I love the fresh start feeling at the beginning of a new year. I wake up excited to make some positive changes and refresh some of my routines. I want to super clean the whole house and get rid of half our belongings (oh how I love getting rid of things). I don't know if I make resolutions so much as goals for the year. I posted about this last year so I'll review those and then share new ones for 2014.
2013 Resolutions
1) Make more from scratch, food and otherwise
2) Read 75 books (giving myself a break after successfully doing 85 in 2012)
3) Do a new ab/core workout every day in January (I will pick a different part to focus on next month)
4) Be Me.
Here's how I think I did:
1) I make a lot more food from scratch. We haven't bought bread in over a year and only buy a few bread-like products (tortillas, and the occasional refrigerated dough for casseroles). That's been our biggest change. I also froze more produce this year (blueberries, corn, green beans, tomatoes) and cook beans instead of buying canned (post coming). I make yogurt occasionally and rarely buy it (again, post coming). We buy a lot less processed food and more ingredients to do it our (my) self.
Non-food wise we make a lot more things too: most our cleaning supplies and my face wash. Curtains, pillows, furniture, DIY is usually our first choice. There is more we could do but I think we've made good progress.
2) I did it! Finished #75 on the 29th, 2 full days to spare!! 6 were rereads but 69 were new to me. If I had to pick my top 5 new reads from 2013 they would be:
1) Kisses from Katie (posted about here)
2) Grace Grows (apparently I should have posted about this one)
3) Eleanor & Park (posted about here)
4) Happier at Home (posted about here)
5) Beautiful Day (posted about here)
Other favorites: The Aviator's Wife, Instant Mom, Pastors' Wives, and Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures.
3) I did do this in January. Then in February and March I did a new body part (arms one month and legs the other, I think). This stopped once we brought Luke home and my workouts were sporadic for awhile. Once I got back into a good routine I kinda forgot about it. But still made it way past the average resolution quit date of January 17th!
4) I think I've done a lot better at this. Growing old and not caring so much what other things really helps.
2014 Resolutions
1) Easiest first: read 75 books. That seems to be a pretty good pace for me. We'll see if I can keep up as Luke grows and sleeps less.
2) Make healthier meals that include more vegetables and fewer processed foods.
3) Improve my kitchen chopping skills (you see those people who can chop veggies super fast...I want to get there)
4) Improve my photography skills (if you've been around here awhile you know they need help) especially of Luke and indoors in general.
5) Continually simplify our lives, routines, and belongings. (my constant goal)
6) Read the daily Mass readings. Our bulletin posted about an app you can download for this, which I have. So far I'm 2/2 on this, off to a good start!
I have all kinds of cleaning and reorganizing I want to do in the next few weeks. My sisters and I are already discussing a garage sale for this summer. Thinking I might get a little money out of getting rid of something really helps add it to the pile! Looking forward to clearing up some cupboard and closet space!
2010 resolutions
2011 resolutions (the year I really took on simplifying)
2012 resolutions (I never updated this)
2013 resolutions
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