We’re 6 days in to the new year and I have yet to publicly declare my resolutions.

GASP!

That must make me, like, the worst blogger EVER!

(Wonder how many more words I can put in all caps? LET’S SEE!)

Actually, for once, this blog tardiness is not a result of me being lazy or too busy or tired or a myriad of other excuses. I actually did this on purpose! This year, I decided to tweak my approach to resolutions (the dreaded “R” word). Instead of announcing to the world on January 1 that I was going to bring about world peace, solve the poverty epidemic and find a cure for cancer, I decided to wait a little bit and live with my potential resolutions for a bit.

Turns out those 3 seemed a bit unrealistic so I came up with a new list.

Living with my list for 6+ days was really beneficial. It helped me see which ones didn’t make sense in my life and which things I wanted to add that I hadn’t thought of before.

The result? A masterpiece of a goals list that can out duel any other goals list!

(Remember in grade school when we used to say things like, “My dad is stronger than your dad!” and then reply with, “Oh yeah, well my dad is taller than your dad!” and it’d go on and on and on? I usually won that game by throwing out the still to this day unbeaten superlative of, “Oh yeah well my dad speaks more Spanish than your dad!” IN YOUR FACE GRADE SCHOOL KIDS!)

(Ok so that worked back then because the schools weren’t as well integrated. Probably wouldn’t work as great now. But still, I stand undefeated.)

Anywho…now where was I?

Oh yes, the greatest resolutions list of all time…I read through several articles (here and here and here) that helped me craft my list. The end result was sort of a combination of goals and to-do items. Some of them are one and done, others are longer term commitments.

So without further ado – here is my list for 2012!

Family and Home:

1.  Do at least one family outing a month. Making a run to the grocery store does not count. Neither does going to my parent’s house for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, those are all great things and family time of any sort is good. But the intent of this item is to challenge us to do new and different things. Not only does this make life more fun but it exposes Isabella to a broader range of experiences.

2.  Tackle the following home projects this year:

• Buy and hang curtains on all the windows. Some of the rooms need them for esthetic purposes, others for more functional reasons (like blocking out the light in Munchkin’s room so she sleeps later!).
• Unpack the remaining boxes in the basement. The ones that actually have stuff in them that we use. There really aren’t that many left – maybe a dozen or so. AND THEY’RE DRIVING ME CRAZY!
• Do something with the front room. Is that not specific enough? Ok fine. What I really want to do is find a way to visually divide Isabella’s playroom from the dining room but still keep the big open space feel and have the 2 rooms be cohesive yet separate and distinct and let’s see how long I keep this sentence going because it’s got to be nearly the longest sentence in the history of sentences and someone quickly call those Guinness people (not the beer ones, the world record ones but ok fine call the beer ones too).

• Create a sitting room within the master bedroom. I’ve always wanted a space in the house that was a devoted reading / meditation space. Someplace cozy and inviting, yet private. Well our bedroom is big enough to carve out a space for that on one side! Yippee! BRING IT!
• Add built in shelves to the living room by the end of the year. CJ, this one’s for you buddy! I know exactly how I want it to look but have no freakin’ clue where one would start in building this. Yeah sure we can buy bookshelves but where’s the challenge in that? Besides, I know CJ is looking for one more thing to do (because being a stay-at-home dad, running a city wide volleyball organization, being on the board of directors for another org, actually playing volleyball and being at my beck and call are not enough for him). Overachiever.

3.  Break Isabella of the “oobie” habit once and for all – DONE! Well almost. See, I’m already kicking ass and taking names!

4.  Move Isabella to a toddler bed. Though I know this needs to be done and is a right of passage for kids, I’m sort of dragging my feet on it. We already have a toddler bed for her but once we transition her to that it means she’ll be free to get out whenever she feels like it and THAT IS NOT OK RIGHT NOW! I kind of like having her caged up. She enjoys sharing a kennel with Samson. KIDDING! The point is I think she’s good in her crib for now but sometime this year we’ll have to make the transition.

5.  Have Isabella potty trained by her 3^rd birthday (September 30). That is only 9 months away. Help.

6.  Research pre-schools and enroll Isabella in one to start in the fall of 2012. Course this depends on the previous one. Most pre-schools require the kids to be out of diapers. I guess that’s incentive. Or mean. One or the other.

Financial and career:

7.  Attend one career professional event a month. I can’t divulge any information about my day job or the company I work for but let’s just say it involves projects and management. That’s all you’re gonna get outta me so don’t even ask for more!

8.  Spend less money. Specifically, save 5% of each paycheck in a nest egg AND apply 5% of each paycheck toward paying off our credit card balance. Doesn’t sound like much but given our bills and everyday expenses, that’s the number I feel comfortable with for right now. If I find we have extra money floating around after a couple months, I’ll increase it. What I don’t want to do is over commit at the beginning and then fail right outta the gate. Ya feel me?

9.  Save money for Isabella. I’m going to do this by setting aside all loose change at the end of each day into a jar, with the money to be applied toward my shopping habit Isabella’s savings/college fund when it’s full or at the end of the year.

Great. She’s already trying to steal money out of the jar. Or maybe she thinks her oobies are hidden in there….

Spiritual and ethical:

10. Find a church that we all like and attend regularly (at least twice a month). Neither CJ or I are religious people but we are spiritual. Meaning, we don’t believe that any one religion is right or wrong nor is there one that we are particularly affiliated with. We do believe in a Higher Power, faith, etc.  We know that a church atmosphere, vibe and teachings are good things for a kid and we want Munchkin exposed to that. Plus they give you free wine.

11. Get back to daily prayers/talks with my Higher Power. Speaking of faith, I’ve gotten out of the habit of having talks with the big guy upstairs. I used to be religious (pun intended) about saying prayers every night. Somewhere along the line that fell by the wayside. But I find that I do feel more centered when I take time to unload and turn things over. Amen.

Physical and health:

12. Adopt one new healthy habit each month:

• January – Add a fruit and/or vegetable (preferably both!) to each meal
• February – Read daily meditations/affirmations
• March – Do some type of physical activity IN ADDITION to regular workouts
• April – Drink at least 64 oz. each day (includes water, tea, or juice. Does NOT include pop or alcohol) – honestly, this will be one of the hardest for me
• May – Make a daily gratitude list
• June – Try to walk 10,000 steps every day
• July – limit sweets to once a day
• August – Meditate for 5 min. every day
• September – Train and sign up for a charitable walk/run
• October – Try new foods at least 3 times a week
• November – Find time every day to do something special for myself
• December – Work out 5 days a week (this one might be cheating a little since I already do this. HOWEVER, my theory is that December is so crazy that I want something fairly easy I can stick to)

WARNING! The above picture is what I look like at 5:00 a.m., pre-workout (i.e. still half asleep). You’re lucky I was able to crack a smile.

Social and cultural:

13. Attend at least 4 cultural events this year (e.g. Broadway shows, concerts, museum exhibitions). Back in the day, I was the queen of cultured. I was practically a pearl! However, when Isabella was born and funds got tighter, these types of things were some of the first to go. But I miss them. I LOVE to do fun cultural stuff. It makes me a more well rounded person  and shit.

14. Regularly participate in events put on by the social clubs I belong to (speakers events, parties, happy hours, etc). I belong to a lot of social type organizations (6 that I can think of off the top of my head) and they all have events. It got to the point that there were too many to choose from so we didn’t go to any at all. Well that just left us feeling alone and like big giant hermit crabs. Not that I’m saying we’re huge people, or that we have crabs. Cuz we aren’t. AND WE DON’T! So we need to get back out there. Hang with friends. Get to know people better. Eat and drink a lot. Stuff like that.

15.  Go on a date night with CJ once a month. This is harder than it sounds. Any parent out there will agree with me – you have to pick and choose baby-sitter moments. Do you get a sitter for date night or so that you can run a bunch of errands uninterrupted? And if you have several events in one month, it gets expensive (cuz you start to feel guilty for pawning the kids off on mom and dad or your close friends all the time). All that to say date night tends to get tossed out the window in favor of other things. Like sleep. And Grey’s Anatomy.

Phew! That’s quite a list! Seems daunting and at first glance you might think there’s no way I can get do all that.  But if you break it down and really look at it, some of the items can be combined (like attending a cultural event with CJ would kill 2 birds with one stone). 

I’ll try and post at the end of every month how I’m doing. Some may get done and crossed off. Some may change. Some may have progress but not yet be completed. And some new ones may get added!

HERE’S TO SUCCESS IN 2012!