Okay… so now that I am finally feeling a little better (darned sinus colds) we can finally make our first post for the year.
Another year has come and gone. Time to count God’s blessings from 2011 and look forward to designing the blank slate called Year 2012. So what is our family mantra for the new year that stands before us…
Try not. DO or DO NOT. There is no try! (The wonderful words of Yoda)
For 2012, we have challenged ourselves to remove the word and “wishy-washy” philosophy of the word TRY from our lives.
Try- to attempt to do something, to test. Think about it for a moment. How many times a day do you make a comment like… “I’m going to try to make it” or “I need to try to lose weight or stick to my resolution”? I’ve heard many parents tell their children “We’ll try” when asked about doing something like going to the park. Now, how many times have you made the comment that you’ll try to do something knowing that you weren’t going to? It almost has become a negative word.
So… in our household we will not TRY to do anything. In 2012, we will DO!
This isn’t going to be an easy mantra to stick to. But the benefits of positivity will have such a great impact on our kids. No more telling Emmalie and Bethanie to try this activity or food. For Dalton and Devin, it is no longer “try”, but rather DO your best. It is our hope that adopting this philosophy will help to spark an inner attitude and mind-set that will make our kids stronger and more focused as individuals.
I want to share the story that brought this to light for us… A teenage boy at the high school quit playing football after the first game of the season, citing that his mom had told him to “just try it” and he didn’t like it. There was no DO mentality to it, so he didn’t stick it out and accepted failure as the only option. He missed out on valuable team and personal strength building opportunities. At the same time, Dalton had come to us stating that he had “tried German class” and just didn’t like how hard it was for him to grasp. Dalton wanted our signature to opt out of German and take something easier for him. We felt that could be seen as setting a bad precedent by not teaching our future generation to follow through with their decisions. So we told Dalton he had chosen to take German and has to do all he could to grasp the concept of the language. Dalton did just that… he stuck with it and ended the semester with one of the highest grades in the class. He did more than just try… Dalton DID! Life is not always easy. We do not always like what we have to do, but that is life. And true strength and success start by giving it your all to actually achieve and DO things. We were able to witness first-hand how eliminating one simple word from our vocabulary could have such a profound impact on our children.
So… what are our plans to DO during 2012, you might ask?
· Stay involved! I am heading up the high school “Football Backers” organization from 2012 through Dalton’s graduation from high school in 2015. We are also active with the school district planning committees and area March of Dimes.
· Keep family first in our focus. Nobody knows what tomorrow brings… or at least, as Tony puts it, our crystal ball is broken today! Therefore, every moment that we can continue to spend making memories and a positive difference in the lives of our children are of top priority.
· Stay healthy. Hey, we have a great insurance plan, but I still don’t want to have to use it. Dalton and I started our own little “battle of the bulge” to see who can lose the most percentage of body fat over the next ten weeks. Since our diabetes scare with Bethanie in November, we have already made a huge step towards improving the overall family health by cutting high carb foods available in the house (including those natural food items that are high in carbs).
· Never get too busy to take time out to have FUN! Last year Tony and I both allowed our jobs to dictate a large part of our lives. We both missed baseball games and other experiences that often left us feeling guilty. There will be no more of that! (I keep telling Tony that we’d have even more time if he’d let me hire a maid!).
· Share knowledge and learn whenever possible. I am challenging myself to include at least one monthly blog post devoted to sharing information on something valuable for mothers, women and/or families. I’m open to topics, too!
· Finish writing the final book in the children’s book series that I’ve written so Tony can complete the illustrations and the series can finally be published! We so cannot wait to be able to share them with our family and friends... but sorry, they are 100% “girly” books. The boys’ series is still only in the planning phases.
Well, that about closes this lengthy segment of our thoughts moving forward into the great new year before us. We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and great start to 2012.
