Happy New Year! Goals 2015

We talked about our goals as a family, and we have a few.  We try to think of these goals by season, as to work on them throughout the year.

Goals for E (* denotes a goal made on her own):

1.  Swim forward and back longways across the warm water pool.*  My guess is the pool is about 15m across.  E can swim across the short-side, but she isn't always successful. Sometimes she looks fantastic, other times she sinks. I think she just needs more time to figure it out.

2.  Try to get out of her crouch.  I know this is a lifelong issue.  We'll try something new this year.

3.  Use the walk path around the neighborhood.  There is a nice path around the houses here, but it's gravel and hilly.  We've never taken a walk on it.  I'd like to see how far we can go.

4.  Bike the river trail without help.  Trike or upright bike, I want her to be able to use the brake appropriately and pedal up the small hills.

5.  Start voice lessons.  E has asked for voice and piano a while back; she enjoys piano, but as we've learned from the psychologist, it accentuates almost everything that is difficult for her.  

6.  Help me cook more often.  E is enjoying being my helper, and can now use a sharp knife (thanks after-school class!).  It also opens up a lot of great opportunities to talk about real life math.

7.  Try yoga again.

Goals for Vivian:

1.  Go down a water slide.*  Vivian is almost an independent swimmer now.  If she passes the swim test, she can slide this summer.  

2.  Have after school activities.  Viv typically gets dragged around to Elena's appointments, but doesn't have her own. She joined a girl scout troop (once a month), and I enrolled her in a tap dancing class.  She also wants to take ballet, but we'll have to fit that in later in the year.

Goals for me:

1.  Finish the 40 for 40.  (Forty preferably-athletic events in the calendar year between my 39th and 40th birthday).  I'm halfway there.

2.  Try every class at the gym.

3.  Declutter.  Specifically the storage room and the garage.  

4.  Drink more water. I get headaches, mostly from dehydration.  

5.  Sleep better.  I am a horribly light sleeper and hardly ever rest well.  This got infinitely worse after I became a parent, accentuated by the fact that I had a child that could not get in/out of her bed on her own and every obstacle was a serious fall hazard.  Elena can do almost everything on her own (wearing her leg brace at night makes it very very slow) but I am constantly aware of every sound.  

6.  Try the garden again.  I constructed a compost bin last summer, and we've been adding to it since then.  I plan on trying raised beds of sorts, so E can garden without squatting so much.  We'll see.  

Goals for all of us:

1.  Be loud cheerleaders when Jason runs his 10-miler!

2.  Look at our world a different way.  E has been interested in astronomy (before they started studying it in school), and we had a special meeting with a hobby astronomer last year.  We'll have another stargazing party (we take out a mattress on the driveway and kids come over) or two.  And Vivian is really into amoebas (I think she liked the word) so we'll take water samples from the lake and see the small stuff.  I'm looking for a secondhand microscope, as well as making one of my own (my first attempt wasn't successful).  

3.  Everyone walk to the beach on their own.  Grown-ups will carry chairs, but not kids.

4.  Welcome our new baby cousin!  I am very excited about the impending arrival of my nephew!  Vivian has never seen a newborn.

5.  Send a card with family updates.  We used to send one out at Christmas, but we're two years behind.  

6.  Craft more at home.  I'm not into crafting unless it has a specific use (knitting blankets, decorating cookies, making Halloween costumes) but E and Viv could use the fine-motor practice.

7.  Find a game the entire family enjoys playing.  Right now Viv doesn't like to play our current favorites.