Friday, January 7, 2011

Goals, goals, goals...and Great Grandma

I refuse to call them resolutions - I don't know why, maybe just because everyone else does, or because I want to join some of the backlash against resolutions!

I did force myself to sit down and make some goals for the year.  I hate to admit it, but the things that most come to mind are goals of the "organizational" type.  I feel like I have so many irons in the fire, and so many things going on, and I am so easily distracted that I have lots of things "sort of" completed.  I go back and forth on things - for a while I will do really well with a very solid cleaning schedule, for example, but then I will get tired of having to be "regimented".  Start talking in my head about freedom in Christ, that sort of thing. 

I don't really believe that freedom in Christ = don't bother to clean house, but I can go on some tangents when it is just me and my head sometimes.

But here are the goals I came up:

1.  To get back to my Weight Watchers goal weight and maintain it - I am 10 lbs over right now (yikes!).
2.  Make getting all the schoolwork done a priority for the boys.
3.  Follow through with my Bible reading plan.
4.  Have housework done before I play on computer.
5.  Exercise at least 3 times a week, besides my regular "on my feet all day" stuff.
6.  Keep the school records current, so I don't have to face a month of stuff to log.
7.  Have more families over for fellowship at our house.
8.  Stay with a regular cleaning schedule.
9.  Be consistent with the boys - in discipline, in chores, in everything!

Well, THAT is a dull list!  Those don't even seem like they should be goals - those should be givens. 

What is my real goal this year?

I wanna be more like Grandma.

This week we went to visit Nevin's Grandma K.  She turns 96 today.  In the 16 years we have been married, I have never heard this woman complain.  Any time I'd see her she'd hold my hand and tell my about Otto, her husband who passed away about 15 years ago.  I had only gotten to meet him once, after he had had a stroke, so I never knew the guy in the stories, and it sounds like I have really missed something there.    Grandma always made a point of telling us how lucky she was.  She had such good neighbors, she got to be in her own house, her children all came home to help her regularly.  She is always encouraging, and always so happy to see us.  She came to the United States with her parents and five siblings when she was 8 years old, in 1923, and has some fantastic stories about coming through Ellis Island, and how her parents had them learn English right away.  She has always been close to her sisters and brother, all of them ending up living in the same area of Iowa.

But now she is the last of the siblings, and a few weeks before Christmas she told her children that it was time for her to leave her home.  She just couldn't take care of herself anymore.  So, she is now settled into a very nice, very "homey" home, where she is getting wonderful care.  But still, she misses her house - she had lived there 70+ years, and raised all four of her children there. 

You would think that this would be an opportunity to complain.  But no.  She just says she misses her house, but then she looks up and says, "They are so good to me in this place.  The food is wonderful, they take care of me.  They come to my room to get me every day, because I do everything that I am asked to."  She participates in all the activities, is making friends with some of the other residents (though she did tell us one woman was not happy there...."I think that she thinks she is important," Grandma says matter-of-factly).  She was so happy because her children would be there this weekend for her birthday - they were going to have it in the party room, which is very nice. 

As we were driving back to the hotel, I was thinking over the "burdens" that I complain about.  The people who rub me the wrong way, the things that don't go my way, the things I'd like to do and don't have time for, the things that need to be done that I don't want to do, having to eat where the kids want to eat...blah, blah, blah. 

I have absolutely nothing to complain about.  And even if I did, exactly what use is complaining?

Grandma doesn't talk a lot about her religion - she lives it.  She is kind and gracious, she is pleasant.  When she was younger and able she served her family and her community.  And now, at 96, in a whole new place, she serves in a new way. 

Grandma, with some flowers we brought.  She was so delighted with such a simple thing.

Grandma with her grandson and four great-grandsons. 
So this year, as I know that my real goal is to grow more like Christ, I also want that to look like Grandma, too.

6 comments:

  1. Awe...so glad boys have a great-grandma to visit. My one an only living grandmother (my dad's mother) past away last year. She was 91. Carl's grandparents died before Carl was a teen. Of course his mother will be 90 this year.

    Goals, goals, goals. It gives us something to think about and attempt.

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  2. This is better than waiting for your rare Bibliovore post on sonlight any day (the link in your sig line at SL is broken, btw). I feel like I just caught up with a long lost friend. You are an inspiration, Miss Paula

    Belle

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  3. Belle, you are such a friend. I will fix the link on the SL forum.

    I go "poof" on SL in April, so we need to find other ways to keep up! We will have to email more often. I've missed our book-talks, too!

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  4. I have trouble breathing when you talk about the big poof! To say I feel a strong connection to you and our shared love of books does not adequately express my sentiments but maybe you can get a sense of how I feel. We will definitely have to e-mail and I do still plan to make my sojourn to Laura's final home. I believe our friendship was first sparked because we both love Laura.

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  5. You are making me cry, Belle! Yes, we need to go to Mansfield - Jennifer (robymomof3) wants to go with us, too. We need a weekend lady trip there.

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  6. And Jennifer too! Hi, Jennifer, if you're reading this. I really think a girl road trip is in my future. I think it's going to happen before we turn 46.

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