New Year's Resolutions/Goals

I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, but I figured I'd set some goals for myself for the new year. I hope that I'm successful on most of them and I figure that if I post them here I might hold myself more accountable and it will help to keep them. None of these are going to be immediate changes, more gradual changes so that I hopefully have more of a chance of succeeding. You'll see many of my goals are inter-related to lead a healthier lifestyle in general, but I've gone into detail on them all with how I hope to change. Anyway here's what I hope to accomplish by this time next year. They're in no particular order, just the order by which I have been thinking of them.

~ Get organized. I used to be so organized, but then I like to say I met Kevin who is soooo unorganized. :) His tendencies have rubbed off on me instead of the other way around. I make substantial efforts to get us more organized, but it never seems to stick. Mainly because Kevin isn't into it at all. Since Carson has been born, I feel like we're spinning out of control, being so unorganized. I feel like an unorganized house just leads to an unorganized life and it has really be frustrating me lately. I can't take it anymore. So I'm going to try my darnedest to get Kevin more motivated about staying organized with me. I figure even if I can break him of one or two of his habits that waste so much time, it'll be a huge improvement. I don't feel like its a totally lost cause anymore - I recently got him into the habit of hanging up his jacket/coat in the closet right when he takes it off rather than leaving it laying on one of the dining room chairs. I feel like this is a huge step in the right direction... especially since it only took my asking him to do it a few times before he started remembering... for those of you that know Kevin, you know that is huge! :) I know we can continue to make improvements - both of us can. And I know that making these improvements in our home will lead to a less stressful, less chaotic life.

~ Be more creative. I want to try making more time for creativity. I love doing crafts, scrapbooking, photography, gardening, etc. The only problem is that I rarely carve out the time for them. I want to make more of an effort to make the time for these types of things. Even if its just an hour or two a month at first. I need to catch up on my scrapbooking - and I need to put the finishing touches on my college and wedding scrapbooks still, too. I want to do a few scrapbooks for Carson - an ABC book to start with. I want to learn more photographic techniques and learn how to use the Adobe Creative Suite (i.e. Photoshop... right now I use the cheap version Photoshop Elements, but you can do so much more with the full-out Photoshop program). I also want to learn how to use my sewing machine. I bought it about a year and a half ago now and its still in the box. I had every intention of learning how to use it when I bought it to make some things for Carson... but it never happened.

~ Read more often. I've been reading quite regularly for the past months now, but I want to try to increase it a bit. Its great for my brain and for my sanity and I learn a lot of new things, too. I've been listening to books on CD on my commutes to and from work for years now, but I want to increase the books that I actually read with my eyes. I've been reading quite a few MOPS books lately and have been really enjoying them, so I'll continue reading more of them in 2009, as well as other fiction, nonfiction, and inspirational books. I'm also going to focus on reading the entire Bible this year. Its something I've never done and think it'll be a great book to read finally. I know I won't accomplish this entirely in 2009, but I want to read it regularly so that I can hopefully get through the entire thing in two years... maybe three.

~ Love authentically. You're probably thinking what the heck does that mean, right? Well, I've been reading a book called Love as a Way of Life by Gary Chapman. Its a great book that I think everyone should read because I think if we all took just one thing away from the book, the world would be a better, happier, more loving place. In order to love authentically, I need to work on the seven key elements discussed in Gary's book - Kindness, Patience, Forgiveness, Courtesy, Humility, Generosity, and Honesty. I have a lot of work to do on all seven of these elements. By making improvements in all of these seven key areas, I feel that I will become a better mother, wife, friend, daughter, sister, etc.

~ Get healthy. I know this is a vague, far-reaching goal. But its the simplest way to put it. Those of you that know me, know that I can stand to get my booty into shape. Its very difficult for me to look at myself the way I am now when I know what I used to look like 10 years ago. I know I wasn't healthy then either (some would consider me anorexic), and I don't want to be that thin again, but I do want to lose a good amount of weight (like 80+ pounds) so that I'm healthy (and also because I'll be fulfilling the Matron of Honor duties in my friend Sara's wedding in May and we'll be having my 10-year high school reunion this year and I want to look better than I do now). This means exercising and eating better. The goals below all refer to the eating better. I need to start exercising more regularly and keep with it. I'm very good at starting an exercise routine... but I'm not good at sticking with it. This is what I need to work on in 2009. Even if I just start with 10 minutes a day, or even every other day, then increasing it bit by bit so its not such a shock to my current schedule/routine.

~ Eat less processed food. Every time I read a food label and as I've been reading more and more about all of the nasty chemicals, genetically modified ingredients, and other junk that goes into so much of the food that we eat, I just get so frustrated and angry. It is maddening to me that food companies aren't required to provide quality products and be truthful on their packaging (i.e. letting us know if there are GMOs in their product). This will be a tough one to convince Kevin of - he doesn't read the things I do (and won't read them if I ask him to) and he doesn't think the ingredients/chemicals/GMOs are that bad for us... so this will be an uphill battle for me with him. But I don't want Carson ingesting so many chemicals, GMOs, and just plain old nasty stuff.

~ Make more homemade food. I'm talking crackers, graham crackers, marshmallows, canned beans, granola, cereals, pasta, grains, etc. I want to invest in a pasta roller and cutter attachments for my KitchenAid so that I can make my own pasta. I'd also like to invest in a grain mill so that I can possibly grow some of my own grains next summer and grind them myself. Or at the very least, buy local/organic grains that I then grind myself. I'll definitely be continuing my home canning next year - and I hope to do even more next year than I did this year. This will be another tough one to convince Kevin of the benefits. He doesn't believe that the time invested in making things homemade is worth it. I know it is, though.

~ Eat more organic/local food. I already do buy quite a bit of organic and local foods, but I know I can do better. I wish we had a Trader Joe's and a Whole Foods closer to us. I've been stopping at both stores in Rochester Hills on my way home from work meetings in Detroit, but I need to plan a little better from now on. I never think about what I'll be buying beforehand, its just shopping on a whim. I've found that Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have the best prices on organic foods, so I'll need to stock up on things we use a lot when I make my trips from now on. I like shopping at Horrocks in Lansing, but its more expensive than TJ and WF - so it'll be nice to just be able to fill in some random needs here and there at Horrocks, rather than doing a good majority of my shopping there (as I do now). I also want to buy more local/natural meat. With the new freezer, we actually have space to buy this type of meat in bulk. And we've already been doing a good job - buying a whole lamb and a good amount of pork... next summer I want to get some local/natural/grass-fed beef. And I need to find a good (and affordable) source for chicken, too.

~ Eat more vegetables. I want to work more veggies into our diets. Not only the veggies that we eat regularly as it is now, but I want to try out new veggies that we've never had before. I'm sure with some it'll take a few times eating them before we'll know how best to cook them, or if we even like them, but I really want to try to increase our intake and variety of veggies. I want Carson to grow up loving all different sorts of foods. It will be tough to convince Kevin to eat some of the veggies I'm thinking of, especially without complaining, but I do hope that he'll give it his best shot for my and Carson's sake... if Carson sees Kevin making faces and saying bad things about a food, then you know he'll pick up on it and won't want to try it either.

Well I think that's it for now. I know its a big list and all of the goals will take some time to implement. But I hope by this time next year I can look back and say that I've been successful on each of them.