2017 Mommy Goals

PC: The Glare Photography
It's the first Friday of the year, and just like that, the first week of 2017 is almost in the books!  It's been busy trying to get back into the swing of things with school and extracurriculars back in session.  But amongst the chaos of this week, I still wanted to try to finalize my personal "Mommy" goals for 2017.

Right around the holidays, hubby and I make a list of some goals for ourselves and our family for the upcoming year.  This year we broke up them up into categories like personal, professional, family, financial, etc.  It's nice to look back on those goals at the end of the year and see just how many of them were checked off as completed! 

Image via Pinterest

I remember that in school we were taught to make our goals SMART (specific, measurable, etc.) but I feel like some of my mom goals don't necessarily have to be written that way.  As a mom, I'm a constant work in progress. Always messing up, learning, and trying again.  There are always things I want to work on to better both myself as a mom, and my relationship with my kids.  I feel like these "goals" are just as important as the ones that are actually measurable.  For me, these mom goals serve as maybe more of a reminder of the things I'd like focus on in the upcoming year.  Here are my 3 "Mommy" goals for 2017.

Improve PATIENCE

I was not blessed with the virtue of patience.  While to the outside world I may (hopefully) appear calm with my kids, at home it's another story altogether.  I feel like I live in a very fast paced, always on the go bubble of a world.  But my kids are in another world, where there are no clocks and no urgency.  Boy, their world seem so much more enjoyable!  I'm forever telling my kids to "hurry up" and this is one of the phrases I hope to eventually phase out.  Sometimes it takes them longer to do things, but they are young and this is normal.  I am going to try to improve my patience with them and not hurry them along in every situation.

Be PRESENT  
This is an ongoing challenge for me.  There's always a ton of laundry to do, meals to prep, dishes to clean, etc.  The house is a never ending place of chores and it's quite overwhelming at times. My three kids are at ages where they can play together so that helps me out when I need to get some things done.  But it's hard to not let the chores dominate my time with my kids.  They are only young for a short time so I'd like to make good use of the time I have with them while they are little.  The OCD in me wants the house to be clean at all times.  But the mommy in me needs to take over and say play with them...the dishes can wait a few minutes.  ;)

Take time to TALK
If you're a mom you're thinking whaaaat...I talk to my kids ALL DAY.  Yes, I am aware that we moms talk to our kids all day long, and it's exhausting, and sometimes we just want silence, haha!  But how often do we sit down and actually have real conversations with our little ones?  Conversations that go a little deeper than "How was your day?"  Now that Shaylin is 5, I'm realizing that she is craving conversation.  Taking time to just talk to her and let her share what she wants to share makes her so happy.  And it's fun for me to see her personality come out during our conversations.  Finding the time to sit and talk is challenging, but I am hoping to make it a priority.  I'd love to build a solid foundation with my daughter so she will always feel comfortable talking to me.

I'm forever wanting to improve in my role as mommy, but these are my 3 goals to focus on for right now.  :)   To all you moms out there...

Keep at those goals...you're doing better than you probably give yourself credit for!
Have a great weekend and an awesome 2017!

xo,
Carly