A NEW YEAR

Something about a new year is always a little exciting...clean slate, new plans, resolutions, reflecting on the past year and all that good stuff.  I'm not a resolution type of person, but I do like to re-evaluate my life and our family life and find ways to change things that might need a little tweaking.  I have slowed way down on blogging because well, I just don't have time.  It bums me out, because this is my place to record a small part of our life...kind of like a family journal.  No big commitments for the coming year with blogging, but hey it is the 6th of January and here I am.  YEA!!

I was just telling Andy that I already feel like a new me.  Maybe just for today, haha.  I cleared out my email box to just 5 emails.  This is huge for me.  No, seriously!  Stocked up on tampons before I even started my period.  It's not funny.  I really do usually have to make that late night trip to Target.  Finished up a couple of little projects that were just hanging over my head.  Andy knows.  This is a new me.  

This past year was a huge change for our family.  We started homeschooling!!  I don't know why I couldn't bring myself to blog about it.  I think I was worried that I might fail plus I was just super busy.  I wish I would have blogged now because this has been a big part of our life for the past 4-5 months.  We have all grown and adjusted and I can honestly say I LOVE it.  It is a lot of work!!  We definitely have those bad days, but overall it has been such a good transition for our family life.  Ella loved it from the get go, but it took a while for Julian to warm up to it.  He now tells me he likes being home schooled.  I know I could not have done it without the support and encouragement from those who have walked the road before me.  We have met new friends and we have been able to spend a lot more time with my cousin Yvonne and her kiddos. She has home schooled her 3 kids for the last 5 or 6 years.  She is amazing!! She has seriously held my hand the entire way and I couldn't be more thankful.  We spend every Friday together doing science projects, art, field trips or just exploring out in nature. We are also in a group that has so many little things that has made the transition easier.  Besides getting almost a daily email of encouragement, there are school pictures, park days, and parties which are little things that I was a little bummed about the kids not having when we decided to homeschool.  Homeschooling has forced me to grow as a parent and I feel like overall I am a little more organized...yea!

I am excited to see what this new year brings.  I have been busier with photography, which is great and I love doing it, but I really need to find a good balance.  I think this year I am really going to be focusing on finding that balance for our family.  

I came across these pictures and I think they are fitting for my goals for the new year.  Sometimes it is hard to see any change or growth before your eyes until you step away and look back again.  I was making dinner and saw these clouds and had to take a picture.  I LOVE CLOUDS.  I went back to making dinner and one of the kids called me back to look again at the sky. WOW, the sky was bright orange.  Again I went back to the kitchen and I kept glancing out.  The sky looked like it was on fire.  Amazing!!  

I really want to focus on my parenting and helping my kids thrive and grow.  A lot of the time there is so much repetition and it doesn't feel like any change or progress is being made.  

I am going to be patient.

Here's to a new year!!