Reading Resolution Update

Marriage/Family
1. Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old 
2. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
3. The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity
4. Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches
5. The Husband Project: 21 Days of Loving Your Man--on Purpose and with a Plan
6. Rekindling the Romance: Loving the Love of Your Life
7. One of Us Must Be Crazy. . .and I'm Pretty Sure It's You: Making Sense of the Differences That Divide Us
8. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
9. Have a New You by Friday: How to Accept Yourself, Boost Your Confidence & Change Your Life in 5 Days
10. The Money Saving Mom's Budget: Slash Your Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Streamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year
11. Calm My Anxious Heart: A Woman's Guide to Finding Contentment
12. Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
13. Influence: Science and Practice
14. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
15. Networking Magic: Find the Best - from Doctors, Lawyers, and Accountants to Homes, Schools, and Jobs
16. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
17. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales
18. Wonderstruck
19. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man: A Novel
20. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman
21. Fool: A Novel
22. A Prayer for Owen Meany
23. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden: A Novel
24. The Help

I finished The Invention of Hugo Cabret last week. It was a fun, light-hearted book. I got it knowing nothing about it, just that it came up on amazon.com when I was looking at Wonderstruck (another book I knew nothing about), and it looked interesting so I added it to my "library" list. I read this book in 2 days. It is mostly pictures, the pages with words aren't always full...it's a children's/pre-teen book. But it was good! I wanted the machine-man to work, right with Hugo! I wanted to know what the toy-maker had to do with anything, and why he was so angry. I would definitely recommend this book who wants a fairly quick, interesting read. 
This is what I'm reading now: The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity
Later this week I plan on updating on how I've been doing with my resolutions so far.
Have you read anything good lately?

One down!

Marriage/Family
1. Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old 
2. The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity
3. Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches
4. The Husband Project: 21 Days of Loving Your Man--on Purpose and with a Plan
5. Rekindling the Romance: Loving the Love of Your Life

Self-Improvement/Christian
6. One of Us Must Be Crazy. . .and I'm Pretty Sure It's You: Making Sense of the Differences That Divide Us
7. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
8. Have a New You by Friday: How to Accept Yourself, Boost Your Confidence & Change Your Life in 5 Days
9. The Money Saving Mom's Budget: Slash Your Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Streamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year
10. Calm My Anxious Heart: A Woman's Guide to Finding Contentment
11. Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
12. Influence: Science and Practice
13. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
14. Networking Magic: Find the Best - from Doctors, Lawyers, and Accountants to Homes, Schools, and Jobs
15. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

Fiction/Memoirs
16. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales
17. Wonderstruck
18. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
19. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man: A Novel
20. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman
21. Fool: A Novel
22. A Prayer for Owen Meany\
23. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden: A Novel
24. The Help

One down....if your one year old went from sweet and smiley to fussy and demanding seemingly overnight, Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old  is for you. But, as with any self-helpish book, take her suggestions with a grain of salt. I really appreciated the explanations she provided for the changes the average one year old goes through, but her suggestions for dealing with them were hit or miss. Still a good read, though.

Whenever I can get to the library I'm going to get The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales, as long as they have it.

What have you read so far?

Goals for 2012

I think it was last year when I had lunch with two friends and "resolutions" were brought up. I brought up my usual disdain for this time of year, since it seemed so dishonest and self-destructive in a way. I had always watched people make unachievable resolutions and then get angry when they realized they couldn't reach their goal, or I'd see people decide to start the year off right by not committing a crime*. Hence my bleak outlook on resolutions. (*After writing this, I realize my parents should have given me money instead of allowing me to work with the people I did....)

Anyway, they brought up how the first of the year isn't necessarily about striving to completely makeover your life, but instead about reviewing the previous year and finding ways to improve what is improvable. Those that make such unattainable goals were trying to speed up a process that should be taken slowly, which is why they often fail. And for those who start the year off by not committing a crime...well, they're not really understanding the point, either (although, not committing crimes is good!). The point, I believe, is to search your heart and prayerfully enter the new year with achievable goals that will make you a better Christian, parent, spouse, friend, etc. It's about having your priorities in order and striving to be better because you aren't yet. And you may never be "your best," but the first of the new year is a good time to evaluate and act.

I made a private, simple resolution, or goal, this time last year. I hadn't made a resolution (other than the "I'm going to lose weight" one that never really sticks) in years, but decided I would try it and see how it went. My goal was to use the outline for prayer that Jesus gave us in Matthew 6:9-13 and pray at least once a week. I've struggled with prayer for a long time, not understanding how it works, or what God does with it, but I needed to try this. And I am happy to report that  did. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to any of the questions I had when I started, but I can tell you my anxious heart had a lot more peace this year. And honestly, that's worth more to me than answers that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Since I was able to stick to a resolution this year, I decided to be a bit more adventurous for 2012 and have more than one goal. Here's the list I've come up with:
read the Bible through
finish projects I start (I am SO bad about this! Hopefully our wedding book (over 3 yrs ago) and Aiden's baby book (he's 15 months) will be done this time next year!!!!)
Read at least two chapters from a book per day
Read at least 24 books (list to come later this week)
Be in bed by 9pm 5x a week
Wake up by 7:30 5x a week
Exercise at least 30 min per day 5x a week
Not have the tv on while Aiden is awake, except for the Today show and Nightly News with Brian Williams
Do daily chores (I'll write more about this soon)
Budget budget budget (more on this later, too)

In order to help with accountability, I plan on blogging about how I'm doing with these goals from time to time (this is my online journal, after all).

Good luck to you all with your goals for this year. Have a safe and blessed 2012!