Goals Moving Forward

Every new year we put a lot of pressure on ourselves (most of us anyhow) to do better, be better, look better and I'm no different.  I find it so easy to see all the places I'm lacking and start making promises to fix them.

I'm not sure that I want to make resolutions this year.  It feels a bit daunting.  Somehow, calling the things I want to do "resolutions" makes me wonder if I'll reach the finish line.  Is there a finish line with resolutions?  I suppose they should be ongoing things.  I don't really know.

I think I'll just have goals.  Things that would be nice to see happen, but my world won't fall apart if they don't.  I might even have a lot of goals, but that's okay, because nothing is going to go wrong if I don't reach them.  Goals don't expire in a year, they can go on (unless, of course, there's a time limit, haha) and on.

Here we go, goals that I'll be starting now and continuing til I see fit.

365 days of fitness.  This sounds like a bigger deal than it is.  I'm going to make it a goal of mine to get some sort of activity that will help me and my family stay fit for just 10 minutes a day.  It can be planned (like a hike or a run), it can be unplanned (an impromptu game of tag at the park), it can be boring (jumping jacks and sit ups) or it can be a blast (color me rad {did this over the summer with my son, what a good time!}).  I don't expect huge changes at 10 minutes a day, but it will keep all of us thinking about our health and fitness and that can't be bad.  And if I miss a day?  So what.  I get to try again tomorrow.

Photo a day challenge.  This one is inspired by fat mum slims blog and photo challenge.  The hubs and kids got me a camera for Christmas 2011 and it hasn't gotten nearly the use it should.  I figure with this challenge I may just learn to use my camera more and how to use all its neat little functions.  It'll likely be a slow process (the learning) but that's okay.  I love that the photo challenge has prompts on what subject to take pictures of, this takes the burdon off of me, which is good, because I'd probably wind up taking pictures of the same things over and over.  Again, if I miss a day?  No big deal, the world doesn't come screeching to a halt because I haven't taken a photograph.  I will be posting my pics here.  Maybe daily, maybe weekly.  I suppose it depends on the kind of time and motivation I have.

Making thrifting a reasonable part of my life.  I don't want to get into the habit of shopping just to shop but when it comes to thrifting, that's exactly what I did last year.  Sure, it didn't break the bank, but I think, moving forward, I'd like to thrift with more purpose.  I need to organize less than I did when I began this blog, but my personal style hasn't really gotten much better, so thrifting is still a great way to work on that.  I am still looking for things for my apartment as well, so I'll keep updating as those things get found.  :)

Cooking at home 6 days a week.  This isn't that much of a challenge, really.  I normally do it and plan to continue to do so, I'm putting it here because from November through the years end, we ate out a lot.  It was mostly due to the move, the holidays and being frazzled, but it's all done now and I think it's important to get back to normal.  Or whatever normal is around here.

Read a book a month.  This is a very small (almost lame, it's so small) goal.  I have always been a reader, I love it, I preach it to my kids, but for some reason I haven't been doing nearly enough of it.  So, I'm going to try to make it a goal to read one book a month (at least) this year.  Get back to doing something I love.  It'll make me happy and that bodes well for the fam.  :)

That's it.  Nothing earth shattering, nothing scary, just a few goals to make my life more enjoyable.  So what about you?  Any personal goals, resolutions and promises to fill?

A Little Weekend Decluttering

Since I had some free time today I decided to tackle a couple of cabinets and drawers.  It wasn't a whole lot of work and I only remembered to take pics after I was done with the hall closets, but I still feel good about doing something.

After playing Munchkin with the kids, I enlisted their help to clear out some books from one of the cabinets in the hall.  We filled two large bags we purchased for Costco trips(nice sturdy bags!).  Oddly, the cabinet is still totally full.  I think everything we fit into those bags was just overflow.  I'll have the hubs sort through his.  I know he'll give me the freedom to get rid of most, if not all of his books.  Since he got his Kindle and then replaced it with his Kindle Fire the books are just collecting dust.  I think I'll be the one with the most difficulty, I parted with a lot, but I can't bring myself to get rid of my cookbooks.  And I have a lot more than I remember.  Not too long ago, I forced myself to whittle down my collection of cooking magazines.  Dating back to 2005.  I spent a week looking through them, pulling out the ones I couldn't imagine getting rid of and ripping out recipes I wanted for the rest.  Then I scanned all of those.  I keep telling myself I'll be happy when we move and I don't have all of this stuff (junk) weighing me down.  It may not surprise you to find out that when the hubs saw the pile I was keeping he was shocked.  That I was keeping so many.  *wince*  I pared it down a bit more, but I still have plenty.

While I was in the area, I took a moment and pulled a couple of holiday plates out of another cabinet.  I think getting rid of a lot of the holiday stuff is going to be key in making this move work.

Moving on to the junk drawer.  Every kitchen has one.  Sometimes more.  I cleaned one of 2 and took on one of the lower cabinets.

Before:  As you can see, my junk drawer, is very junky.  Tangled wires, picture hangers, batteries, fast food condiment packets (loads of those >.<), paperwork and more.  Pretty much, a nightmare.

After:  I brought all the paperwork together and bound it with a rubber band I found in there.  There was also a bag of zip ties floating around so I used a few of those for the cords.  Birthday candles found their way into a sandwich bag and I neatened the rest of it up.  All of the collected condiments got rolled in the bag and stuck on top of a spare kitchen towel.  It's not perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than it was!

Looking at the two picures now, I wonder why I didn't take the first one from a slightly wider angle...shame, most likely.  hehe.

 Since that took just a few minutes I went ahead and did another cabinet.

Before:  In this spot are all of my cake pans and cookie cutters, icing tips, cake plate and other baking miscellany.  I also have some spare plates, magic bullet and other crap stored away.  What a mess.  You want a little bit of truth on this one?  When I opened the cabinet, that round cake pan came crashing out.  D'oh!

After:  I made a couple of cuts.  Two Wilton pans will be landing in the yardsale bin, I tossed a try that was chipped, but mostly I just took a few minutes to neaten it up.  Much better!

That's about all the hard work I think I'm willing to put in today.  Haha!