My New Years Goals {Part 1}

It’s a new year, which brings about a new season of change in most of our lives… at least we intend to, right? I never quite understand why some people get all weirded out about new years resolutions. Truth is, yes, half of the time we might start out on a new kick and fall right back into our old ways within a matter of time but the way I see it is we should never stop trying to be better. We should always strive for growth. & the more consistent we are in trying, I have faith that we’ll “get there”… wherever that “there” is for you.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to intentionally change this year… the areas in my life that need major improvement. There’s a lot of them, and narrowing them down to what will benefit me and my family the most is what I want to choose to focus on.

I had a little bit of an “aha” moment last night as I was putting my daughter to bed. I’ve mentioned it before, but she is our strong-willed/stubborn one. Oh and smart… very, very smart. She’s always hated bed-time/nap-time (it’s been a struggle since day 1). Last night was no different. If you’re a mom, you probably know exactly what I’m about to say. Kid’s are funny, they will do anything in their power to delay bedtime. I swear they come up with excuses I’ve never even heard of. Last night it was having to go pee after she had JUST gone pee, removing a hang nail (????), and now she just wasn’t tired (so I’m going to change my mind and let you stay up now?)… can you sense the grace I was extending to her? 😉 I finally went in after she had called “moooooooom” “daaaaaaaaaad” about 37 times, and had a stern talk with her. “Ella, do NOT call for mommy & daddy again….” I’ll spare you the rest. Let’s just say she knew that I was not happy and it ended with tears as I walked out of her room. Her room happens to be quite close to our living room and we always leave her door cracked so as I sat on the couch after having this “talk” with her, I started to hear something come from her room. Crying, she mustered up “Jesus, will you please be with me? You say that if we ask for you, you will be with us and I need you to be with me right now….” She prayed a few more lines while crying in between and then it was silent. My husband and I kind of laughed to ourselves as we listened and then it hit me a few minutes later… THAT, that is what it is all about! I may have all of these “New Year Resolutions” of how I want to change, grow, and live out this new year but the one thing and the biggest desire of my heart no matter what year it is, is to raise my kids to love Jesus. & to hear your four year old praying and earnestly seeking Him, well that just made my year right there! It was like the Lord was reminding me and confirming what really matters in life. We may have all of these big plans to change this and tackle that, but the heart of what really matters is moments like these.

On a different note- I do plan to make some good and fun changes in 2016 for Ella Brooks Blog. I’ve been asked quite a few times (and rightfully so) whether or not my blog name will be changing since we will be adding a third little munchkin to the bunch in early April, and the answer to that is no 🙂 However, I’m currently working on a whole new site that will be launching shortly as well as new weekly themes I’ll be focusing on this year. I plan to commit a lot more time to blogging (Hooray!!!) since I just recently quit my part-time job (insert praise hands emoji). I’m now a full-time stay at home mommy/blogger and I seriously couldn’t be happier about this new change. The timing of it all is perfect and I can’t wait to dive into what new blogging adventures lie ahead with y’all!

On that note, can you guys help me out??! I want to hear from you on what you enjoy reading most on here…. is it inspirational/real life moments? more fashion related posts? beauty/hair? the “mom-life” stuff? I want to tune into what you guys are wanting to hear from me so please comment below and let me know!

Thanks guys for following along- means more than you know! Really- XOXO

p.s. Do you all want to hear what my personal New Years goals are?? I’m still trying to narrow it down but I might do a follow up post to this & share with you all…

XOXO