Tag: New Years resolutions

12 Family Goals for the New Year

Today, The Morning Thing shared some encouragement to help you start the first full week of 2026.

Here are some great ideas from imom.com to help your family stay strong and stay connected in the new year. Click HERE to see the full article from Author, Nancy Jergins.

Nancy Jergins – Educator and journalist Nancy Jergins is the author of Wise Words Mom: What to Say to Raise Kids Who Feel Accepted, Confident and Loved, an Amazon Top New Release in Motherhood, and an Amazon Top 50 Selection in One-Hour Reads. Nancy also worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and spent many years as a TV news reporter and anchor.

12 Family Goals for the New Year

Choose one goal for every month. You can keep it simple and just put up a list with the goals, or you can have a family celebration at the start of each month to kick off that month’s goal and get input from your kids. Here are 12 family goals to achieve together this year.

1. Cooking

Most moms want their kids to learn how to cook before they move out so they’re able to take care of themselves when they’re on their own. For this goal, assign each child a meal to prepare for the family. For younger kids, it can be breakfast or lunch. Older kids can cook dinner.

2. Service

Meet as a family to come up with a way to help others. Let the kids have a say in where you give your time. You can spur them along by asking who in the neighborhood, at church, or in the community needs a helping hand.

3. Money

You can use our share, save, spend printable to kick off this month’s goal. For older kids, consider explaining the financial basics of running a family. You can use beans to show how much goes into each category—housing, cars, food, insurance. It might finally make sense why you keep yelling for them to turn off the lights when they leave the room. This is a family goal that you could continue for more than a month, as your kids will love to see their wallets, savings, and giving funds grow.

4. Poetry

Don’t laugh! Poetry can enhance your family life by showing how words can help us express emotions. You can make this fun and funny. Have your husband read a love poem by Emily Dickenson or look up some quirky poems by Shel Silverstein for your kids.

5. A Fast

Fasting isn’t just about food, although you could try that, too. Consider what has a little too much presence in your family’s life. Electronics after dinner? Going out to eat? Sweets? Go without it for a month and see how the fast frees up time, makes you feel healthier, or helps your budget.

6. Kindness

Make your family goal to say one kind thing to each other every day. At first, it will feel hokey. But pretty soon, you’ll see that it really does encourage more kindness.

7. Reading

If you can get your kids to read for an hour a day, studies show their vocabulary and comprehension will be off the charts. That’s the science behind this family goal, but it can be fun, too. Choose one book to read aloud as a family, or have your kids read independently, and then meet at the end of the week to talk about the chapters they read. Entice them to read by eating foods related to the book when you have your mini book club gathering.

8. Movement

This month, focus your family goal on moving. Go for a walk as a family after dinner or on the weekends. Play doubles tennis (there are large tennis balls that slow down play for younger kids) or make a circle and do jumping jacks facing each other.

9. Faith

Explore faith if it’s not already a part of your life. Since studies show that attending faith services strengthens families, visit a church. If your family already practices a faith, add another element like daily reading or nightly prayer. Unsure about how to shape your family’s faith? These ideas can help.

10. Thankfulness

Research shows that when we show thanks to others, it improves our overall happiness. This is a great skill to teach children. They can use this to help themselves through tough times when they’re out on their own. A fun family goal would be to write one thank you note per day and pop it in the mail. Take turns writing the note. (This doesn’t have to be all on you, Mom!)

 11. Online Awareness

It would be easy to make this month about turning off all the devices. Instead, use it to teach your family about being aware of how much time they spend looking at screens. You can have everyone keep track of their screen use for a day or a week. Don’t be afraid to try a no-electronics day or two.

12. A New Skill

What will it be? Knitting? Juggling? Shooting 10 free throws in a row? Everyone chooses a skill and works on it throughout the month. At the end of the month, you can have a skills showcase.

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2025 is here! The Morning Thing shared New Year’s Resolutions that are achievable!

The New Year brings a fresh start! What goals would you like to achieve?
The word “resolution” often becomes a negative term because many of us give up after 2 weeks.
Good Housekeeping came up with a list of 65 Achievable New Year’s Resolutions You’ll Actually Keep!
Check out the FULL LIST HERE!
If we can adopt 1 or 2 or maybe 3 of these goals, we will be on our way to a healthy, more balanced 2025.

Here are some of the resolutions that we are going to try in the New Year.

  • Start a gratitude journal.
  • Make time for family.
  • Create a budget you can stick to.
  • Cook new foods.
  • Add cleaning tasks to your calendar.
  • Prioritize sleep.
  • Learn to love vegetables.
  • Schedule annual health screenings.
  • Become a plant owner.
  • Take the stairs.
  • Plan a vacation.
  • Start walking more.
  • Write to yourself.
  • Do one thing at a time.

As you start this new year, we hope you can remember the promises of these powerful bible verses:

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Isaiah 43:18-19 – “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Revelation 21:5 – And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Ephesians 4:22-24 – To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

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The Morning Thing Friday Favorites – What is on your bucket list for 2024?

All this week we have been talking about NEW things for the NEW Year.
Today for our Friday Favorites, we decided to share the NEW things that we want to try in 2024.
Some of these items are simple ideas for our daily lives, but some ideas are from our bucket lists.
We hope that we encourage you to be brave and try something new as we create new memories in 2024.
Thanks for listening to The Morning Thing.

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Happy New Year from The Morning Thing

Today is special! It is a fresh start for a New Year with new possibilities and opportunities.

Today on the show, Marcy Rinehart shared some ways that you can celebrate this special day.
Click HERE to see ways to celebrate the occasion from Good Housekeeping.

Some of our favorites include:
– Go to the Movies
– Start a New Book
– Treat Yourself to an at Home Spa Day
– Binge a TV Marathon
– Cheer for Your Favorite College Football Team
– Check out a Parade
– Try a Good-Luck Dish
Click HERE for a list of 8 New Year’s Foods to Bring Good Luck. (This list will still work for 2024)

We also talked about resolutions on the show. New Year’s Resolutions can be hard to keep sometimes. We shared 10 tips that will help you keep them this year.
Click HERE to see the complete list and read the full article from Very Well Mind.

  1. Choose a Specific Goal
  2. Limit Your Resolutions – Focus on One Goal at a Time
  3. Put Time Into Planning – Make a Detailed Plan
  4. Start With Small Steps – Small Steps Lead to Success
  5. Avoid Repeating Past Failures
  6. Remember That Change Is a Process
  7. Get Support
  8. Renew Your Motivation
  9. Keep Working on Your Goals – Keep a Resolution Journal
  10. Learn and Adapt


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The Morning Thing Friday Favorites – 1/6/23

It is a NEW Year! All this week, The Morning Thing has shared some insight from Ramsey Solutions on how to find balance in life. This great advice is timely as we start a new year. This week for our Friday Favorites. the hosts shared their favorite tip from Ramsey Solutions.

Click HERE to hear our Friday Favorites.

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Looking for a more balanced life in 2023?

Welcome to 2023!

If you are like us, you are looking for more balance in your life in the new year.

On Monday, we shared 10 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy Life More from Ramsey Solutions.
Great tips as we look for a good start to the new year.

Click HERE to see the full article.

When you prioritize slowing down, you can:

  • Focus on what’s truly important in life. When you live a busy and distracted life, you lose sight of the people and things that matter most to you. Slowing down allows you to set your priorities and stick to them.
  • Stay healthy—physically and mentally. Over-the-top busyness leads to stress, and chronic stress will wear down your mental and physical health. Psychologists and doctors call this unofficial condition hurry sickness, a form of anxiety fueled by constantly trying to squeeze just one more thing into our already packed schedules. Yeah, let’s avoid that.
  • Be more productive. This sounds backward, but rest is crucial for productivity. No, really. When you rush and hurry through your work, you’re more likely to make mistakes, and that forces you to go back and redo things you could’ve just gotten right the first time. Going slow and enjoying the moment allows you to bring your best energy and mental focus to your work.

Here’s the deal: If you don’t slow down, you’ll miss out on a ton.

How to Slow Down 

Here are a few practical ways to slow down.

1. Pay attention to what gets your attention. 

2. Be present. 

3. Put the cell phone away. 

4. Focus on the people in front of you.

5. Drive the speed limit. 

6. Accept your limitations. 

7. Make time to have fun. 

8. Practice silence. 

9. Journal.

10. Add these books to your reading list.

Books are powerful! Here are a few that can teach you some more strategies for slowing down your life:

You can even start reading Take Back Your Time for free! In it, Christy Wright gives you a step-by-step plan to say yes more often to what matters, stop feeling so overwhelmed, and start slowing down.

Slowing down isn’t easy, but it is possible. If you commit to following these 10 steps, you’ll start seeing a change in the pace of your life. And if you keep at it for long enough, your life will slow down and you’ll enjoy it more. Think of how much peace that would bring!

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