Goodbye 2011, You Were Fantastic

Tyler had his NINE month check-up recently. Nine months! Something about that seems so crazy. We waited anxiously to meet him for nine months and it seemed like such a long time. But now we've known him for that long and it has gone by in a blink. He was uncharacteristically cuddly yesterday and while I just held him and snuggled with him it brought me back to those first days when he came home from the hospital. They were so precious and amazing, and only lasted for a second. But every second since (although much less calm and snuggly) has been just as precious. I just love this boy! I remember once some one saying that nothing brings you to your knees like being a parent. I didn't think much about it at the time, but since Tyler was born I've remembered it often. Obviously I don't know all the reasons that God created us how he did. But I do believe that having children gives us a better idea of how much God loves us. And because of the love God has given me for Tyler, I find myself praying constantly for him. For his salvation, his health, for his future, for his future wife, for anything and everything. When I think about him growing up and being out on his own some day, and when I realize I have absoulutely no control over how he chooses to live his life, I am brought to my knees, praying intensely for him. Because that's all I can really do. Pray for him, and do my very best to teach him to live his life in a Godly way. And so I've decided, that being a parent has forced me to hold the things dearest to me in an open hand. I definitely am prone to closing my fist tightly around the things that I love and probably not trusting God with them as much as I should. But if there's one thing that has stood out to me more than anything else in the past nine months, it's that I can't control anything. And rather than holding tightly to the things that I love, I have to give them up to God. Because he is in control and his plan is good. So I guess that's my big lesson from 2011.

I'm not sure where that came from. I guess I'm in a reflective mood. This post was going to be about Tyler and everything he's been up to in the past month. But now I guess it's about me. I'll write about him later. :-)

I'm not big on New Years Resolutions. I'm not good at them and so this may be a little on the negative side, but I mostly see them as goals I'll probably fail at within a month. Or even a week. Sometimes a day. But this year for some reason I am full to the brim of resolutions. And I am determined to make them last. I mean really, if I actually made a list of all the little mini resolutions I've thought of, it would probably be pretty overwhelming. But I can pretty much sum them up in one word. Discipline. I need to be more disciplined! In just about every area of my life. So well I'm already almost a week into the new year, I'm still working on organizing my thoughts and "resolutions" into achievable goals. But here are a few of them:

Going to bed by 10  (so far, not so good)

Getting up between 6:30 and 7:00 (also not happening yet) so that I have time before Tyler wakes up
to...

Be more consistent with daily time with God

Working out (And no, I am not one of those annoying New Years Resolution people who crowd the gym and make the regulars mad. We started our membership a month ago.)

Eating healthy and drinking less pop

Putting laundry away as soon as it's folded! I actually kind of like doing laundry. I know that's weird but I do. With the exception of towels, which I make Carl do, I love folding laundry! But I loath putting it away. So inevitably it sits neatly folded in laundry baskets for way too long.

There are actually quite a few more, but like I said, the list is way too long. But I am determined to be mored organized and disciplined in my life this year. Feel free to check in with me. Just ask how many baskets of clean folded laundry are sitting downstairs. Currently there are two. But they are next on my list when I finish writing this.  :-)

Ok, so good luck to me. I am off to put away some laundry and make a calendar for myself to track my pop drinking, work out and quite time progress. I think I'll make it a sticker chart. And maybe some sort of ice cream or Caribou reward at the end of each month...