New Year's Resolutions

My friend Korby put her new year's resolution (or her resolution for the month) on her blog and I thought it would be fun to share what our kids came up with for resolutions for this year. We did it for family night and had a good time/laugh doing it. Our kids pretty much came up with these all on their own. We helped with the wording, but the ideas are theirs:

Nico’s Resolutions

1. I will try not to cry if I lose my video games
2. I will try to be a better brother
3. Help friends at school
4. I will be reverent in Class and Sacrament

Christian’s Resolutions

1. I will try to not be so bossy to Nico (be more patient).
2. I will not give Mom a hard time about piano
3. I will try to pay attention in class
4. I will be more reverent in church
5. I will try to be a better example
6. I will read for the scriptures for twenty minutes every Sunday

Obviously Christian has more because he has more issues. Then we also did some family goals that once again, the kids came up with. We gave them the topics and they set the goal and then they gave us ideas on things we could do to accomplish those goals. Overall I thought they did pretty well. Christian really wanted to use the word "perservere", so we went with it and this is what we came up with:

Townsend Family Goals for 2010

Church

1. We will try to help one family find the gospel this year

a. Invite friends to church
b. Invite friends to come over and hear the missionary discussion
c. We will pray to help us find a family to share the gospel with

Family

1. We will try to be more patient with each other and not yell at one another

a. Have more patience
b. Read the scriptures to have the spirit in our home
c. Use our manners saying “please” and “thank you”

Work/School

1. We will persevere

a. Work hard
b. Get better grades
c. Not give up

After reading this you may think our family has yelling issues along with bulling issues and just plain issues all over the place. We do. I went one day without yelling at my kids and realized that it's theraputic for me and that the yelling I do is actually releasing some kind of stress/tension. What am I going to do if I can't yell at them in the morning to "hurry up or I'm taking video games away for the weekend," "You have 5 minutes left and if you're not out of the shower you're going to have to skip breakfast" (ha! like that's ever going to happen-such empty threats) My personal favorite, "What were you thinking?" Wow! I got going and now I can't stop. Here are just a few of the things you hear being yeld around our house (before our new resolution that is):

" Do you really think Isabella likes it when you do that if she's cries the WHOLE time?"

"Quit killing your brother" (video games really turn you into bad people all together)

"If you tell on your brother one more time I'm going to spank you!"

"Don't tell me, tell your Dad" (this one is one of my favorites as well)

"Quit talking and eat your food!"

"Quit talking and get your shoes on, NOW!!!!"

"MOM, Christian hit me"

"MOM, Nico is telling on me!"

"NO Christian, it was my turn!"

"NO Nico, this is how you do it, you're doing it all wrong!!!!"

"DADAADAADAADADADA!" (even Isabella gets in on the action)

So may the new year erase all these old ways and bring new and exciting blunders to our home. I need to find a new outlet soon!