ten in '10

Resolutions for the New Year.
New resolve, New habits, a New way of doing things.
I have ten goals for this New Year -some big, some small- all hoping to make a happier, healthier me.

1- no spend January
possibly no spend until my husband finds a new job :/
It's a goal of going the whole month without spending money except on minimal groceries and necessities. I've done it before and I can (have to) do it again.

2- picking up the camera again.
I miss taking pictures just for fun. I miss actually learning to do it better. And I so miss my photo-a-day blog and how just those simple images remind me so quickly of that whole day or specific time in life. I'm committing to doing that again, but adding them to the photo page on this blog here. Resolution 2.2 is to take more pictures of Ryan and I and Ryan and I together. We have minimal.
And I definitely want to be more intentional about picking up the camera for more special events... remembering to snap shots of who's around for what celebration and the fun time we're having together. I did manage to do a little better at that already on New Year's Day, so hopefully that means I'm off to a decent start.

3- walking
My goal is to walk (outdoors or in) at least four times a week. My real goal is to lose the same 15lbs I've been saying I'm going to lose every year...

4- get back to my regular housekeeping "schedule"
Any sense of routine and regular upkeep around here was abandoned, oh about JULY, and hasn't resurfaced since. What with our crazy summer and fall and a new baby here during the week and a couple of trips, my poor house has really suffered. Number one priority is getting back on the regular laundry wagon... getting clothes put away in between washings and washing regularly instead of only when we're out of clean underwear.

5- more face time with my kids
It's been talked about before and never really played out; I want my husband and I each to have regular "date nights" individually with each kid one-on-one.
I had a dream the other night-one of those eerily realistic dreams in which I actually woke up crying- where I was hanging out with a friend and suddenly I ignored her for a few minutes and just sat and watched my son playing something and noticed like three things about him that I didn't know before. Hard to explain, but it was like this sudden revelation -in the dream- that I don't spend enough time engaged with my kids and I ended up crying with my friend about it and we vowed to both make a change. Kind of a strange dream, but convicting nonetheless.

6- more face time with my husband
Not that we really need more, I think we spend more time together than most average couples, but I want more time with just us. No kids. We do lots of date night's in, where we have a special dinner after the kids go to bed or play a game or whatever. But I want us to get out- date nights, fun outings, maybe a night away once in awhile. Just get out of the routine and just be us together. I want to do one thing like that a month.

7- less face time with the computer
For this first week or so in January I'm going to "be normal" but keep track of how much time I'm on the computer. I know it's a lot, but rather than just say it's a lot, I want to know how much. I think it will disgust me. Then I'm going to slash that. I will probably give myself windows during the day where I can be on the computer and say it's off limits other than that. I just really need to be doing other things rather than just the easy access of wasting time online whenever.
And I haven't decided if this will be once a week or once a month, but I'm also going to be Unplugged For A Day. The whole house, the whole day... no tv, no movies, no computer, no Ipod, nada. Just intentionally setting aside a day of time to be in the moment and entertain ourselves. :)

8- blog more
I'm going to have to be up on my time management to fit this in with #7, but I really really miss blogging regularly and having that journal here to look back on. This is definitely a priority for me so I have to just rearrange what I spend my time on the internet doing...

9- start a Virtues Project in our family with weekly "meeting"
Not sure yet what we're calling this (I'm kind of weird about "family meetings"), but I got this book -two of them actually, so watch for a possible giveaway- for Christmas that I'd been wanting and I've been reading it and am really excited to introduce my family to the idea of going through it together. From the book;

"The Family Virtues Guide is not about family values. Values are very family and culture specific. It is about virtues, which are universally valued by all faiths and cultures in the world. Virtues are described as the qualities of the soul and the attributes of God. They are the means by which we can reflect the image and likeness of the Creator. The Family Virtues Guide is grounded in sacred traditions of the world's faiths. The key principle of The Family Virtues Guide is that parents are the first educators, the ones needed to impart values and virtues to their children. This book is a response to parents who want to bring simple spirituality and character education into their children's lives. It offers simple methods for paying attention to the spiritual and moral development and to bring out the best in every child, in every member of the family, day-to-day."

The book contains fifty-two virtues, one for each week of the year. Each virtue begins with a small inspriational quotation from the holy books of different world's religions. Each virtue contains four pages: What is it? Why practice it? How do you practice it with exercises and then Signs of Success... all to go over and practice together as a family.
Like I said, not sure how exactly we're going to go about this, when we should have our family time (I'm thinking maybe before our movie night each Sunday) or if we should even always have it be a formal time every time, but it's definitely something I want to incorporate into our year this year.

10- no procrastination allowed
I'm serious about this one. This is probably the worst habit I have to break. And I'm going to change it this year.
Luckily I can practice it with all the above resolutions!
This year's the year!!