My time over Christmas (and during my bloggy break) was wonderful!
The Lord takes such good care of us, and yet I am still amazed when He does! We all got sick as soon as I posted about taking a break, but my MIL was down, and pitched in to take care of all of us! It was wonderful! It also made me very happy to have everything done in advance so that I was not sick AND flustered at the same time! While some baking did not get done, it was not the end of the world, and was not missed a bit!
Christmas Eve morning found me in the kitchen by 7:50 starting the Christmas baking. My MIL joined me 20 minutes later, and by 10 there were two Christmas Logs completed (vanilla and chocolate, Jesus is so special that He gets 2 birthday cakes, just ask Miss Pear, she will tell you!), pink icing cake with the first two layers baked and cooling for icing, 1 tray of cinnamon buns in the oven, a second rising, and a batch of rolls rising too! We were so accomplished that we even had time to play at the park before lunch!
Christmas was wonderful! We enjoyed an early supper before an excellent church service! We returned home for dessert and presents. Miss Pear did so well opening gifts, and played with each one as she opened it and from the very first present seemed surprised that there was another for her! She did not want to leave her new toys, books, and slippers (clothes were okay though!) to got to bed, but was convinced!
Christmas morning was so much fun with our stockings filled by Baby Jesus and one special present for Miss Pear from Daddy and Mommy. After a breakfast of cinnamon buns we went for a walk on the beach that was fun and very windy which made the waves beautiful! We returned home for our traditional lunch of waffles, strawberry syrup, whip cream and sausages and spent the rest of the day resting and playing before our big Christmas Day Supper!
Boxing Day was special, it was the first time I have actually hosted it because down here it is not a big deal, but in Canada it is! So we had a favorite family over along with one set of their parents for a full fledged Canadian Boxing Day! It was so much fun we did it again the next day with our neighbors...I may never eat again.
New Year's Eve for us is always a quiet night in! We used to always have Chinese take out, but with Miss Pear's allergies we have not found a new restaurant in our new home, so I found a recipe for P.F. Chang's Honey Chicken we are going to try! We will probably watch a movie, but in all honesty Mr. Pear is recovering from a bad cold, and I am on the tail end of a flu bug, so it will be a quiet and early night.
I was thinking about the New Year, and even though my life does not follow the calendar very closely now (no more worrying about year end or the end of fiscal quarters for this girl!), I still use the end of the year to think about changes or improvements I would like to make, and to set goals for myself. I look at my Bible reading and make goals, look at my crafting and make lists, look around the house and make plans, and look and my family and think about how I can show them my love better and more! (Okay, in all honesty I work on that last one all the time, but I have to throw it in too!)
Lately I have been talking to a lot of friends and I hear a common theme. "I am overwhelmed, I am tired, it is too much!" And while some of this is a legitimate season in life, some of it is really rather bad planning, or an inability to say no, or just trying to jam so much in that schedules are bursting at the seams. So as I reflect, review, and set some goals, I thought I would share here.
My mottoes in managing our home are numerous, and include:
- "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men." Col 3:23
- "that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,
to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. " Titus 2:4-5 - Run your home like a business, but with a lot more love! (I cannot remember who told me this one!)
- Give yourself EVERY advantage! (This one is my own!)
So to start with, I have a question for you:
Do you use the New Year to evaluate and set goals for yourself? Some other time of the year? Or just whenever the need arises?
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3 comments:
I do set goals around the new year . . . and whenever else the need seems to arise. It seems like a natural time, though. I posted here about some of my goals for this year, although I might take a couple of months on the get-go as we will be moving in a month! Thanks for the inspiration.
No, the new year has never been a time for goal setting for me. I guess the academic year start is more of a time for that. But I do evaluate a lot throughout the year and make changes.
Over the past two years I found myself reevaluating about quarterly - something to do with the changing seasons. I think it was spurred on by the fact that for about three years I worked for a quarterly magazine; whenever we'd go to press, we'd have a few days of blissful peace and quiet before the work began on the next issue.
Over the past month I found myself plotting and goal setting for 2008 - so I suppose this year I've created some "long-term" goals that will still be reexamined each quarter to see how much has been accomplished and what needs to be pruned back off the list. Maybe if I'm really lucky I'll be ahead of the game and adding things come summer? *chuckle*
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