Let's Talk Resolutions

Or, as I've mentioned, my yearly to-do list. Here's what we had in 2017:

• Eating Healthier: HA! Between the pregnancy, the load of candy Larry bought for Christmas (which didn't get finished till about April-ish), and FINALLY getting to eat whatever I wanted after Cara was born (no more stressing about if it was okay to eat or expired)...this one took a bit of a tank. I actually did REALLY well during my maternity leave, but the second I went back to work all bets were off. Oh well...guess this stays on the list.
• Keeping Busy: Um..I did do this, just not like I expected. I was way busy with a newborn, figuring out how to find time to take a shower or eat, and managing those lovely postpartum hormones. I think I got the swing of being busy towards the end of the year, but nothing was really blog worthy (except vacations). We did do more hikes this year, but that's pretty much the only time I left the house the whole summer (which is when it's easiest to keep busy).
• Be better at blogging: Oh boy, if you're just reading this now, then you can't really tell I didn't do this, but I really didn't. I did the same thing as last year where I wrote up the posts and then uploaded them (with an adjusted date) later. Granted, having a baby made computer time very scarce, but I do think I've found a good balance with this and it's going back on the list!
• Complimenting a stranger: I would say of all my plans, this one I was the most successful at! I didn't do it ALL the time, but if I found an opportunity I took it. And it was literally the best thing I could've done. I found a way to come out of my shell a lot more. Even if I was being awkward, I just laughed it off, and kind of started over. This is going on my list every single year because it made me AND another person feel better.
• Organize All I can say besides *downward thumb emoji* is this one went so wayward that it's the first one on my list for 2018
• Get the house put together: Now this one was my second most successful. It also goes with the keep busy notes above, that this was something that definitely kept us busy in the first part of the year. We got 3 rooms put together, most of my craft room, and our whole kitchen/dining/living rooms are also mostly put together. There are some rooms we need to do a bit with, but I'm happy to say we did get a lot done in 2017

Now for 2018 (just my personal) goals:

• As I said up above, Organize is my 2018 theme! I text Stace this week to say I've never ended a year in such chaos and disorder before. At first it was very overwhelming and made me wonder what was my problem (did having a baby mean I lost what was very most important to me?). Then I realized, this means I get to revamp and restart my organizing this next year! My biggest thing is to make organizational totes that will be seasonal (Halloween, Thanksgiving/Fall, Christmas, Winter, Valentines Day, Spring, Summer, Back to School, and vacation) and inside them is going to be all sorts of fun things! We'll have specialized recipes, fun craft projects, maybe some good books (or book ideas to get at a library), list of movies to watch, magazine articles I've collected, etc. Then each "season" we'll open it up and have fun with it AND our kids can eventually play with the things inside and contribute to them as well. I'm VERY excited for this idea
• Complimenting a stranger is another one I really want to keep on this list. It's really changed me for the better, I feel, and made me more empathetic (or maybe compassionate is what I'm looking for here...either way, I get other people's emotions now).
• I'm also making it a goal to do one craft/organization/project thing each month. This really shouldn't be that hard, but I tend to lose patience with crafts so I need to work on it if I'm going to keep up the "create night" for Mondays.
• Stay caught up on the blog. As I've said I think I found a way to make this work and I definitely like having this to read back on (even if blogging is becoming a dead "art"). I hope to keep this until I'm ready to move on to another form of memory keeping (and even then I still want this blog to exist!). We have been tossing around the idea of vlogging. Larry got me an amazing camera for my birthday that's supposed to be good for vlogging. It would mostly be for us, but we'd make it public for anyone to see. We'll see if I can transition smoothly enough.
• After losing our Gender Reveal video with Cara I've decided I need to backup my pictures more often. So I've got a plan for that (backup onto my computer once a month, backup everything onto our external hard drive every 3 months).
• Keep with the frozen meals. The control freak in me loves this plan. I think I can accomplish this one!
• See family more often. We just don't do this enough and it bums me out!

And that's it...or all that I'm sharing. I've created a GREAT nightly and weekly plan for this year to help me keep to these goals. I also think I'm going to join this 100 mile challenge where you (walk/run/crawl/whatever) 100 miles in a year (this is in addition to your regular daily "miles"). I really think I can do this AND you get a medal at the end (which I didn't think I cared about, and then I saw it). Here's to a healthy, happy, more organized year for us!