The last couple articles touched on entitlement and made me consider ways I feel entitled. After all, it’s not nice to judge and toss my opinions out there if I’m not considering my own actions… so I took an honest look and asked myself – “self, what do you feel entitled too?” I answered that I honestly feel entitled to nothing, which is the reason I work so hard. It’s a reason I am so proud of my hard-working husband and a reason we strive to teach our boys responsibility.
What do I feel entitled to? Nothing, but I do feel my boys are entitled to a safe and healthy home. When times are tough you feel that even your sense of providing such basic needs rest on a home where the foundation is suddenly unstable. When times are tough you’ll try and restructure the cheapest way to keep things moving forward – only to find that a cheap solution means a more expensive remedy later on… (Don’t worry I won’t go into a political rant here about the cycle of poverty). Solutions are not cheap. Resolutions are not cheap. Talk is cheap – so you have to decide if your just saying your resolutions or if you pledging them. Who are your resolutions for? Yourself or others? What are your motivations behind them?
printable 8×10 worksheet
Last year Mi Families helped parents and providers conquer 5 resolutions. Each resolution was broken down into easy steps that were fun to implement. We are proud of those still achieving the goals they set and hope more utilize the plan. Personally I will restart all 5 goals, but focus on the first – organizing my life, while learning that I don’t have to stick to my schedule. Learning to detour around road blocks, while enjoying the unplanned path taken.
After a year of road blocks regarding my health concerns, my husband’s job loss, my boys losing their insurance and therefore their therapists for speech, OT, PT… we’ve had to discover detours and accept guidance and support from others. While continuing to conquer the other 4 resolutions we have had to become creative. While I work more outside of the home my husband is learning to navigate a world of working from home, while keeping up the chores, homeschooling our boys, getting them to activities and appointments… We found a daily routine / seasonal schedule helped us all.
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Resolution number 2 “Decide you LIKE LEARNING new things.” Check. I’m learning LOTS between all of my jobs (from state alignments to curriculum building and special needs therapies and…) and my husband is learning lots as he navigates these new responsibilities and builds back up his production company. The boys are learning lots through Little Lincoln and the curriculum I’ve built to supplement their needs. And we really do LIKE LEARNING. It really just has to do with defining your strengths vs interests and convincing yourself you want to learn about the task at hand.
Learning through RightStart Mathematics VIDEO Lesson 3&4:
“Resolution 3: Allow yourself to eat your FAVORITE FOODS.” Double check – the holiday season gave too many opportunities to try new recipes and sit and eat with family and friends. Need to get back to that healthy eating plan! But healthy eating can be more costly – especially when dealing with food allergies which make meals tricky. So here I go making a meal plan, sticking to a grocery list and using coupons…. We involve our kids in the planning, shopping and cooking which I believe REALLY helps picky eaters (especially those with sensory issues). When our boys request broccoli we know we’re doing something right!
The 4th resolution was to “convince yourself to ENJOY EXERCISE.” I have convinced myself of this, but it’s been tricky keeping to a workout plan with our new schedules and my schedule being so crazy where I’m working different times every day. I’m thankful my husband is an active guy who keeps our boys active. This morning they each did push-ups, sit-ups, etc… how many they are old… with eagerness. They love trying new sports, but are excited to start back their martial arts training after the New Year. That opportunity had to be put on hold financially, but that road block was detoured through creative thinking of trading services! Back to the days we offer the doctor a chicken for his services I suppose?
The last resolution is simply to “Be the parent/provider who PLAYS with the kids” and this is not an area we need to be creative with. Although we can’t plan out our Disney trip to see the boys Godfather who’s stationed in Florida as we planned – we can still plan fun adventures. Santa gave us toys and games we’ll spread out over time as to not use up the fun before the New Year even gets here. Going back to that enjoying exercise … our indoor gym provides many opportunities for fun and outdoor fun is free on our backyard hills for sledding adventures, snowshoe hikes through our woods, there are outdoor rinks for ice-skating … we’ll keep busy all winter and have family fun right here. AND for times we can get out on a date night – there are churches who offer “Parents Night Out” activities for kids that our boys LOVE. Those are already scheduled and I’d recommend you look into local churches for such programs!
Times might be tough, but it doesn’t mean we sit in the cold and feel sorry for ourselves. It means we find the balance in work and play. We set goals and enjoy the journey. If you finished your goal of reading this babbling blog I commend you and ask you to share in the comments below what you think of our goals and goals you have resolved to do. Make one of your goals to simply support Mi Families missions by subscribing toward the top right of this page, subscribing on our growing YouTube channel, and~or following/liking us on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn… Keep in contact with us and let us know how we can help your family or the families you work with.
From our family to all the families out there – wishing you an amazing 2015 – where you reach beyond your goals!
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