New Year Resolutions

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve and a relaxing New Year's Day.  We started New Year's Eve with our good friends Josh and Vanessa McWhorter at a delicious steak dinner at Houstons, and then rung in the new year at midnight at our good friends' Brandon and Natalie Adams' annual New Year's Eve party.  We spent New Year's Day at my parents' house- relaxing, eating, and watching football.  For some inexplicable reason, I didn't take any pictures of any of that fun.  So, my apologies for no pictures of those events- what a way to start the blogging year!  (Don't worry ... there are plenty of other pictures in this post.) But, now that the new year is here, it's time to bring on the resolutions!

I've been thinking about my New Year's Resolutions for a few weeks now.  This year, I tried to thing of some resolutions that would be needed and productive as well as some that would be fun and enjoyable.  Of course, I've got lots of things personally, professionally, and around-the-house that I'd like to work on this year, but I've tried to focus on a few things that are important and achievable!

Being as this is 2010, I've got ten resolutions to work on for this year...

1. I will play more games with Katie Anne.
We bought a lot of fun games for Katie Anne for Christmas, and I want us to make it a priority to play more games in the evenings instead of watching a tv show.  I love playing games, and I think they're such a fun way to spend time together and learn, too!  So, I hope we can play games a few nights per week.  So far, we've played her games many times since Christmas, and she loves it, so we're off to a great start.
 

2. I will create photo albums with some of our digital pictures.
It has become quite obvious to me that I don't have time to scrapbook every picture I take, either traditionally or digitally.  So, this year I just haven't done ANYTHING.  All my pictures are on the computer - very few have been printed, and none have been scrapbooked.  It does make me feel good that I've got the blog as a form of remembering our family's events, but I still worry what will happen many years from now to this information.  I would really like some form of printable pictures to have ... but I haven't decided exactly what form this will take.  I may make a year-in-review book at one of the big photo websites, or make a blog book, or something else.  I have a few ideas, but I do want to get a system going and get somewhere on this goal this year.


3. I will walk the dogs more often.
This is my only recycled resolution from last year.  I didn't do a good job on this one, so I want to try again.  It certainly wouldn't hurt me to walk around the block more often myself, and I'm worried that both dogs have gained a few pounds this year.  So, I'm going to make it a goal to walk the dogs a few times a week.  Hopefully, when the weather warms up, we can make this a family activity, too.
 

4. I will brush the dogs' teeth once a week.

Wow, I do h.o.r.r.i.b.l.e with this dog owner chore.  I've actually bought all the supplies to brush the dogs' teeth, but just haven't done it.  I rely on the groomers to do it when the dogs go in for their appointments, but that's not enough.  Abby's teeth are not good, and I don't want Ginger's to get that bad.  So, Katie Anne says she going to help me with this - so far, it is her only resolution that I know of!  We're going to set a day of the week to brush both dogs' teeth, and make it a habit!

 

5. I will get back into planning meals ahead of time.
I used to do a great job of planning my meals out a week at a time.  This was so helpful in cooking as well as grocery buying, and I think it saved us a lot of money.  Lately, I've done horribly at this, and I've just bought random groceries and scrounged up random meals.  I hope to make time each Sunday for meal planning and making my grocery list.  I'm also considering joining the website e-mealz.com to help me with this goal as well as bringing some new recipe ideas into our dinner routine.
 

6. I will read more books for pleasure.
I love-love-love to read.  I love it almost more than anything else I could do with my free time.  Ever since I learned to read very early in my childhood, I've been a voracious reader.  I can read a novel in a day with no problem. This summer, Katie Anne and I went to the library for books every week, and I just loved it.  Lately, I just have not made the time to read for myself - I barely finish my Book Club's monthly selections.  Saunders gave me a book I'd asked for - I, Alex Cross - for Christmas, and I read it in less than 24 hours.  I loved reading it, and it made me realize how much I miss reading for myself.  I've got a long list of books I want to read, so I'm going to work on making more time for library trips for Katie Anne and I as well as more reading time for myself at night this year.
 

7. I will make time for my crafting, sewing, and hobbies.
As some of you know, extreme fatigue and exhaustion have been a big problem for me this fall.  The biggest thing that's been cut from my routine are all my hobbies and "me time" activities.  I haven't sewn a single stitch since I finished Snow White.  I think that, because I don't have the energy to do everything, I'm focusing on all the "have to" and not on the "want to" things on my list of things to do.  I really miss having my crafts and projects going, so I'm really going to make an effort to squeeze in some time for myself and work on some of the things I love to do.

8. I will take my prenatal vitamins every night.
Since we do plan on working on a new addition to the Jones family sometime this year, I need to take my prenatal vitamins.  I actually wish I'd started this goal earlier since we all know the recommendations to take a vitamin with folic acid for at least a year before trying to get pregnant, but I suppose late is better than never!  I intended to never stop taking my prenatal vitamins after Katie Anne was born, but somewhere along the way I got out of the habit, and then I never got back on the train.  I bought prenatal vitamins a few weeks ago, opened the package, and that's as far as I've gotten to taking them.  So, an easy resolution this year is just to remember to take my prenatals every night. 


9. I will work on wrinkle prevention and rehab.

Well, there is one downside to losing weight, and that has been that I've really noticed my wrinkles more now that I don't have as much of the chub layer to fluff them up.  I think my OCD has really kicked in here, because I notice my wrinkles every time I look in the mirror.  I've got creases on my forehead, worry lines between my eyebrows, smile lines around my mouth, and some insane, insane crow's feet.  Since I'll be turning 29 in 2010, I figure it's time for wrinkle prevention and rehab.  So, I've bought myself a whole little Oil of Olay set up and I've actually started using it during the last two weeks.  So, another resolution is to make using wrinkle reducing and preventing products a habit.


And here's the big one ...


10. I will get the deep, dark corners of the house reorganized.

Wow, I feel like this is an episode of Hoarders.  However, in the interest of full disclosure and holding myself accountable, I'm baring my soul for the precious followers of this blog.  And, taking pictures of all this stuff helped me get my head around what needs to be done.

If you walked into my house, you would probably say ... it is pretty neat ...

... it is pretty clean ...

... it is pretty organized ...

... sure, there may be a few things that need putting away ...

... but overall - it looks pretty good.

But, gentle readers ... there are deep, dark places in this neat, organized home that hide deep, dark, disorganized secrets.  These are the places where we fear to look ... where we fear to search for items ... where we shove things to keep the rest of the house looking decent.  These places have started to drive me crazy.  However, processing the whole set of tasks as a whole is very overwhelming to me.

So this year, I've decided to break these annoying things down into a month-by-month plan to get them cleaned out and organized.  I've made a list of all the hidden places and things in the house that need to be organized, sorted, purged, and cleaned and put them in a calendar of sorts.  My challenge this year will be to complete the lists of tasks.

January: 

Clean out/donate unused holiday decorations and organize current decorations.

Obviously, I'm starting on this task this weekend.

February:

Clean out and organize kitchen cabinets.

This is the really, really big job that terrifies me.  However, it is the one that most needs to be done, and it would be January's job if not for the obvious good timing of holiday decor clean out.  

Waaaah ... this is the nightmare cabinet.

But, there are plenty of other cabinets that are "organized" but not necessarily in the most usable way.  So, a new space plan and flow needs to be decided upon and implemented.

 

Also, organize the new storage space in the laundry room.

It's become a bit of a catch-all, and it will also become the home for some of the boxed things from the kitchen.  So, these two projects have to be done hand-in-hand.

March:

Organize Katie Anne's artwork and put it in a book.

All Katie Anne's schoolwork that I've deemed save-able is stacked up on top of the pottery cabinet in the kitchen.  I've got the idea for what I want to do with it - I'm copying my cousin Jodi's idea of putting Marley's work in a big book - but I've just got to do it.

April:

Organize the linen closet.

I bet the sight of how incredibly messy this linen closet is will greatly shock my college roommate, who can testify to my intense love of an organized linen closet.  Fear not - I have great plans for this space.

May:

Clean out/organize the bathroom cabinets.

I really want Saunders and I to swap vanity spaces in the bathroom, and my toiletries desperately need to be cleaned out and purged, so I'll do both things this month.

June:

Finishing the playroom decorating projects and organizing the toys

This room really isn't messy ... it just has a lot of small little things to do in there to get it finished, and I need to finish it before I can organize August's task.

July:

 Organize my purses

**Since the playroom project could very easily spill over into July, I picked something small for this month. I've got a small closet in our bedroom that I use for my extra purses, and it is out of control.  I've just got to get them out and get it all organized.

 

August:

Organizing my sewing and crafting stuff

Currently piled in a laundry basket ... not such a great set up

 

September:

Organize my jewelry drawer

My jewelry drawer is insane.  Everything gets knotted and tied up, and I can't ever find matching sets of earrings.  I've got Neatnix - I've just got to get everything out and organized.

October:

Organize the gaming closet

The closet in the basement is supposed to be for games - and most of the things that are in there are games.  However, it's kind of gotten some things that we've just shoved in there as well as some stuff that should be in the garage.

November:

Organizing the gift wrapping closet in preparation for the holidays

The gift wrapping closet, which was so well organized last summer, has slowly crept out of the closet upstairs and onto the floor.

And nothing for December ... I figure I'll be busy enough with holiday activities to do big projects.
That's it for 2010!