January 16 is coming up, and we all know what’s so important about that day, right? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is it’s the birthday of a friend I had in elementary school. It’s weird how I remember stuff like that, but I can’t remember to get my teeth brushed before walking out the door. Really, the true significance of this day is that last year it was the last day of being employed and the first day of being a stay at home mom. At the time I wasn’t sure how that decision would all work out. I wanted to stay home, but I also was really sick of the stress going on at work. I wanted to make sure I was making this decision for the right reasons, not just to get the heck out of that job. So, now that I look back on the whole thing, I am thankful that the job was stressful enough to encourage me to think about quitting. Staying home is one of the best things I’ve done. I’ve been able to spend time with my kids, grow my business, and grow as a woman and mother.

This time last year I was making big plans for Jackson. I wanted to have each day scheduled with things to keep him stimulated and busy. He is such a high energy little boy, I wanted to make sure I offered him all he needed to learn and grow. In January I was too huge and tired from being 9 months pregnant to really focus on organizing our days. Plus, I wanted a little vacation before Archer was born. Well, February brought a newborn, and all the plans for structure went out the window. And now, Archer is 11 months old, and we still have no set plan. And we aren’t going to. There is so much going on with our family, that a structured day doesn’t work. But, we’ve managed just fine. I’m very happy with how the past year has went. Everyone is happy and healthy, so that tells me we’ve been doing something right.

So, for the year we are upon I plan to keep things similar to how they are. I’ll let life and the kids lead me to where we need to go. If Jackson has an interest in music, karate, or swimming, then that means we look for an activity to suit his interest. He’s old enough now to decide what things he’d like to learn more about, which is really exciting for me. I can’t wait to see what he excels at. As for Archer, we’ll continue mastering the walking thing, as well as learning to talk and eat solid foods–the normal one year old stuff.

We had a family meeting the other night about each of our goals. If you’d like to read about it, go here. But, there was one goal left out: my goal to have a garden! I’ll post about this at another time.