I'm Trying To Make Some Goals

I don't know that I've ever made a real New Year's resolution or any kind of New Year's goal, for that matter. This year, I'm not going to make any goals that are like "lose weight!" "find a job!" "get a dog!" "travel to over 40 countries!" or anything like that, but I think I'll make some that are character-minded and achievable. Things that will help my relationship with myself, with my husband, with our family, with my friends, and acquaintances. I'll just try to be better.

I think "being better" can come in a lot of ways. For me, I think that'll come in:

• Being kinder. Like, so kind. Killing people with kindness kind of thing. Like, you cut me in line, stepped on my foot, rolled your eyes at me? I'm still going to smile and maybe even compliment your scarf.
• Being more patient. With Jake's driving, with other people's slow driving, with class assignments, with money, with life in general.
• Take the time to appreciate what's going on right now and not looking so much to the future. We have a lot of fun things that are going to happen... and soon... but first, we have to get through this semester and next term! I need to be better at being more present and not getting through these days to get to the summer.
• Be more intentional and more thoughtful. I need to be better about thinking about people on their birthdays, or on random days of the week -- noticing when someone isn't doing so hot and maybe I can do something about it. Even if it's just with Jake or close family, I want them to know they're important to me.
• Pray "better" and more consistently. This is something Jake and I both probably need to improve on! We've definitely gotten better at switching off praying at dinner time, but we also need to work on being thoughtful and awake during evening and morning prayers. If we know that there are blessings and answers that come from praying, why aren't we better about it?!
• Reading the scriptures AWAKE every evening. We're getting a little lucky this semester -- we're both taking a D&C class together and this year in Gospel Doctrine we're reading the Doctrine and Covenants! So we get a double whammy in taking this class, so hopefully we'll learn something. Last night as we were reading, Jake asked me to just read aloud so he could hear and I said, "If you read aloud tomorrow night!" Hahaha. It'll work, for now, we just need to be consistent about it!
• Keep the sabbath day holy. Oh my gosh, we are so bad at this. We attend all three hours of church -- but do we pray before we fast? Do we sometimes go get a coke or ice cream Sunday evening? There are things we could be better at, and some advice we got from our stake president before we got married is to keep the Sabbath day holy wherever you are. And when we're at home, we'll be trying to do that the best we can.
• Going to bed early, getting up early -- even on Saturdays, and EVEN on Sundays when our church starts at 1 pm. Going to bed early is easy for me, but waking up is not quite as easy. . .  But I do find when I get up early and start the day, I am more awake and happy than I am if I sleep through half the day! There are probably other benefits to this, but I just want Jake and I to get a good amount of sleep and get a lot of work done during the day. 

Maybe there's more I should've added to this list... like brushing my hair every day and not buying a 48-pack of Ramen from Costco... but maybe I'll add that to my list next year. I think 2017 will be a good one.