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Saturday, January 05, 2008

Goals for the New Year

I did not really come up with any resolutions for the year. I never keep them, so this year I have set some goals. Maybe if it isn't called a resolution I will be better about reaching my "goals". Here is what has been going on around our house since the new year started.

My first goal is to clean out and organize every nook of our house. Crazy, I know, but we can do this. Justin is totally on board with the idea. In fact, he was the one to come up with our game plan. So far, it is going really well. We started in the laundry room and are working our way through the downstairs room by room. Then we will move upstairs. We have finished the laundry room, kitchen, and dining room - every drawer, cabinet, and closet downstairs is now beautifully clean and organized. LOVE IT! I am also done with Lucy's room. Her closet has had all of the small and summery clothes/shoes removed and categorized in plastic bins with labels. I am a little embarrassed by the amount of clothes and shoes the girl has. We definitely went overboard. Hopefully some day the clothes will be reused by either a sister or a family member's daughter. I also dug out all of the infant toys that she has no interest in any longer. Her room is looking great. Our room is pretty much a disaster area. It is going to take some time. The worst room that I have now been dragging my feet on for months and months is our guest room. It has turned into the catch all room and everything has just been getting thrown in there for quite some time. I have to tell our guests to just dig around until they find the bed! :) Really, it is bad. Justin has 3 sets of drums in there. THREE! The closet is huge and can't hold one more thing. The little office that is attached to the room has crap piled up basically to the ceiling. My passport is lost in the black hole somewhere in the office. Yikes! I am overwhelmed just thinking about that room. The good news is, Justin and I are very good about getting rid of stuff - either throwing away or giving away. Neither of us are pack rats, so a major purge is about to occur. And I love that. I don't want things cluttering up the house that no one uses or even remembers that we have. Once everything is cleaned out, I will deep clean the whole house. It is going to feel so good to be done with this goal.

My next goal is to start cooking. We eat out almost every meal. Disgusting and expensive, I know. I cooked tonight. King Ranch casserole, salad, and rolls. Justin said it was delicious and it was nice to have a home cooked meal. In connection with this goal, is just being smarter about money and things that we buy. Justin and I are both impulse buyers. If we get the urge to have something, we generally go out and buy it. This needs to stop. We need to save more and spend less. This is going to be the hardest goal for us. We have some bad spending habits, but we can do it!

I would like to start exercising again. I would like to be toned and healthy again. I think that the only way I can really do this is to start jogging. Lucy can come with me and it is free. I HATE exercising, so I will have to get in the right mindset to get this going. I am the type who will work out really hard for about 2 months. I will go almost every day and push myself really hard. But once I break my routine (like getting sick or going out of town), I never get back on track and then I am just done. I won't work out again for years. It has been almost 2 years since the last time I worked out. Terrible. I can do this, and I can continue doing it long term for the health benefits.

And finally, I am working on being more patient and really thinking before I say something. I am really bad about getting VERY easily frustrated or annoyed and then being rude about everything. I know when I am doing it and wish that I would not be hot headed, but it is hard to control sometimes. I want to treat people the way I expect to be treated. I hope to be a better wife and mother in every way.

So there it is. I have made myself accountable by putting it out there. I hope I can do it. I am really going to try my hardest.

And because you know I would not post without pictures of Lucy, here she is on her new slide that Santa brought. It was 75 degrees here today. The weather around here has been so crazy. It was freezing this week, and then 75 and sunny today.










14 comments:

Chandra said...

Some beautiful photos of a beautiful girl as usual. Thanks for sharing them and good luck accomplishing your goals!

LaLa said...

Good luck with your goals..love the slide pics : )

K said...

Have fun with the organizing. I need to do this in some areas of the house. Tonight we spent filing all of the papers that had piled up.

Lucy looks so adorable!

Shawna said...

Those are great pics Kel...you're becoming quite the photographer! She's gotten so big since the last time I got to see her! Good luck with the goals. I'm trying to cook more too...the weekends are when I do the worst b/c it's my excuse to get out of the house. And p.s., I LOVE King Ranch Casserole! Send some my way please!

Stepping on Legos said...

Ok in reverse order, WOW Lucy's hair is just GORGEOUS! I mean stunningly beautiful. I think its grown out past that baby stage and is looking like big girl hair. It made me gasp! Will Addy ever have hair like that?!?!

Onto the goals - they are great! I am impressed that you have already actively tackled a lot of your first goal. WOW! BUT!!!!!! Where are the before and after pics?!?! This is a MUST! We demand it, your readers! Haha

I share a lot of your goals and good for you for putting it out there (notice I have not!!).

Question: how do you store Lucy's toys? I am badly in need of some great attractive way to store addy's stuff. She doesn't play in her room much because its upstairs so I guess I'll need stuff for our living areas. Are all Lucy's toys in her room? I need ideas BAD!

Susan said...

Good for you! You're right... we can all do anything we set our minds to, it's just a self-discipline thing, and I sometimes have trouble with that. Hey, when you finish organizing your house, you know where I live! :o)

As always, love the Lucy pix.

LawMommy said...

Those sound like excellent goals. I'm impressed that you have already gotten through some rooms for complete organization.

You must find your passport!

Have you gotten a babyjogger? I'm not a runner myself, but, my husband is a die-hard long distance runner, and he tried several kinds of baby joggers when Gabe was a baby, but, he says the one that is actually called "BabyJogger" is by far the best one. He still uses to run with Lana, and she is almost 37 pounds now.

Love the photos,
Gretchen

Sara said...

Love the goals! Very similar to ours...we are trying to get organized as well. Hard to do with a toddler running around (and for me, a big pregnant belly!), but it does make things run so much more smoothly once it's done, huh? We're also starting to cook at home a lot more. It makes me feel like a real grown up...at age 34 ;) Love the new pics of Lucy...her hair is getting so long and she really looks like a little girl now and not a baby. Let's catch up soon!

Jen said...

Oh yes, I'm trying to get into cooking too! I just can't believe how hard it is to get things to taste the way Mom's do!

Jenny said...

good luck with the purge. Even when we moved, we had no time to do it. We have a full walk up attic and it is almost full of crap! And I need to get rid of it!

Good luck with cooking and exercise. I cook alot but I cook dinner in the am cause the girls are bad in the afternoon, I would recommend that you do it earlier than later. And I see people working out and I get jealous. I need to exercise, I am so out of shape!

Anyway, Happy new year!

Regina said...

Hi Kelly, Justin and Lucy,

I came across your blog recently and wanted to say hello and that I really enjoyed reading through it!

Lucy is such a cutie patootie, and is obviously very well loved. :-)

We are in the process of adopting from Kazakhstan, and expect to be traveling in March. It's so inspiring to read other blogs and be reassured that this will indeed happen!

Take care and happy New Year.

Warmest wishes,
Regina (& Frank)
www.ruopoliadoption.blogspot.com

Kate said...

Yea!!! I'm so excited I get to comment on here again! It is official now that I'm a fellow blogger! Those pics are AWESOME!!!!!!!!
You've got some framers in there! I can't get over her hair...Liza needs just a couple strands from her friend...ok?
So excited to see ya!

Rachel said...

You have come up with some great resolutions! Have fun purging your stuff. I'm an anti-pack rat, too. :)

Shawna said...

Wait, I just noticed this...when did Justin shave his head?!? How's Pat feeling...I heard about his appendix, right? Well, I'm sure you're glad to have Justin home while he's recovering.