STRENGTHEN

Last year, a fellow blogger, talked about having a word that she was living her life by. Last year that word was "stretch". I thought that was pretty cool and I admired many of the things that she had accomplished through the year. Then today I was reading another blog and the author had chosen a word for her year, which was focus. When New Years was approaching I knew I wanted to do the same. So for the past few days I have been thinking of what my word be and why.

So, the word I came up with is STRENGTHEN.

I don't just mean a physical strengthening...although it one of my goals. I want to strengthen many aspects of my life.

I have a desire to study my scriptures more, pray and fast with my family, develop a relationship with my Savior so I can develop a stronger testimony of the gospel.

I want to make myself more accessible to my children and spend time listening, not just hearing, them to help strengthen me as a Mom.

I have been attending Weight Watchers meetings for the past 5 months and have lost 21 pounds. I want to continue to attend my meetings and attain my goal this year. I want to be stronger when it comes to controlling my addiction to food.

After being so inspired by Steve and his accomplishment of running 2 marathons in 2007, I decided to sign on to do a 1/2 marathon in May of this year. So I want to strengthen myself physically to be able to run much of the race and cross the finish line with Steve and the children cheering me on.

I have drawn, sewn, created crafts since I was a child. I would like to strengthen those talents and use them more than I have before.

I want to strengthen my confidence in myself by trying new things and not being scared of failure or of the unknown. So often I have stood on the sidelines and watched as others tried things, but I want to start to participate in my life.

I look forward to updating you on how I am doing at STRENGTHENING myself.