Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Resolution Solution

So we are almost a month into 2011. I never make New Year's resolutions as I vow to work on certain things throughout the year, and this year was no exception. However, I don't see any harm in sharing some of these things with others. Sharing things in this blog that I have chosen to focus on - balancing working out, healthy eating, saving money, family and work - has actually helped me achieve this balance. I am fairly certain that I will achieve a better success rate at staying on top of things I tend to be less organized with all year long by sharing them with you.

The first is so easy. I have several dear friends whose birthdays I would like to recognize every year with a card. The sad thing is, each year, the way I recognize it varies. Sometimes if I'm on the ball, I buy a card in advance and mail it to them. Other years when I am not organized or have a lot going on, they get an email. Sometimes its a phone call, and sometimes its a late email or phone call. Just writing that already makes me feel lousy. Honestly, not every one of these friends calls me, emails me or sends me a card on my birthday. Some of them do. And I like it. I would like to makes someone's day that way. So, I want to purchase cards to have cards on hand so that each month I can send cards out to my friends who have birthdays that month.

Secondly, I would like to organize the maintenance of my house the way I have organized my workout schedule. Having certain things scheduled on certain days works for me. I live in a good sized 5 bedroom 3 bath home. It is a given that I must do some laundry every day in order to prevent me from backlog. It is a given that I must go to work every day, come home, feed my kids, bathe them and put them to bed. It is also a given that I must clean the kitchen every evening after dinner. So, if I can just add 1 cleaning task to my evening it will prevent my weekends from being a clean-fest. I will have to make a list or chart of some sort. This is going to be challenging as I already feel I lack personal time, but I am not striving for perfection. If I can just make it work some of the time I think  I will be happy!


Third, I want to try to get my kids to bed 30 minutes earlier. My 2 year old Buddha naps at least 2-3 hours during the day, and at night he sleeps about 10 hours. My 4 year old Monkey gets about 10 hours at night also, but is very hyper and is just worn out by the end of the day, since he no longer naps. I put him to bed right after the Buddha goes down, but after a little evening chit chat, a book and prayers it ends up being about 30 minutes later. Sometimes in the morning its hard for me to wake him for school and I wonder if he'd be less moody if he got more sleep. In any case, I wouldn't think more sleep would be harmful.

Third, I want to yell less. Enough said. 

So that is my plan for now, I hope for some level of success! How are you doing on your resolutions? Hope your year is off to a good start.

3 comments:

  1. Those are well thought out resolutions.

    This is our first year on a single income, so all of our resolutions revolve around how we can save money. My big two are to learn to cook and get out more. My husband's always done all of it and now that we have Piggles, I need to learn both so we can eat at a reasonable hour and eventually so I can make her lunch.

    Getting out more is the hard one. We've lived here three years and I've made almost no friends. Part of getting out more is to help with the PPD; the more depressed I am, the more I say in, and the worse it gets. I also should meet other mums at some point since Piggles is becoming more interested in other kids.

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  2. I made some mini-goals for myself and those are going pretty well.

    Regarding the cards, I do this. There is a cheap card store I like and I stock up on cards every time I am in the area. So I have 2 bins. 1 bin has cards with specific holidays and birthdays. The other is a bin of blank cards. When I find them in the $1 bin at Target or something, I add them in. So I am rarely unprepared for those events. It's been life-changing not to have to hit the store on the way to a party!

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