4 Goals for Myself as a Mother for 2011

One of the blogs I read is Life...Your Way.  Today's post asked us to write down our goals as mothers for 2011. So I thought I would share and see if any others out there had their own set of goals for themselves as mothers or any other area of your life that you want to concentrate on.

Here are 4 that I came up with for myself:

• Stop what I am doing, and look and listen completely, when Tristan is trying to speak to me. Sometimes, I forget that whatever it is I am doing at that particular moment is really not nearly as important as my child. Even if he wants to talk to me about his dolphin-mountain goat picture.  I never ever want Tristan to feel like he has to yell or act out or beg for my undivided attention.
• Break the yelling habit.  I will admit that when I get busy, late, or overwhelmed I have the habit of yelling, when I think I am not being heard or Tristan or my husband are not moving as fast as I think they need to move.  (See above about yelling to get attention!) I need to remember to take a deep breath and change my own reaction to things. This will be a tough one - Tristan seems to have selective hearing most of the time. He is in his own world, and getting his coat and shoes on is not generally at the top of his list.  But I need to remember that he has no idea about the concept of time or being late or even just the idea that someone somewhere is waiting on us to get there. My husband on the other hand...lol
• Become more organized. I am, I like to think, relatively organized. I try to get things ready the night before and have the things we need set out for us to grab on the way out the door. But there is more I could do to make mornings and even evenings a little smoother. My "planner" is steno book and the calender from the school. And I am planner junkie - I have tried them all! But nothing so far seems to be the perfect fit. I have heard that the planners on erincondren.com are excellent. We are on a tight budget this year as we try to work out paying tuition and bills and life in general, but as soon as I can save the money, I think I will try one.  
• And lastly, I want to continue this blog and continue to learn all I can about the Montessori Method so I can help my son learn and grow into the young man I know he can be. I want him to remember that his mom was always interested in what he was working on and that I was always able to help when he needed it. I need to be able to understand the reasons behind why he works with sandpaper letters and block towers so that I can help and encourage that at home. I am lucky because Tristan's school has Parent Ed nights every month. I will be attending those as often as possible to learn what I can do to further his learning and education.

So that is what I will be working on in 2011! Maybe not necessarily resolutions - there seems to be so much pressure associated with resolutions- just goals to work towards.  How about you?