New Year's Resolutions

Well, it's the middle of January, but better late than never. And no, punctuality is NOT going to be on my list of resolutions. Heehee

1. Relationship Changes

In the new year I'd like to deepen those relationships that would benefit from more depth. In other words, spend more time getting to know friends and allowing the friendship to grow, giving myself permission more often to get out of the house with girlfriends, and being more hospitable by having others over more often.

Another part of this resolution is letting go of relationships that aren't working. People grow and change and often I find myself stubbornly clinging to a friendship that was perhaps in its prime years ago. This is a personal fault of mine I guess in that I'm an intensely loyal friend and tend to have a "once friends, always friends" sort of attitude. In a sense that's true. I think that in case of real crisis I would be there for anybody that I've called a friend at one point in time. However, in terms of the everyday, some friendships don't need my continued efforts and energy. I say this not as a negative or with any sort of bitterness. Changing friendships is a natural process in life, one that I'm learning to fight against with less vigor. So part of my relationship improvements this year may involve cutting back where that is necessary.

A third part of this resolution would be improving family relationships. This is something that I continue to try to chip away at. I'd love for Ayden to share more time playing with and getting to know his cousins this year.

2. A more homey space

I have been VERY lax in this area. I admit that moving around a lot in our first few of marriage kind of decreased my desire to do the normal family things, like putting pictures on the wall, painting, and other such things. However, there's something to be said for a space that is homey and inviting, that tells something about the inhabitants. T is against painting and well, I'm just going to stubbornly work on him on that one because I think it would make all the difference in the appearance of our home. It would also improve the appearance of the daycare area. Can't you just see the arguments on my side mounting?

Also, less clutter would help me feel more at home. Visual clutter is very stressful to me. Right now my method is when it gets too bad I bag it up and move it upstairs. You should see the bags of junk piled in my closet. I'm slowly making my way through the bags, but the clutter continues to build repeatedly. So finding places for things is going to be important. That is a huge part of the problem - we've just never made homes for things. When we moved in I was 7 months preggo with Boo and extremely unmotivated to organize to any great degree. Then Boo was born and well, life is just busy. But I do want to make time for this in the new year.

Specifically we're working on creating a space upstairs in an extra room. It's becoming the craft/daycare supply/future homeschool room. Right now it's a disorganized mess due to being in transition, lack of appropriate storage materials, and lack of time spent organizing. So, there's a lot of work to be done.

3. More homemade items this year

Specifically I'd like to do more homemade Christmas stuff this year. Several years ago I made ponchos and hats for my nieces for Christmas and I've never been more proud to give a gift in my life. Now these were not perfect and my sewing skills are very elementary, but there was something great about being able to put all of my love for them into something handmade. Also, I made Boo a hat and scarf last year. This year I've been working on a new set (he's outgrown the old set) and I admit that it might be spring before I'm done. It's hard to find the time and my excuses are a mile long as to finding other things to do besides sit down and knit. It's kind of ridiculous because once I force myself to sit down and knit, I find much peace and relaxation in the process.

I'd also like to get back to scrapbooking. Getting our craft room done is of key importance in that having the space properly set up would be a huge help. It's hard to scrapbook when it takes forever to gather my things together. By the time I do that it's time to put it all away!

In a lot of ways I think the success of this goal depends on the success of goal #2 - specifically the craft/daycare supply/homeschool room.

4. Healthy Lifestyle Changes

No New Year's Resolution list would be complete without this goal however cliche it may be! This is really a continuation of last year. I've done pretty great with maintaining my weight loss from last year, with the exception of a few pounds gained through the holidays. Um...oops. Anyways, I'm taking a big step this year in letting go of my weight watcher's membership. This was a hard decision for me because I've lost 25 pounds with weight watchers and I hate to give up something that's working. However, for the same monthly fee that I pay for weight watcher's our entire family can have a YMCA membership. This just makes more sense to me.

Nutritionally speaking I do have some support in lieu of weight watchers though. I'm going to be using sparkpeople.com. It's different from weight watchers in that you're tracking calories, fat, carbs, and protein instead of just points (which is a combo of calories, fat, and fiber). So the nutritional tracking will be different. But it's still the same concept. Consume less calories than you use in a day and you'll lose weight. It's not rocket science. That doesn't mean it's easy, but it will work if I stick to it. I've been using sparkpeople for the last few days and I like it so far. There's also a place to track my workouts.

I'd like to work out regularly in the new year. That's been a hard thing for me. I often feel exhausted after spending my day with children. But I figure even if I just walk a few laps at the indoor track at the Y or play in the pool with my child, I'm still doing something besides sitting on my couch in the evening. I will be attempting to add more working out this year, but I'm honestly not going to obsess over it at this point. I'd just like us all to be more active and get out more. Also, I think it will be good for me to get out of the house more. I think my job is turning me into a hermit. I LOVE my job, but I'm so tired by the end of the day that it's hard to want to go anywhere. So I'd like to work on my perception of that.

Well, it's not a long list of goals. Four goals, but big and important goals that will make a huge difference in my life as I work hard at achieving them this year.