SELF-CONTROL.
Each year we choose a word to focus on as a family.
We have decided 2017 will be the Year of Self-Control. This was Abbey's idea. I liked it because self-control can look like a lot of different things.
A big one in our home full of girls is self-control of our emotions. This will likely be the way most of our children (and let's be honest, me) will place our focus this year.
But Self-Control can also look like a lot of other things:
FOOD
-the way we eat
-what we eat
-how much we eat
MONEY
-the way we spend money
-what we spend money on
-how much money we spend
TIME
-the way we spend our time
-what we do with our time
-how much time we spend on certain things
The list can go on, but Emotions, Food, Money, and Time are the four areas I want to try to focus on most in 2017. In general, on a personal level, I don't struggle terribly with food or really even too much with money. I tend to lean towards being conservative in many aspects of my life (other than having children. Give me all the babies).
I was inspired by a friend to not buy any clothes for a year (read her blog or buy her little book on how to do it at Green Chair Stories). Trent is also a rather conservative guy, and doesn't enjoy too much that would be considered "extreme". I am personally going to attempt in 2017 not to buy any clothes for myself for the whole year. The only exception I am going to make is while we are in China, I may buy a traditional Chinese outfit for myself because who can say if I'll go back to China any time soon? It has been interesting, even just in January, how I realized that I have become an impulse shopper because shopping online is SO easy. It has been really good for me to be more self-aware of the way I spend time scrolling through online shops and purchasing a couple things because they are cute.
The girls will certainly be working on self-control in it's most basic form. Emotions. Each of our girls struggle in their own way. Most commonly we see frustration boil over into tears, or quickly lashing out at another sister, or running out of the room crying, or anger. I plan to be very intentional on helping them through those things this year, mostly with prayer and calming techniques.
Obviously this year will look very different in a couple months. We will be adding a fifth daughter to the mix, she will be having surgery, and we will all be adjusting. I am thankful that we have a another two to three months to work with the oldest four girls before we bring Ruth home and begin a whole new adjustment period. I'm sure it will give the girls time to practice their newfound skills as we all work to show each other grace and understanding.
I hope 2017 will be a fantastic year for you all! Looking forward to another year of blogging!
I did a no-clothes buying year one year during college. It was the year Dan was in Swaziland, actually. It was a really great experience. Very freeing b/c the decision making process was just gone - no questions about should I buy this, is it too expensive, etc. I ended up making ah exception in two cases, however. One, I fell and ripped my only pair of jeans about halfway through the year. Since I wore those jean most days out of the week, I allowed myself to buy new ones. The second exception was a pair of tights to go with a skirt I had made from fabric some one gave me. But other than that - no new clothes. I think you're right to allow yourself to buy something in China. That won't be an issue of lack of self-control, but rather a connection to your youngest daughter and her heritage.
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