Resolutions

With the new year, I feel an overwhelming need to slow down, get things in order and enjoy life. The end of 2010 was so busy. I found myself just rushing through and not really enjoying it. In order to get to a place that I can slow down, I have a couple of goals/resolutions that I am going to make.

1.

GET ORGANIZED

I am going to make a priority over the next few weeks to find a place for everything in our house. If something doesn't have a place, then I am going to seriously consider if we need it. I am going to start with all of the paperwork, and random stuff that is all over the kitchen counter, island, my dresser, stuck between the banisters near the stairs, on the ledges in the foyer, on the piano, on the couch downstairs, on the floor next to the couch downstairs and on top of the drawer set we use for diapers. One weekend a few years ago when I was out of town, Heath secretly installed closet organizers. I have a great set of shelves in there that are not all being used to the best of their ability...I'm going to clear one off and it will be our go to place with paper work, stuff to be filed, etc.

I am also going to keep our photos organized. I am a great uploader, but a horrible printer! I have thousands and thousands of pictures from the past 3 years and very few have been printed. I am going to make an effort to back up all of my photos to discs and Snapfish. I have a fear that my computer will crash and I will be picture-less. I actually got started with this one last night. All of our 2010 photos are organized in folders by month- which is how I am going to organize them going forward. It will help a lot when I go to scrapbook them :) 

2.

KEEP THE HOUSE IN ORDER

One thing we are really bad at is putting the laundry away. I contribute this to the fact that we both work 40 hours a week and put the kids to bed at 8. Their clothes almost NEVER get put away. Our bedroom is a constant mess of clean clothes. We are really good at keep the clothes clean, and Heath is really good about folding them, but we are really bad at putting them away. I would love it if we could fold and put away the laundry as it's washed.

Another effort I'd like to make is picking up the toys and books every night. It only takes a few minutes, and it would make me a much happier mama to come home to a tidy house!

3.

SPEND MORE QUALITY TIME WITH THE FAMILY

Ever since we welcomed Madelyn to the family, I feel like I can never get everything done and I never have extra time to just get down on the floor and play. I think that if I can keep up with 1 & 2 there will be more time in the day. Another thing I'm going to try to eliminate a lot of the time spent preparing and cleaning up after dinner is to do Once A Month Cooking. I think that I can really save us some money and a lot of time each week by having a freezer full of meals. My thought is to get started by cooking every 2 weeks for this first month and then we'll have 3 months worth of meals that can be thawed and heated up or thrown in the crock pot. Watch out for a post from my first big cooking day...should be interesting!

I'm stopping with these 3 for now. I think this is enough to get us started this year. My goal is to get these 3 implemented by my birthday which is quickly approaching. Another year closer to 30! Ahh!!! I am starting a list of 30 by 30! Watch for that post soon!