2022 brought me love and rest. We welcomed our fourth little love and that pregnancy forced me to rest most of the year. During that rest I was able to learn more about myself and what I want for my home and my family. It looks a bit different than I thought and this blog will hopefully reflect that in 2023.
My 2023 goals:
- To be a more present mom
- More time in my Bible and less time on my phone
- Get this house to a nice “stopping point”
Progress not perfection
I love my kids I really do but somewhere along the way I started mindlessly going through life. That includes my interactions with my kids. Listening to their crazy stories turned into “mhm”s and “no way”s while I stressed about the overflowing laundry baskets. Playing with them turned into “not right now” and “im busy”. Reading bedtime stories turned into rushed “I love you”s just to make the day end.
Now I’m not naive enough to think, this is going to end overnight just because It’s my new year’s goal. Being a more present mom is going to take work. I know that. It’s going to take constant conscious effort to be better for them.
I’m also not saying that there won’t still be a few “not right now”s or “mhm”s just not as often. The goal is to be MORE present. To be better, not perfect.
With that being said, I plan on being more present by putting in more effort. By making conscious decisions everyday to push my mental to do list to the side for the five seconds it take for them to tell their story. I plan on including them in chores when things just can’t wait.
So what are you actually gonna DO?
Since experts say goals need actionable tasks, I don’t have much. I mean let’s be honest, nobody really knows how to tell you to be a more present mother. It’s mostly just “hey try harder👍🏾”. But I plan on making a bedtime book basket of SHORT books for the kids to choose from every night so I’m more likely to actually read them to them. With four kids, bedtime routines can get really long really fast so it will be a basket of well loved board books since they are all pretty young.
Start small right? I’ll make a check-in post about how it’s going, maybe half way through the year. I hope y’all have a great year, moms especially 😘.
Leave a Reply