Thursday, June 9, 2011

The Best of Intentions

I've been learning a lesson over the course of the past year about being intentional. Sometimes motherhood is so exhausting that its hard to be intentional about anything. If you all make it through the day alive, fed, clothed, and unharmed, then by golly its a success! And we definitely have those days. I've become more aware, however, that if I don't set out with the intent to accomplish certain things, I won't accomplish much of anything. I read somewhere that 95% of people who set goals meet them. So why don't we set more goals?!

The first area I learned this in was time with my hubby. If we didn't intentionally plan a night to go out or even just to spend time together, we ended up doing other things. And not bad things, just other things. We'd have a night with no plans, and he'd flip on the tv and I'd grab a book and go read in the other room. And we'd spend zero time together. But when we intentionally planned one night a week just spending time together, it made a huge difference.

I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago and she said "I want to be intentional with my summer." And I thought yes! I don't want the whole summer to pass by and feel like that time that both of my kids were home was just... gone. So I began to think about what I wanted to accomplish with them this summer. And most of this applies just to Savannah because Brooklyn is so little, but some of it applies to both.

1. I want Savannah to practice writing her letters for a few minutes each day.
2. I want us all to make time for daily devotions.
3. I want Savannah to complete the public library reading program (5 hours of listening to an adult read by the end of July).
4. I want to spend at least one morning each week just enjoying my children. Either at the pool or at home or out somewhere fun... I want uninterrupted, high-quality time with them not worrying about work or school or house work.
5. I want Savannah to learn to swim.

There are other things I want to accomplish around the house, and in my own life, but this is a good starting point for an intentional summer. What do you think? Anything I should add to my list?


1 comment:

Courtney said...

I think those are all very good ideas :) I'm proud of you. And I am oh so there with you on the making plans thing. Sometimes they change as you go along, but making the plan in the first place goes a long way for us. I Love You! See you in a week and a day! (Makes me think of our letters we used to write and count down in. Good Times)