Resolutions

Can you guess what one of my resolutions for 2014 is? You guessed it, going to try and get this blog thing going again (fingers crossed).

My resolutions for 2013 all revolved around the potty – for E to be potty trained (fail!) and L to wipe herself all the time (fail!). I think I’ll put that back on the list for this year too. I am also resolving to go to church more. Because we all know how much I like lists, my resolutions for 2014 are:

1.       Document – be better at posting blogs, taking pictures and storing/ organizing pictures.
2.       Go to church
3.       Potty training (again)

Last night when I was putting J & L to bed, I explained what a resolution was and what they would like to ‘work on’ this year.  L said she would like to learn on working her whistle. I’m not sure if she meant she wants to learn to whistle or if there is a particular whistle she would like to learn how to ‘work’. J wants to get stronger this year.  Both good and doable (the most important part!).

The New Year always gets me in the mood to organize, decorate and plan. I bring out the calendar to plan trips and other fun things, make sure laundry is caught up (at least for the day) and clean out closets and drawers.

You might remember the pantry project that I talked about a few years ago. We have a huge pantry off our kitchen. On one side is all of the kitchen ‘stuff’ that you don’t need daily access to (stand mixer, waffle maker, ice cream maker, extra inventory of frequently used items). The other side is my arch nemesis – the arts and craft storage. Last year (probably around Jan 1), I vowed to organize this blessed space so off I went to Target. Fourteen milk crates later everything had its place! Fast forward 12 months and nothing was in its intended spot – argh!

So, as has become my annual New Year’s Day tradition – I embarked on organizing the pantry…. Again! I determined that the reason for the disarray was because I let the little people into the pantry to get coloring supplies. Of course, a 2, 4, and 6 year old are not going to ignore the other fun stuff and so nothing was in its place and no one could find anything. New rule = no little people in the pantry! I put a small shelf out in the ‘art’ area with all the basics, plus some extra fun stuff and little cups of crayons and colors pencils on the easel for easy access. Such a good idea, right?

WRONG! Just one day later and there are little pieces of paper all over my house and the little stamps that the girls got in their stockings are turning up in all kinds of WHITE places. I’m not sure what my new plan will be (I’ve threatened to throw away anything that isn’t in its correct spot – something I have done before (or make the offender drop it off at Goodwill) ). I think I’m just going to give it a few more days and see if they start to lose interest, or at least, start to put things away.  I think I need to add another resolution to my list: find a good solution for organizing the pantry so I don’t have to do it every Jan 1.

While I’m not really a huge proponent of New Year’s resolutions, I do like to pick a few things that I can accomplish and that are family focused. My sister recently led a fitness challenge through Facebook that I joined with our other sister. Each day there was a mini challenge – many were fitness related, but some were not. One mini challenge was to pick 10 things that I wanted to accomplish in the next 12 months. I thought very hard about what I wanted to put on that list and was surprised when it was completed there was only one fitness related item. Here is my list from the fitness challenge on 10/20/13 (because I want to hold myself accountable for focusing on these in addition to my resolutions):

1. Use Kindness as my daily guide
2. Take a trip to reconnect with my sisters
3. Focus on my relationship with my husband - two date nights a month, one that provides opportunity for us to communicate.
4. Build stronger individual relationships with my kids. Do one fun thing with each kid a month (one-on-one)....
5. Be a proactive participant in my friendships
6. Foster a service-oriented philosophy with my family by doing one service project a quarter as a family.
7. Start going to church as a family
8. Reduce inches of my waist/ tummy
9. Plan for professional next step
10. Live my life without judgment of myself or others.

You see that church made both lists. It wasn’t intentional, it’s just something that I’ve been feeling guilty about lately (I might not go to church all the time, but I have the guild part down pat!). Plus, J will be in the first grade next year and will start prep (aka CCD) classes and I don’t want him ratting us out! We started this resolution a bit early. Christmas Eve Mass and then again on the 28^th while spending the weekend with hubby’s family. My excuse for not going has been because my kids are so bad I spend the entire hour ‘managing’ my children and don’t get any spiritual reward. As is most often the case, my kids are here to prove me wrong. They were awesome both times in the last week. No more excuses, look out God (and fellow parishioners) here we come!!!

Lessons I learned today:

1.       Have a productive day always makes me feel good.
2.       As hard as I try, my kids will likely prove me wrong.
3.       Staying at home on New Year’s Eve is an even better idea the next day (no hangover!)