Resolutions

I made some resolutions at the beginning of the year. Not huge ones, and sometimes I'm not a fan of resolutions at all. But I had a few things that I knew I needed to be reminded of through the year, and my Christmas wreath needed a less Christmasy center.

So here we are. I also like to think of birthdays as good times to make resolutions, since you have a whole new "age" ahead of you. Since my birthday is this week, I thought it'd be a good time to share my wreath's new centerpiece.

There are a LOT of pages from that French Synonym book, so of course, that's how my list is displayed, with various fonts from Open Office, traced from the laptop screen. :)

There were five main ideas that I knew I wanted to focus on:

:: Talk to God ::

There are too many times when I simply forget that God is available all the time. I can tell him when I'm a little tired of nursing my toddler. Or when I'm grateful that the grocery store had the good kind of plantains in stock! Or, let him know that I'm totally confused about something. But I need to do it. Simply pray. Whenever, about whatever.

:: Don't Delay ::

This one stemmed from a husband who gets hungrier faster than I do. Basically, I want to have meals on time and sooner. :)

:: Check Your Attitude ::

Mothering is sometimes a little harder than I expected. I want to be a nice Momma, and a kind Momma. So I need to keep a cheerful disposition, even when I'm tired of not having my own lap because a little person is always on it. ;)

:: Be Attentive ::

How many times do I neglect the people in my life because I'm too focused on other stuff? Relationships are one of the most important things in life, and I need to simply stop and pay attention to the people I love. Like, my husband. And my daughter.

:: Refrain ::

I'm afraid it's too easy to get on the computer and get sidetracked and spend too much time doing who knows what. And before I know it, I've wasted precious hours. True, a lot of my life revolves around the computer, and I think it's just a fact of life. But I don't need to waste my life doing unnecessary stuff on the computer. Instead, get off and DO things in real life.

Now, just 'cause I'm posting these doesn't mean I'm a pro at them. I mess up. Daily. But, that's what God's grace is for, and his mercies are truly new every morning. So I keep trying, with his help.

My idea for little phrases came from Nessa, on this post. I loved how she made her resolutions into easy-to-remember quotes. Plus, her list is pretty good too! I had to limit myself somewhere or else I'd never quit with all the good things I ought to be doing or not doing!

Oh, and for the book page wreath, I scoured the internet and Pinterest for ideas, and liked this style the best, for the materials I had available. I used a fat donut shape piece of cardboard for the base, and rolled book pages into cone shapes and just glued them on the cardboard. Plain white glue worked for all my glueing and I adjusted the size of the cones as I rolled them, to fit in the empty holes as I went along.