the new year.

I realize we're dangerously close to February but I wanted to write down my New Years Resolutions. I write them every year and just like the rest of the world I have every kind of good intention but I am who I am. I will always choose sleep over working out and I will always find a way to make organizing or journal writing more complicated and time consuming than it needs to be. This year I decided to make one simple resolution.

 ENJOY THE YEAR.

Extremely broad I know but to me this means several things. Firstly, this is the first time in our entire marriage that we have a little bit of wiggle room and ---hello! We're living on an ISLAND! Sometimes I get caught up in washing the dishes 3 times a day or throwing away the cereal that has gotten mushy from the humidity and I just want to pull my hair and scream, "Take me back to the States!" But then I have moments when I feel like I never want to leave. Sure I miss my dishwasher, my vacuum, low prices and the power to order from Cafe Rio from my iPhone but we are living in an incredible place with beauty and history EVERYWHERE and life here is amazing. So here are a list of things I'm going to work on enjoying this year:

My children: I always thought I'd be the hippie, carefree mom who was always very zen and free wheeling with her kids. Not so. SO not so. I keep a pretty tight schedule and sometimes I get lost in the cleaning and errand running during the day that I forget to just PLAY with them. Would it really kill me to just let Owen jump down every single stair one at at time instead of walking? Or read that extra book that June has set in my lap? Would it really be that much of a bother to clean up the extra mess to let them help me wash the dishes? Probably not. I can take extra time to sit and read books to them, sing primary and preschool songs with them or even just do the things they want to do for a few minutes--even if it's inconvenient.  And if the day comes to a close and I haven't finished all the work, let it go. The house can stand to be a little messy. They won't be little forever and I'd much rather them remember a slightly messy house than a mom who was too busy to play with them.


My Husband: For once in our marriage we have the chance to go out on regular dates! Like REAL dates where we actually go places. Sure we still love to have a date with popcorn and netflix in our room but it's been incredible to go on hiking dates or snorkeling dates and the scenery change is so nice. I intend to take every opportunity to take the one on one time that's available to us now.

Our residence: Saipan in amazing. It's beautiful and close knit and we love it. It's also very humid and small and expensive. I am a city girl and at the risk of sounding excessive and spoiled I enjoy having things available to me at my fingertips and having options. The fact that we're living on an island has masked the fact that we're on a TINY, small town island. Most of the time I like it but sometimes I feel claustrophobic. But honestly, we'll never live on an island again. And this place is BEAUTIFUL. I'm going to miss my dishwasher and my ipod touch may not be as useful to me but I'm going to enjoy this amazing time that we are blessed to live here.

Myself: I tend to be a bit hard on myself (as I'm sure we all do) Almost nightly I have conversations with Tim about how I'm worried I didn't spend enough playtime with the kids today, or how I played TOO much and they need a sense of balance or how I didn't work on their alphabet enough or I didn't hug them enough. I worry constantly about being a good wife, a good mother, a good daughter, a good sister and a good friend. And while I try to do my best at being good at all of these things I think I put too high expectations on myself. This year I'm going to enjoy the little victories I make throughout the day.

I snuck a shower in today? Victory!
I tricked Owen and June into eating dry cereal by putting it in an empty chocolates box? Victory!
The dishes are clean? Victory!
I created something simple, fun and educational for the kids to do on my own? Victory!

While I may not check off everything on my to-do list that day, at least I can feel good about the things I did accomplish, however small they may seem.

My friends: We have some great friends all over the world but the friends we've made here in this short time have honestly become our family. We're all here for a limited time and we will all end up living in different parts of the world so taking time to have "Girls Nights," and such will serve to be great memories for the future.

Basically, I want to just be able to enjoy everything we have each and every day. To not take life for granted and live through the moments instead of just "getting things done." I'm going to try my hardest to not get too carried up in the routine and errands and just enjoy my family, my friends and my surroundings.