Happy New Year!

A New Year is upon us and it promises to be interesting! I have set a few goals for myself that I'd like to accomplish this year.

The first one is easy, I just need to get back into the habit....some sort of exercise most days. I've simply gotten out of the habit of jumping on the Wii everyday, but it really is easy and fun to play on the Fit for 30 minutes everyday. Before I got the Fit, my biggest post-pregnancy pain was tightness in my ankles and feet. Every morning, I'd put my feet on the floor and they would sting and ache as the tendons stretched out. Every evening, my heels and ankles would be experiencing a constant soreness. The Fit made me more aware of my center of balance so all of my weight wasn't on my heels--that fixed the end of the day aches. The balance games helped me stretch my feet and ankles and that fixed the morning owies. I haven't been doing the Fit every day for several weeks now and everything's starting to feel tight in the mornings again, so time to get back to it!!

The second one is probably the hardest for me. I am not a neat person by nature. I want a clean space, and the clutter annoys me to no end, but it's just not easy for me to do seemingly easy things, like pick up after myself. This is just a lifetime of bad habits and I'm going to have to put in the conscious effort to overcome them and develop some better habits. I've convinced myself that there's always something better than cleaning to do (and it's true, I have no interest in cleaning 3 or 4 hours a day at the expense of spending time with my kiddos), but there is a certain amount of cleaning and upkeep required when you have a house and family to care for. I think I need to change my thinking---cleaning and basic maintenance shows respect for the material things we have worked hard to get. Like when you're a kid and you break your toys...your parents always tell you if you can't respect your things, you don't need to have them. Well, I need to start respecting my space. I've decided to utilize the method found on the Motivated Moms website. Basically, there is a daily check list of the everyday stuff, then for each day of the year, another small checklist of routine items (like cleaning fans, changing the air filter, etc...) so you get through those on a regular basis. They have a sample page on their website you can look at. I'm always more efficient with a checklist in front of me and there aren't many things more satisfying than scratching off that last item on a checklist.

Lastly, I think we need to get serious about the garden. We have enjoyed doing a garden, but with the current state of the economy, I think it'd be prudent to be more serious about increasing yields and saving money. If we're gonna be doing it anyway, might as well do a good job of it. We've done a lazy job of keeping up the garden journal in the past, but this year I've found a resource that I think will really help us track expenses, yields, and what helps and what doesn't. It's a Free Garden Journal you can download and print out as needed.

What do YOU have planned for 2009??