With Southern Love

Happy Wednesday, friends! Today I am linking up with the fabulous Shay and Erika and taking part in their Working’ It Wednesdays series. Today we are talking about how to keep our New Year’s resolutions. Before I share how I keep my resolutions let me share what my resolutions for 2017 are.

Daily Quiet Time

Better Homeschool Planning 

Intentional Date Nights with Lee 

Regular Exercise Routine 

Take Better Care of My Skin 

I get that none of those resolutions are too serious but they are all areas in my life that I want to focus on improving this year. So, let’s talk about how I plan on keeping resolutions….

Daily Quiet Time

This was a more regular part of my life before Emry and homeschooling came along. Now that my mornings and days look different I need to adjust my routine to allow time for quiet time. I do best with a quiet time when it is in the morning before anything else. This year I am going to start getting up earlier, before the kids, and the first thing I am going to do is have quiet time. I purchased the One Year Bible, which has a daily reading plan. If you read each day by the end of the year you will have read the entire Bible. I also plan on dusting off some old, but good, devotional books to read each morning after the Bible.

Better Homeschool Planning 

When I was a teacher in a classroom I had 45 minutes each day for a planning period to gather materials and write lessons for the upcoming days and weeks. When you teach at home you don’t have that same planning period built in to your day and I haven’t been very good at creating one. So starting now I will set aside 2 hours every Sunday while the kids are napping or playing with Lee to plan our lessons and gather our materials that we will need for the week ahead. I am also going to make an effort to make lessons more fun and creative.

Intentional Date Nights with Lee 

Towards the end of the year last year we got pretty good about booking a sitter once a month and spending time alone together. This year we plan on keeping it up. We have already planned a few trips away alone and purchased a few concert tickets during the year. Alone time is important as a couple. We spend a few hours together each night catching up and talking but I think getting away together is just as important.

Regular Exercise Routine 

I don’t ever want to exercise…but I need to! I heard Jon Acuff say one time that he doesn’t like running, he likes to be done running. You have to power through the during to get to the done. I feel that same way about exercising. I don’t want to do it, I want to be done with it. So I have joined a gym with childcare {no excuses} I am setting up a routine of going at the same time each day and learning how to work the equipment. I also plan on trying out a few of the classes that are offered. I’ll let you know how that goes 🙂

Skincare Routine

I actually started working on this one at the end of December. My skin is changing from very oily to more normal, even dry at times. My old routine was not cutting it. I spoke with Erika about Rodan and Fields and then began using their regimen along with some other masks and treatments. So far I am seeing more toned and hydrated skin!

So, that is my plan for keeping resolutions this year. Share with me your resolutions, I can’t wait to hear what all you are doing!