I have not been doing well with writing posts this year, especially the last couple of months. I felt like I really didn’t have much to say and I have not been creating many new recipes at home. We’ve been sticking to pretty simple things (meat, roasted veggies and quinoa) or I’ve been trying out new recipes that I find on the internet. I also haven’t been posting much about Enzo. He’s now 15 months old and is so close to fully walking. He’s taking his sweet time. I don’t think he understands that he can walk as a way to get from place to place. He’s so used to crawling but I know he’ll get there really soon.
I’ve always been pretty much against New Year’s Resolutions for many reasons but I do like the idea of starting over or making changes in certain areas of my life. Instead of resolutions I’m making goals that I want to accomplish this year but also goals that will last into our future (if I stick with them!). Below are my top goals and the direction I want my life and my family’s life to go:
1.) Declutter: I have a goal to go through everything in our home and truly get rid of things that we no longer have a need for. We have accumulated so much stuff and having a kid doesn’t help with that. It feels overwhelming sometimes to see how much we have and I think getting rid of things we no longer use or love will help us feel more free.
2.) Capsule wardrobe: along with the decluttering I’m going to tackle my closet and attempt to create a capsule wardrobe for the winter which includes 37 items (a mix of tops, pants, dresses and shoes). There are some good resources here. It’s going to be hard but I think having higher quality items that I truly love to wear in my closet is going to help with the stress of having too much stuff.
3.) Less material goods: With decluttering, we also want to focus less on material goods and more on experiences. Instead of physical presents we want to give each other and our families gifts of activities, such as movie nights, trips to the zoo, dinner out, children’s museum, etc. There are lots of ideas for non-material gifts here.
4.) Food/exercise: I feel pretty good in this area as far as the foods we eat and the amount of exercise I get each week, but I would like to start creating more of my own recipes that I can post about here. I’d also like to introduce Enzo to new foods and flavors. He does really well at eating most things but we do sometimes get in a rut and eat the same things every week. Using Enzo as a motivation will help me to branch out a little more and try new things.
5.) Get involved: I recently joined the Board of Directors in a marketing role with the Pregnancy and Postpartum Health Alliance of Texas (PPHA). I joined mid-December and haven’t gotten too involved yet. I’m really looking forward to seeing how I can help raise awareness about postpartum mood disorders and use my marketing skills to do so. I’m also going to start volunteering with Meals on Wheels Groceries to Go program where I will shop for groceries twice a week for someone who is unable to shop for themselves. I go in for my training in a couple of weeks. I thought this would be a great way to help others and include Enzo as he loves going to the grocery store.
6.) Group Class for Enzo: I’m going to start taking Enzo to a weekly music class to get him some more interaction with other kiddos. We’ve gone to a few free classes and Enzo really liked it. He was smiling the whole time and really loves watching the other kids and listening to the music.
7.) Bible Study: I’ve been really wanting to get into a deeper Bible study and have been having trouble doing so on my own. I thrive in an environment where I can read the Bible but then also discuss it with other people or have some kind of hand-written study with questions. Next week I’m going to start attending a Bible Study Fellowship class in Austin (they offer them for free all over) that meets weekly and gives me the opportunity to dig deeper into the Bible as opposed to reading it on my own.
Sometimes looking at all of those things overwhelms me a bit but I really want these things to be lifelong goals not just something I try to accomplish in one month and then call it quits. What changes are you wanting to make in the new year?