The Mom Crowd

As you can tell I didn’t get my post up about financial goals today. I have them written (really I do), but I just couldn’t make a cohesive post last night or even tonight for that matter. My mom broke her hip and had surgery to place a pin in it yesterday.

On Sunday my 56-year-old mom got stuck in the hallway and couldn’t move while we were making the four hour drive home to San Antonio from visiting my parents for Christmas. Apparently she had fallen about 2 weeks ago and didn’t tell anyone and she was finally in severe pain. Luckily my brother and sister cajoled her to go to the Emergency Room Sunday night. Turns out that it was broken and she had surgery. We drove back to Houston the next day.

Before I even knew about the hip stuff I had planned on coming back to Houston to clean my parent’s house before I gave birth. I just didn’t know it would be so soon. Today is the only day that my Super Duper Cleaner Sister-in-law was able to help clean the house. My mother is a pack rat and her ability to adequately clean after three inside dogs, three cats, four fish tanks, and one bird cage has waned over the years. We attacked today. I threw out tons of garbage and stuff I hope my mom doesn’t miss. She is also diabetic and I had at least one garbage bag full of sweets. She may buy them again, but at least it will be fresh sweet stuff.

My mom is doing well. She refused therapy this morning, but did get up for physical therapy this afternoon. It will still be a while before she is home and walking. She thinks she is going to be home in a couple of days. I am not looking forward to the fight about going into the inpatient rehab facility. But that is for another day.

One more thing, did I mention that my family has lots of family drama and I am the only one that everyone is speaking to? I get to be a peacemaker and go-between in all of this. Oh, and I am 30 weeks pregnant and I have a toddler with me. Needless to say, I am exhausted.

Thanks for letting me whine a little here at The Mom Crowd. I am sure I am not the only child to have to start caring for a parent or has to do their own version of Clean Sweep on their parents house.

I am taking a break from visiting and cleaning tomorrow afternoon and I am looking forward to finishing up my goals series. Please come back soon and check them out!

The New Year is a great time to reflect on 2008 and set goals for 2009. But why should we add more pressure to our lives by setting goals that we may or may not obtain? Goal setting helps you focus your energy and set your priorities. You take control of your actions and time, rather than letting time and money slip through your hands wondering where it all went at the end of the year.

Accomplishing goals boosts your self-confidence and gives you a ton of motivation to make your life better. Even if you are satisfied with how your life is going, setting a goal and the challenge of seeing if you can meet them is incredibly motivating and enjoyable.

The key to taking pride in meeting your goals is to set SMART goals. Don’t just throw random resolutions into the void hoping that they will somehow be met. Create goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.

One goal that my husband set for himself was to read one non-fiction book a month for the entire year.  He could have said, “I would like to read more non-fiction books this year,” but how would he have known if he met it?  His goal is SMART.

The goal: To read one non-fiction book a month for the entire year.

specific: one non-fiction book
measurable: one book a month for the year
attainable: challenging to find time to read, but not too far from reach
realistic: reading non-fiction isn’t a chore for him
timely: there is a timeframe for his goal.

On New Year’s Day last year my husband and I found a family member to babysit our baby while we went out to lunch and discussed our goals for the year. We will probably do the same this year. We set goals as a family and separately as individuals.

Sharing our goals with each other brings us closer together in our marriage. He also holds me accountable for mine, but only if I ask to hold me accountable! Conversely I don’t nag him either. It is just a fun exercise to even express our goals and dream out loud to each other. We like to set goals for different categories such as physical, financial, spiritual, social and intellectual.

Over the next three days I am going to post ideas for SMART goals in the financial, physical, and intellectual categories. I hope you come back and join me as we discuss our goals in these three areas!

This is not in any way an informative post, however I hope it will bring a smile to your face.  This is my son and daughter with Santa.  My son was not so thrilled to be with old St. Nick!  If you have any great Santa pictures, I’d love to see them!!  Merry Christmas to all of our readers!  I am so honored to be a contributor to this great blog! 

Amanda gave some good tips on guarding your joy this season.  My number one joy stealer during the Christmas season is family overload.  Like many people, I have “one of those families.”  If they made a movie about my beloved family, I don’t think it’d do very well because viewers would say it wasn’t believable enough and no one would be able to keep up with who’s who and what’s what!  Oh, the drama!  I love each and every member of my family very much, but I can only handle a few of them in small doses. The irony, though, is that my favorite thing about the holiday season is seeing my family and spending time playing board games and cards and eating some good food!  However, it doesn’t take long before the family drama and the family history makes these gatherings difficult for me.

This year, I am consciously determined to enjoy the time I spend with my family.  I am ashamed that I sometimes don’t look forward to spending time with my extended family and I am going to try very hard to be aware of my bad attitude and be excited to spend time with them.  I think I have longed for “what could be” in my family relationships, instead of making “what is” better and enhanced.  When you are constantly longing for something else in your family it makes their shortcomings obvious and it more difficult to appreciate the wonderful attributes of each of your family members.  I forget that I have a lot of power in how well my relationships are with my family.  Instead of hoping they will change or strengthen their relationship with me,  I am going to take the lead and strengthen the relationships I have with my family members as much as I can.  I challenge you to make the same committment this year!

Do you have a hard time enjoying your family during your visits?  How do you avoid family overload?  How do you deal with the family members that you just do not “click” with?

One of the best things about the Christmas season is watching classic Christmas movies.  My husband’s favorite is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  My favorites are It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story.  I just realized that they all have a long-suffering wife/mother figure.  Something about the stress of the holidays, huh?  Poor Ellen Griswold is always running around, simultaneously trying to support Clark while cleaning up his messes.  Mary Bailey has four little ones to look after, and a husband who’s miserable.  (Remember the scene where he yells at the kids’ teacher on the phone?)  And Ralphie’s mom is a classic representation of motherhood: always making dinner, trying to keep the Old Man happy, and lovingly raising two boys.  She’s my favorite.

What movie does your family watch every Christmas?   

Here’s one of my favorite scenes from A Christmas Story, re-cut for some added laughs.