New Year's Resolutions

Ever since I set up my window command center, my plan for Fridays has been to get to the grocery and clean up the house for the weekend. What usually ends up happening is that time gets away from me and before I know it it's Friday again. I meal plan and make my grocery list during Ayden's morning nap, we have lunch when he wakes up and then we don't get out of the house until after 1:00 pm or later.

Out and about and staying warm!

That doesn't leave too much time for putting all the groceries away, cleaning up, getting dinner started and Ayden down for his afternoon nap by the time David gets home. David has always been a good sport about it and jumps in wherever I left off but I'd love for us to be able to just relax when he comes home on Fridays. Today we were out and about by 10 am, ran a few errands, including the grocery, and were home by 1. That left plenty of time to do everything above plus vacuuming and straightening up the downstairs. On a perfect Friday I would have thrown a load of laundry in there and also straighten the upstairs but who said anyone is perfect. Ayden still isn't feeling 100% and now I am coming down with a chest cold so I am proud of what I did accomplish today with all thins considered.

Morning nap on the go.

With the New Year upon us and with it a chance to start anew, I have been thinking a lot about some changes that I want to make in 2013.

1) I want to make monthly personal, family, and household goals and actually complete them. All year. The key to following through with this type of goal is accountability so I'll probably use this blog for that. At the beginning of each month I plan devote posts to the goals for the month and then recap posts at the end.  We tend to have items on our To Do lists that we put off over and over again and I am hoping that this resolution will help us actually get them done!  The funny part is that these tasks are relatively easy and things that would be pretty quick to take care of once we get them started.

2) I NEED to make exercise a part of my life again. I used to exercise regularly but have given myself a break this year and I sure do feel it. My muscles are tighter than they've ever been, I've lost a lot of muscle tone and I don't have cardiovascular stamina. Being active is part of our "preventative medicine" lifestyle so I need to make it a priority again.

3) Last but not least, I want to become more efficient with my time. I tend to "piddle" as my mom used to say.  It just comes with the type of person that I am.  I am typically laid back, easy going and low stress.  Along with those qualities comes a working pace that would rival a snail's.  I rarely think to look at a clock and since I have a tendency to make lofty To Do lists, I feel disappointed a lot.  I still use some of FlyLady's tactics and my favorite is racing against a timer.  I plan to start wearing my sport watch and racing it daily during household tasks.  I am hoping that after a month or so of doing that, I will have formed new habits of moving a little quicker and really getting some To Do's taken care of. I tried to live by this today and I really felt better about myself by the end of the day. I feel like making this change would solve a lot of the "time always gets away from me" problems.  The time is there I just use twice as much as I really need to.

I don't want to overwhelm myself with too many and I think in reality even what is listed above will be a lot to take on but I have you guys to hold me to it!

What are your New Year's resolutions?  It will be here before we know it so give it some thought and share them in the comments!

~Sarah