I have yet to figure out the specifics of this one, cause I'm all about measurable and realistic goals. :) All I know is that after building the emergency fund a bit, all the rest of our tax return money is going to paying off debt. 
3. Build a better routine. I always struggle with being disciplined. I need the Spirits help to do this, cause I've tried in my own strength and I fail each time. I'm longing for more routine for my kids and me - especially the days that I'm working from home. 
4. Try a new recipe each week. Some weeks I'm awesome at meal planning and thinks go according to it. Other weeks, I wander through the aisles of the store & pick random things to make (and I always leave out a key ingredient when I don't have a list!). I want to be more adventurous in what I make. I already bought Teff flour so I can try to make Injera (sourdough pancake-like bread that is a staple of Ethiopian food). 
5. Use all my lotion. Hokey Pete. I cleaned out the closet in our bathroom last night. I have an entire shelf of lotions. And most of them are completely full. I get lotion a lot as gifts, which is awesome, but I'm not much of a lotion-user. That's going to change this year. In my effort to purge some of the clutter in my life and house, I'm going to be an avid lotion user this year! My skin will thank me, I'm sure. 
6. Be more crafty with the kids. Okay, so Hope can't really participate a whole lot in crafts, but Isaac can! Tonight we already started this one by making Thank You cards for his teachers, rather than using some that I have. He got to color, use stickers & dictate what to write in each one. He loved it & way more fun than a store bought card! (Sidenote: When I asked Isaac what to write in his card for the teachers assistant, this is what he told me: "Dear Mrs. F. I love you SOO much. I love you forever. Love, Isaac." We toned it down slightly from that. Ha!)
7. Pray more diligently for those who don't know the Lord. I taught Children & Worship for 4 weeks in December. One of the kids consistently prayed for people who don't know God. Here is this 6 year old doing something that I should be doing as well! This needs to happen more. In fact, prayer in general needs to happen more. 
8. Focus on healthy habits. I've strayed from the WW wagon & need to focus a bit more on having a healthy lifestyle - exercise, water, healthy foods, being outdoors, etc. 
9. Play WITH my kids more. This goes back to the routine with working at home. Sometimes while I'm home, I'm working and cannot play. Other times, I should be playing with my kids and not working. I need to play more. 
10.  I need to work on being the wife God has called me to be. Marc and I have been so independent throughout our marriage - somewhat because that's our personalities - somewhat because of differing schedules - but now we have the chance to become more unified. I need to learn how to do that more intentionally.