Our Family Journey...: A New Year Brings New Resolutions

I have never been one for resolutions but I figure what's a new year without them? This year is probably going to be one of the greatest years for changes and new beginnings. Of course the new beginning actually started when we moved to Lumberton at the end of November but now it's time to set some ground rules for making the most out of it.

First an update:

We have been here for a little over a month now and much to my surprise I love it! Lumberton is a really great town! They have so much to offer here when it comes to fantastic schools, and family activities. Mitchell is taking to his new store and it is actually proving to provide for more family time. Even if he has to close he is home by 10:00 (compared to almost midnight before). On Sundays they close extra early so he is usually home by about 2:00. Brylie is loving school and starting to make lots of friends. We are all still adjusting to the somewhat cramped living quarters but are grateful for the opportunity to save money. We spend a lot of time exploring our new town. The girls of course love the parks and Mitchell and I are thrilled to actually have a Walmart just around the corner. We have also be spending a lot of time with friends. It is really nice having a large circle of friends all in which have little ones for the girls to play with. Even all the animals are happily snuggled in to their new home and environment. Bella is staying with Mimi in Lubbock and has taken over the house as the new "queen". Jake, Mollie, and Jager are officially outside dogs. I thought I would never go through with it but I did. They have their own dog run and massive dog house that Mitchell and his dad built. The amazing thing is that both Jake and Jager are nearly 100% healed from all their allergy troubles. I don't know if it's the new environment or the new dog food (corn free for skin and coat) but whatever the case it is nice to know that they are no longer miserable. Well, as you can see we are really enjoying it here!

Back to those resolutions:

Mitchell has officially gone back on his diet. He has already lost over 5 pounds this first week. Jory and him have started jogging and working out 5 times a week as well as being on a low carb diet. More importantly he is finally cigarette free! I am so excited! He has almost completed his first month of Chantix but this week he decided to go ahead and quit cold turkey. I am so proud of him!

As a family resolution we are going to get back in the routine of going to church every Sunday. We had yet to go "church shopping" since the move but I figured this is a great time to start. We have been looking into the First Baptist of Lumberton and I think it will be a good fit. They have Awanas on Sunday nights for the girls and on Wednesday nights they have children's choir followed by Mission Friends.

The next resolution I have made for the family is getting everyone on a routine including chores for all. I have found a lot of cute ideas on the internet for ways to display them easy enough for the girls to follow. I am working on making them a morning and night time routine chart as well as chore charts. I am also making Mitchell and I a night time routine chart so that we can work together to get homework, dinner, and bedtime done without all the fuss and chaos.

Resolution 3 is that we are going to start having more sit-down family meals that include prayer and talk. Furthermore, we are going to start having daily family devotions and Bible time.

I ordered me a few books that will help put in place all of our resolutions:

Faith Begins at Home: The Family Makeover with Christ at the Center