Since my kids went back to school a few days ago, this week feels like the official start of the new year. As much as I love sleeping in and spending all day in my pajamas, I also love a routine and I really, really love being alone for a little while.
I don’t think I made resolutions last year, but this year I can’t stop thinking about things that I want to do more, things that could improve and ways life could generally be better. So, for accountability sake, here goes!
At Home
Internalize the phrase “Don’t put down what you can put away.” I have already started doing this and find myself saying this over and over in my mind. I am absentminded and forgetful, and my natural state is to leave a trail of items wherever I go. I find myself thinking “don’t put it down, put it away!” all day long, and I’m hoping that continues.
Commit to decluttering my house. I’m in a small Facebook group with regular challenges and a plan to be done by summer. I have reached the point where I am just so tired of all of the STUFF we have in the house and so much of it needs to go.
Menu plan AND meal prep – I have menu planning fairly well in hand when I actually sit down to do it, but I want to get in the habit of prepping anything that can be prepared in the morning, or at least before I pick the kids up from school, to make the evenings go even more smoothly.
Have more fun with my kids – I am the default parent, the one who carries the mental load of keeping things running semi-smoothly on a daily basis. I fall into a taskmaster role most days and I’m sad to admit that I need to remind myself to be silly and to make them laugh.
Work
Work outside the house at least twice a month. Wendy and I will work on specific goals for Long Story Short, but I want to work on my own personal work habits. I have worked in Starbucks out of necessity lately and find that I am so focused when I’m not in my own house. I want to commit to a semi-regular change of scenery.
Personal
Read 52 books this year – I set a goal of 50 last year and I hit it exactly.(You can see everything I read in 2017 here.) I didn’t enter the majority of those books into Goodreads until the 11th hour as I dug through my Kindle, old blog posts and library receipts to see what I had read, but I was happy to hit my goal. I upped it just ever so slightly to add to the challenge (although 50 is no small potatoes.)
Read at least one bookshelf book per month – I tend to ignore the books on my bookshelf and turn to library books or Kindle books. I love owning books, but I also need to be good about donating books that we’re done with because I don’t have never-ending book storage. But, of course, I can’t donate them until I read them! So, I need to make a serious effort to get through this stack!
Challenge myself physically – I signed up for tennis lessons! I am so nervous about this, but I did it and at the last minute a friend signed up with me, so I think that will make it a little easier to show up the first day. I also want to go back to yoga, but I’ve mentally pushed that back until after the six weeks of tennis are over, both to give myself something to look forward to and to be extremely realistic about my personal expectations.
Financial-ish
Do a wardrobe audit before bringing in new clothes – I’m not opposed to shopping, but I want to identify the holes in my wardrobe first rather than mindlessly buying all of the $8 t-shirts at Target
Use 80% of my current sticker stash before buying new stickers. I have three mini-binders full of stickers that need to get used before I can even think about bringing in new stuff.
Fun
Finish Four TV Series – A few years ago I resolved to finish a few TV series over the course of the year and it was so fun to feel like I had accomplished something in my down time. I already finished The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel during the great early 2018 closet purge. Next on my list is Broadchurch, Black Mirror and I need a suggestion for a comedy as a palate cleanser. Must be available on Amazon or Netflix. Leave your recs below!
Go to two movies ALONE – One of our theaters just became an ALL RECLINER theater, which means even the 11am $7 movies are recliner movies. This seems like the perfect school day activity. I just need to get over my hangups about solo movie-going.
If you’ve written out your resolutions, I would love to see them! Link them in the comments below. I plan to check in regularly on these resolutions, so check back!
