Like this:

When I began thinking about making goals and resolutions for 2012, the list maker in me began jotting down all sorts of things.  But it really was more a long list of things that either needed to get done or that I wanted to get done.  I mean, do I really need “find a printer”, “get a cat”, “do more ab work”, and the like as my new year’s resolutions?  I think not.  At the same time I really love lists and resolutions, so I decided to go more for categories and also to choose only twelve things.  Twelve seemed appropriate, since we are, after all, headed into 2012.  Plus twelve is so much more manageable than the thirty-four (!) from last year.  But then I added one more, but I think that’s okay.  My hope in limiting myself is that I will be able to put more thought into the why and how of each one and hopefully make some progress.

The thinking and unpacking each one will have to come later, however, since we are on the eve of the new year and I plan to be asleep by 10:00 PM.  Gotta love New Year’s with two small children!

1.  Find things to do that will make me feel less like a mom.  These days everything from my hair to my clothes to my body to my activities feels blah and, well, mom-ish.  I’m glad I’m a mom but I don’t want that to be the core of my identity.  I would like to find things to do that I love that nurture who I am.  So far all the things that come to mind either demand too much time or money or don’t make sense with our stage of life.  At the same time, I really want to be doing things I love, even if there isn’t as much time to put into those activities right now.

2.  Work on organizing the house and find a way to keep it clean on a weekly basis.  This involves basic things like putting stuff away and doing tasks immediately if they take a minute or less to complete as well as doing a general cleanup at the end of each day.

3.  Enjoy the great outdoors: I would like this to look like growing a garden in the spring and summer and finding time to bike with my family on our nearby trail.

4.  Running:  Continue trying to figure out what is wrong with my leg.  Start building base mileage and hopefully get back to training.  After I am running pain free I can set more goals in this area.

5.  Experiment with meal plans and recipes: I would like to streamline things and set aside a night a week for certain foods.  A meatless night, a chicken night, ground beef, breakfast at dinner, etc.  I find so many recipes that I want to make but I have no focus and I feel like I end up spending more at the store because I buy for one meal and then make another.

6.  Prayer:  This past semester Clint and I have been more intentional about doing different types of prayer at the end of the night.  Lectio divina, the prayer of examen, praying our day in the morning, and discernment have all been rich times for us that have fallen away during the holiday craziness.

7.  Continue the pregnancy weight loss and come to terms with where I would like to be long term.

8.  Financial: We technically paid off our student loans at the end of 2011, but now have to reimburse our savings account.  My goal here is to manage our money better, find ways to save more, and determine where the money we have been putting into the loans should go.

9.  Make two sustainable changes each month that will help us to eat foods that are less processed, more organic, and generally healthier while still trying to keep our grocery bill at $200 per month.

10.  Find a way to write more.  I really enjoy writing but again this feels like an area where I don’t have much of a focus.

11.  Minimize:  Baby and toddler years are maybe not the best times to get rid of stuff, but I would like to go through the house monthly and get rid of things that we don’t need.  We have been given so much but we have a small space and don’t need everything we have around.

10.  Don’t get pregnant!  Enough said.

11.  Find ways to enjoy Isaac’s toddlerhood.  I’m not sure if this involves doing specific projects or going places or just accepting more of his invitations to engage and be present.  All I know is that I don’t do a great job with it.  Staying in the present with a new baby and a toddler can be downright exhausting!

12.  Care more:  This may sounds strange, but I want to care more about the world around me.  The other day, driving out of town I looked again at the discrepancy between the end of a nice housing development and, just over the fence, a trailer park.  Who lives there?  I wondered.  What’s their story?  What do they do?  Where can I be involved in the place I live with the time that I have and in a way that makes sense with being a mom of small children?  What can I do where it will feel like it even matters if I show up?  And when it comes down to it, do I really even want to be involved in the messy world that I see around me?  

13.  I guess the attitude I would like to cultivate in 2012, after looking at the results of 2011 is one that is less frantic and more fun.  I have so much to be grateful for and I would like to remember that on a daily basis.

Cheers to 2012!

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