New Year's Resolution 2014

I have never really had a bunch of new years resolutions.  I think it would only cause me stress to my overloaded life.  I try to eat right, exercise regularly and have my quiet times and feel OK about those areas.  I  could probably focus more on housework & cooking though!  My only new goal for this year is to blog regularly.  I am pretty saddened that I haven't posted in months.  I have no idea why I have slacked for so long except my hectic schedule.  Now I have it in my reminders and my goal will be to post once a week.  With my wild Wogs and dog, I could blog eventful things multiple times a day.  Why do I like to blog?  I feel like it documents my life and will provide a record of my kid's lives when they are grown.  I also do provide entertainment and insight into my life to the people who care.  I have people ask me on a regular basis why I am not blogging.  It's not for a lack of material or desire for sure.

When I think about last year, it was filled with crazy, busy, awesomeness. This will be a quick update so if you despise Christmas-type letters that recap the past year, close this quick!  Here are some highlights:  Bonnie continues to make us so proud.  She is a special young lady who is very talented in ways I don't even understand.  When people say she is a lot like me, I just laugh.  I didn't have nearly her leadership skills at her age. She is much more brave than I will ever be.  She boldly does YouthQuake Live, dances & cheers with such confidence.  I am always amazed.  I couldn't do half of what she does!

Bubba had quite a year.  He STILL loves Football and spends every free moment absorbed with it, playing it, reading about it, drawing plays, wearing jerseys, playing football XBox game, coaching his siblings in the yard.  What makes me the most proud is that he was a Little Scholar again with Pop Warner, having a high GPA!  He LOVES the Miami Hurricanes and loved going to the Football camp over the summer.  We won't talk about him breaking his arm playing football :(

Maggie accomplished her goal of making the Company team for NancyDance Studios.  She is a strong, skinny little thing and dances for hours and loves ever minute of it.  Tears flooded my eyes when I saw her first Company Performance at the Tree Lighting Event.  I was never more proud!  She gets to dance with two sweet friends and has shown such dedication and hard work!  

Annie is a swimming beast.  She loves it and never complains about practice 5 days a week….even in the winter!  She made us so proud last summer when she won a high point award at the City Championships and won first place in her age group for the breaststroke!  She is calm, cool and collected.  Dan and I had never been more nervous and I actually thought I was going to pass out or vomit.  I couldn't handle the pressure obviously!  

Eddie is a wild man!  He makes me laugh constantly.  He communicates his feelings quite freely.  I was never so happy when he wrote his numbers on the back of my check book.  Being the 5th kid, he hasn't gotten the school help that he deserves!  I was like Hallelujah!!!  Then when he whipped out some addition, Dan and I fist pumped!!  We know great things are ahead for our boy and time will tell what direction he goes in!

KC the dog has started to calm down. She hasn't destroyed any prized possessions lately. She did manage to escape several times over the Christmas break and drive me a little crazy.  We sure love watching her run and hunt at the River.  We just are not able to go very often as KC would like!

We have had our challenges and exhaustion raising 5 kids and a dog.  I am honestly not sure how people raise kids without a real relationship with God. I have cried out loud, "JESSSUUUS!" a thousands times this year and I truly believe He has walked me through all my stress, fear and our schedule.  My daily time listening to God and writing down the words He says to me, have been my life line.  I constantly over-commit and over-schedule and God constantly shows up and helps me!  

I know my time having my whole family together is quickly slipping away.  I have witnessed my siblings kids slip into adulthood and I am trying hard to keep my family together as a unit as much as possible which is proving more difficult the older they get.  

Dan & I are not perfect, we make mistakes, but we desperately want our kid's to have the best life possible and we are working as hard as we can towards that goal.  My prayer is that when my kids are raised that they will look back over our time together and see our effort at creating memories, protecting them, guiding them and most important, teaching them to pray and to trust God.  My scripture I will try to focus on this year is Philippians 4:6-7 "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything!"  Lord help us all and bless 2014!