Moving...

I'm finally able to get on the Internet again! YAY! I don't know for how long though, so I wanted to let everyone know that I won't be on here much for awhile because of the move. We're between houses right now, making our trip across the country.

Saying goodbye to my parish was one of the hardest things about leaving. As soon as Fr. Robert said how it's never enjoyable to say goodbye to anyone, I started balling my eyes out. I'm going to miss all of them so much. My priest, my sons' godparents, my friends... They were so wonderful to us, dropping everything if we were in need of help with the kids, or when I was sick, had to see the doctor, or when I was frequently in the ER. They are great people.

If you're ever in Massachusetts, I suggest visiting Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church in Maynard, MA.

Farewell, Massachusetts.

Happy Name's Day

So, yesterday was my name's day and I didn't even realize it. It just goes to show you that a cross-country move tends to overwhelm one to the point of neglecting life.

As I've posted before, my patron saint is St. Genevieve of Paris. You can read my prior post on St. Genevieve below.

St. Genevieve of Paris

New Year's Resolutions

Image by Tyla'75 via FlickrSo, everyone is spilling their guts all over the web about what their New Year's Resolutions are, and I thought I would too. I actually have some this year, and I figure that if I put them down and tell the world, I will help myself do a better job of actually accomplishing them.

I hadn't thought of these as New Year's Resolutions before. I simply wanted to organize my life differently once we move across the country in 2 weeks. However, since it just happens to be New Year's, it works out to be a resolution for 2009. It just happened that way, I guess.

So, here are my resolutions...

The first, which I hope to strive to make most important, is to bring God into my life more than I already have. This means I need to pray more, read the scriptures more, and attend church services more often. I use to go to church all the time, and then after having children I actually started going less often. It was mostly excuses, really. No more excuses, though. It's time to be more devoted, instead of just wishing I was.

In addition to attending church more often, I want to volunteer more and be a more active member of my parish and community. Again, I was before, and then things happened that prevented me from doing this - the kids, my failing health, and of course, excuses. But now, things are different, and I miss that part of my life and want to take it back.

I also hope to read more, and make it a priority for myself on a regular basis. This includes scripture, Orthodox books, American History, and fiction novels for a bit of light reading as well. I hope that reading more will give me more inspiration to finally allow myself to pursue my 15 year dream of becoming a writer (not a resolution for 2009, but whatever happens in this area, happens and I welcome it).

I want to become a better wife and mother in the sense of keeping house and becoming more domestic. I'm "domestically disabled" as I like to put it, but I don't want to be. So I'm going to research and plan how I can do this better, probably by coming up with systems of organizing, planning ahead better, and making a schedule for house work. I also want to schedule the boys' days better, to make our lives more efficient and enjoyable.

I want to become a work-at-home mother. I really want to run my own business. I am currently a consultant for a well-known beauty company, but I don't know if I want to continue doing that as a source of income. I mostly want to do that for the great discounts for myself, now, and occasionally have parties where I make a bit of cash. What I mostly want to do is make money online through web sites, possibly getting back into my web design and development business. But the first thing I want to do is get a simple home job doing data entry or customer service work, so I know that I'm bringing additional income in right away. That will help me relax more to work on the businesses, so I don't feel so desperate for success.

How will I accomplish all of this? Through another resolution - one that is way past overdue - and that is to organize my life! I am the most disorganized person that I know. It's amazing that I get through each day of my life! Now that I'm healthy and my illnesses are no longer controlling my life, it's time to take my life back and run it myself. I've been so use to floating along in a stressful stupor that I allow many days to just pass me by without having accomplished much of anything. If I organize my life, not only will I be able to accomplish the above resolutions, but through it and the other resolutions, I will finally get a life!

How to organize? I'm not exactly sure where I will start, but I already have some ideas in mind. Some of them include getting rid of stuff we don't need (working on that right now because of the move); creating daily, weekly, and monthly schedules for the kids, chores, and work; creating meal plans and shopping lists further in advance to prevent last minute rushes and mistakes; and I'm sure there's more that I'm just not thinking about presently.

So there they are. My resolutions! I plan to post these up in our new house so that I can be reminded of them every day.

Do you have any resolutions you'd like to share?