New year, same old resolution

This year, I resolve to continue with the exercising, run another half marathon, eat more healthy (ie snack less), spend wisely, and yell less at the kids. But how to accomplish that last item?
We know we yell at our kids. We know that yelling is not effective, when it's constant. We know that yelling simply raises the decibel level in our house so that all of its occupants soon think yelling is a normal way to converse. We know that yelling should only be reserved for those MUST ACT NOW situations, like preventing the kid from running into live traffic or stopping the child from touching hot burner. Yet, we yell, a lot.
Why? Because we lose our tempers. We lose our patience. It's the hardest job we have, and truthfully, we don't often put the time and effort it really requires. We're all working at our monetarily paid jobs and often, our energy, patience and willpower gets left at the office. With the constant commuting, being on the "go", the various extra-curricular activities, the daily rut of laundry, grocery shopping, meals, the last thing we want is conflict on the home front from the kids. So we mistakenly believe that yelling at the kids will kick-start them into obedience mode. Intellectually we know this isn't so. We all try to not yell. We try to speak in softer tones, to ask politely of our children. But after the third or fourth ignored request, we lose it and yell. And still, no desired action from the offspring.
So, in an effort to bring down the volume in our household, and find methods that will help us stick to this resolution, I've done some research at the bookstore. There are lots of books out there for disciplining kids, some on treasuring the kids that are gifts from heaven (apparently God has a sense of humour), and a few on keeping the yelling to a minimum. In trying to keep the resolution of spending less, I ordered the no-screaming books on-line. Free shipping too.
After last night's loud episode with piano practising (Devlin) and eating dinner (Ceilidh), perhaps I should have paid for the rush order delivery.