New Year Resolutions

Every year, I look forward to creating new resolutions and revising old ones to continue. I also love revisiting my previous resolutions to see how well I did – or didn’t do – on sticking to them. I usually set attainable goals.

Since this blog is new, this is my first New Year resolutions post. All of my previous ones are on my personal blog, but I plan to share them here starting this year and as long as this blog is up and running.

Here are my resolutions from 2014:

• Go on more adventures and continue to make memories. – We most definitely did this. We continued to discover new places to explore here.
• Stay organized and stick to routines that help keep me on track, like the menu and cleaning list. – I did not do this. I have a menu for dinner and I failed horribly at following it this year. More times than not, I told my family to fend for themselves.
• Continue to live clutter-free! – I think I have done an excellent job at this as I often took items away to donate when I felt I haven’t used them in a while or no longer needed them.
• Always eat dinner at the table and play relaxing music while we do. –Well, when I did cook, we ate at the table, but not always with music.
• Play more board games, etc. – No, but this is such a great goal, it will be in for next year.
• Donate to brain cancer research every year. Please consider doing the same. This foundation was set up in memory of someone very dear to my heart: 11:11 Foundation in Memory of Frank Kane – Always.
• Learn to forgive myself. – I’ve learned to be gentle with myself when I feel I have failed myself or others. I’m not perfect and I know that’s something that isn’t possible for anyone. I just have to keep doing my best and stop setting high expectations for myself and others.
• Learn to be more tolerant and not let nagging issues bother me. – There were a few times where I gave in to nonsense and had to interject and state my mind on something, but only when someone was way out of line or completely wrong about something. My motto for this year will probably relate to this goal.
• Lose 30 pounds! – I lost 7! Haha
• Make better choices for my health as far as food and drinks go. Cut way back on my carb intake. This means I really have to moderate my favorite beverage: Mello Yello. My ideal goal would be to treat myself every now and then, but if I could cut back to one a day, I’d be happy with that for now and could use it as a catalyst to improve upon. – I did amazing in this area, up until the last couple of months. I replaced my soda with an organic, no-calorie soda called Honest Fizz. I have one a day and water and juice for the rest of the day. I have been aware of my portions because I have been eating more than I should be.
• Remodel the kitchen entirely. – I painted it and that’s it.
• Remodel my son’s bathroom. – Didn’t happen.
• Fix the insulation and install additional roof ventilation. – We determined that the insulation wasn’t the biggest necessity, so we skipped it. We did install vents on the sides of the house to help with ventilation and noticed a big difference in our utility bill each month: our hottest month, we saved $60.
• Trip to Tennessee. 3rd year’s a charm? – I don’t really desire to go back, to be honest. I just want to make a trip to do some antiques shopping and to dig through my mother’s shed.
• Continue to be grateful for the people in my life – past and present – and the memories they have helped me to have. – Oh, yes. I as very reminiscent.
• Be more patient and compassionate and loving. Soften those edges. – That forgiveness I mentioned earlier…this.
• Continue to read books. – I reread some of my books and am planning to reread another series. I love great books that take you to another world.
• Hiking and walking needs to happen more often, especially with friends and family. – With family, yes. My BFF and I are making it our goal to go together for more walks his year. My family and I discovered new areas to explore and we ventured ourselves away.
• Learn to paddle board or buy a canoe…some kind of new recreational activity that requires more effort. –No, mostly because my husband switched jobs and was only working 35 hours a week for the first few months, so we had to budget on a smaller income and bi-weekly pay. It was quite an adjustment.
• Pay off Lily and my Target card. – Yes, I took out a loan for my dog. She was a purchase I made because I wanted a baby, so I bought a dog….an over-priced dog. Onc again, our income didn’t allow for this, but this year will be different.

So, that’s it for 2015! I didn’t do too bad, considering. I look forward to 2016 being a more stable year…I hope. Here are my resolutions:

• Pay off Lily. Pay extra on credit cards whenever I have orders. Be better about paying off debts.
• Create opening in the den for patio doors.
• Build our deck off this new door. ??
• Complete small projects around the house: finish painting the master bathroom cabinets, give the dining table and chairs a new makeover, new closet doors in all rooms and new doors for all rooms, remove tile from door jambs and replace with stone, build coffee table and more.
• Lose 26 pounds. My goal, really, is to be healthier. I want to eat appropriate portions, drink more water, work out regularly and feel stronger. I’m tired of feeling bloated and having digestive issues, no energy and back and leg pains.
• Continue to live simply.
• Learn how to balance my time between this blog, my business and two other blogs I write for as well as my personal/home life. I want to make it a goal to end my business day at 3 pm when I pick my son up from school. This also means adjusting my morning routine to wake up at 6:30am, workout for 30 minutes then shower before my son wakes up. That way I can start work at 8:30am, once I’ve dropped him off at school.
• I am considering rejoining the workforce and working for a company that pays a decent salary. We will see.
• Learn a new language.

My motto this year will be: Ignore and let go of what does not nourish or build me. This means not getting involved in disagreements/debates and keeping my boundaries up and not letting other peoples’ issues affect me. I will keep my comments to myself unless I am building someone else up or complimenting them! Time is too precious to waste it on things that don’t help me or on people who are ungrateful/unappreciative.