2010 New Years Resolutions

As we say goodbye to 2009 today, I have been thinking of somethings I would like to change about myself and our home in the coming year. I hate calling them "resolutions" because somehow we never stick to them so I will say the following are my:

"hopes or wishes" for our family in 2010

*organize and set things up around our home so things run more efficiently

-go thru our home room by room, closet by closet and drawer by drawer and rid our selves of the clutter and things we really don't need

-set up communication areas so we can have all of our schedules in one place (I have already set this up-now its time to use it)

*use the toddler activity books and websites I have found in the last year

-I am so guilty of just letting Austin do his own thing all the time when playing which is fine to do but I think we could do more structured activities from time to time and both of us have fun and learn something doing it

*try to be active in our moms group again

-I joined one group thru meetups.com over a year ago and did good attending at 1st but have been really slacking off on attending meetings

our neighborhood has even started a little moms group that I need to get active in

-Both Austin & I would benefit so much from getting out and meeting new people and seeing new places

*try to come up with a way to make my life as a mom, wife & domestic goddess easier

-after Austin was born I discovered flylady.com which had some great ideas for making life easier for the stay at home mom. basically you came up with a cleaning schedule for each week and you worked on cleaning your home in zones a little each day. I followed it for a while and it worked great. Now that we have a larger home I really need to set it up again so I can get a handle on things and not kill myself trying to get the house clean

-work on trying to have meals ready in the freezer that we all like and that are easy to pop in the oven so we don't eat out as much

*Save Money

-this is something we have tried to do for years and we do save some but nothing like we should.

-we would like to pay off my car early this year & if we can do that I would like to continue making monthly payments but to our savings account rather than a car dealer.

-try to set up a realistic budget and really keep track of our spending. I would like to set up a spreadsheet this year and keep track of our spending weekly so we see where everything is actually going.

-stop wasting money on un-needed items & EATING OUT so much

*rediscover the fun of cooking

-this is something that Austin & I can do together and have fun with and help our budget

-try to introduce some new recipes to our home that are healthy, quick and easy

*make more time for "me"

-try and set aside time to do something for just me at least once a week

*scrapbooking

-this could follow along with the item above of me time

-I would like to get into digital scrapbooking this year and try and keep up with it. I did great with Austin's at 1st but now he is 2 years old & I haven't finished his 1st year much less started the next year

*Blogging

-I have to pat myself on the back that I have gotten a little better at this. But I could get better

-I need to start making post once a week of things that are going on with our family-especially once Hudson arrives

*keeping a journal

-not like a diary I had in middle school but something more just keeping track of our kids and there developments and milestones and funny stories

*reading

-I enjoy reading but just don't find much time for it. I would like to start reading a little each night before bed rather than watching TV.

Ok now that I look at the list it seems pretty long, but I think that most of it is attainable and things that I need to do for myself and my family. It might be hard at first but if I try to tackle it a little at a time I know I can do it. I would like to try and get some of the items (esp. the ones that will make life easier day by day) before Hudson arrives in Feb.