My top 11 for 2011

I made a brief recap list of 11 events that happened to my family in 2011.  It's more or less a reminder of eveything that happened. 
*Jay got a staph infection in his finger and had surgery in January.  Very scary but he recovered nicely and has a very small "battle wound" scar.
*In February we had the worst blizzard I've ever encountered in my adult life.  We lost power for 24 hours. 
*My nephew, Luke, was born shortly after the big blizzard.  He'll be a year old next month.
*We went to St. Louis for Nick's 5th birthday!
*I accepted my new job at the very end of April and started working from my home in June.  One of the best decisions I've ever made.
*My mom retired in late May!  She loves being retired.
*Nick started playing soccer in August, his firs organized sport.
*Jay played his 2nd year of tackle football. 
*Nick entered Kindergarten.  It seems like yesterday that I took Jay for his first day of Kindergarten.  It's really bittersweet.  Jay entered 4th grade. 
*This October, November and December is the most I've seen Mike work in 5 years - no kidding.  It's good job security but I will be ready for things to slow down for him.  
*We have had an easy winter....so far.  We haven't had any snow and although the boys were sad they didn't have a white Christmas, I gotta tell ya, I was not.  I am not missing the snow!  I'm sure we'll get some eventually but if we don't, I won't be disappointed. 

As far as 2012 goes I have a few things I want to change.  I have the usual....lose 15 lbs PRONTO, I would REALLY like to get involved in a small group for bible study but I'm not sure how I want to form this or even if I want to be the one to form it.  But I'd really like to form some new friendships and keep up with my old friendships.  But the big, major thing I really want to accomplish is to make my children more self sufficient.  Right before Christmas I kind of had an ah-ha moment.  My friend, Amy, who has 3 boys told me if she thinks her boys are capable of doing something then she makes sure they do them.  I think I have a tendency to do too much for the boys.  I'm not that bad or that enabling but I do recognize it's something I need to work on.  I would really like my future daughter in laws to like me.  Ha.  My boys are 5 and almost 10 and most days they need something every second of the day and it's exhausting for heaven sakes!  Yesterday I washed Jay's bedding.  First off let me say the boys do make their own beds every day but when I wash their bedding, I put their clean sheets back on.  But yesterday I put all of Jay's sheets in his room and told him to make his bed because when I asked mself if he was capable of doing that my answer was Yes.  And sure enough he made his bed.  Granted it was not how I would have done it but it got done.  I also designated a snack drawer.  The snack drawer has healthy snacks.  My goal is to eliminiate me finding them a snack.  When they ask for a snack now I can direct them to the snack drawer.  I can't believe it took me almost 10 years to come up it - I mean really!  So with every task I give them I'll continue to ask myself....are they capable of doing that and if my answer is Yes then they are doing it.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Happy New Year's everyone.