Brittany in 2011

I am excited about this new year. 2010 was a year of major transition for us; most notably, Derek graduated from residency; we moved to rural Washington where he began his career as a family physician; we added a seventh member to our family.

Now that we are settling in to life here, I am looking forward to what this year holds.

I'm excited to get back into running. I didn't run through Joseph's pregnancy-- I think the move here stymied my efforts to remain consistent, between long days spent unpacking, a very hot summer, and a broken treadmill, I just couldn't keep it up. And let's face it, after 4 children was not as spry as it used to be, and it just plain hurt. So I read my Runner's World magazine and feel inspired to get back out there, but I know it's going to be a challenge.

I want to be a good homemaker, wife, and mother, and after 11 years of practice, I'm learning what matters and what doesn't. I once had aspirations of making every Friday "Cookie Friday", when my kids would walk in from school to the smell of fresh-baked chocolate cookies for a special after school snack. I think that lasted one week. At least they remember it and still ask if we can have "Cookie Friday again, like we used to." So maybe that matters. Anyway, I want to make yummy dinners which entice my family to gather around the table for regular family dinners; keep a relatively clean house (there is only so much you can expect with 5 members of the household under the age of 10); teach my children to work; teach my children to read scriptures and pray daily, teach them to be grateful, and to feel loved and secure-- and all of this, so that they can build their own testimonies of Jesus Christ and understand His gospel. I trust that they will learn their times tables at school; whether or not they become star athletes really doesn't matter in the long run; I want to offer at home what they cannot find anywhere else.

Now that I'm the mother of 5 children, I feel like I am really a full-fledged mother now. As if I wasn't at 2, or 3 or 4 kids. :) It's funny, though, that not that long ago, I was the girl who stood alongside my husband who was beginning medical school, and it was so hard for me to explain to his peers that I was a stay-at-home mom; that answer didn't seem to be sufficient, and I yearned for them to know that I was every bit as capable as they were-- that I too, was headed down the medical career path, until we got married and had our first baby. I am so grateful not only that I was able to stay home with our children-- Derek was blessed with scholarships and loans that provided for us-- but even more, that Heavenly Father helped me to grow into my role as a mother and overcome the doubts that that was enough. I am so grateful for a mother who taught me nearly everything I know about mothering by example; a father who supported us financially so that she never had to work outside the home; for a mother-in-law who also stayed home with her children, and a father-in-law who taught his boys that their responsibility was to provide for their families. And I am so grateful for my sweet husband who is fiercely committed to his role as a husband and father, as defined by our latter-day prophets. We are now reaping the rewards of living according to such counsel as given in the Proclamation on the Family. There would be a lot more strife in our home if we had competing careers-- (believe me, we were best friends and worst enemies when we competed in high school chemistry.) I have half-joked that perhaps Heavenly Father assigned men to be the providers and women to be the nurturers if for no other reason than to give us one less thing to argue about -- that's to say nothing of the divine qualities that are assigned to men and women. In any case, we have witnessed that our roles compliment each other, and that there is balance and order as we each do our part to benefit our family.

I am looking forward to paying down our debts this year. Derek created a chart that outlines our debt pay-off schedule, and we stick to it, we will be debt-free (with the exception of mortgage and student loans) by spring 2012. After living on a student budget with 4 children for nearly a decade, I am excited to finally be able to more self-reliant. Paying off debts is not fun, but once it's done, it is so fulfilling. I have to keep reminding myself of that as I write out the checks to our creditors, as well as staying within our budget so that we keep progressing out of the red.

I want to be a great visiting teacher this year; I have had several experiences where wonderful friendships developed from visiting teaching, so it shouldn't be hard to make it a priority-- I just need to do it.

Here's to 2011!