2015 New Year's Resolutions

It’s resolution time again, y’all.  I absolutely love planning my New Year’s Resolutions.  I am all about the planning over here.  If there was a gold medal in planning, I would win hands down.  However, that is only a small piece of the bigger puzzle, which should be more focused on the completion of those resolutions.  Here is a painful admission for you:  last year, I only completed about 35% of my resolutions.  Because of this miserable failure, I have made a decision to revamp the way that I make resolutions.  

I used to make New Year’s Resolutions that would almost force me to fail.  I would take an idea, make it extreme and write that down as a goal for the year.  For example, one of my resolutions last year was to put up a blog every day.  That is a perfect example of setting yourself up to fail.  I am a busy mom with 3 kids who live with us, a full time job and took college classes most of the year.  I barely had time to breathe, let alone put energy into writing a blog every day.  

This year I have decided to make my goals more open ended and thus more attainable.  This sounds like a cop out, I know, but hear me out.  You will be able to see from my resolutions below that I am still going to be working hard throughout the year to achieve these goals.  I know that taking a step backwards like this and making goals in this format would make some of you absolutely bonkers and that is fine.  If you are looking for SMART goals, you need to look elsewhere.  

It boils down to this: I want to do everything that I can do to help myself achieve more of the goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year.  I want to end the year feeling positive about my performance on said goals and ready to tackle the next year.  I also want to provide more updates than I did last year.  I need to be held accountable for these resolutions and am going to use this blog as an outlet for that accountability.  

I have divided mine into four different areas: family, personal, money, and extra.  I certainly didn’t intend to have the same number of resolutions in each of the four areas, but then the pattern-maker in me took over.  

2015 New Year’s Resolutions

Family

1. Go on more dates with Corry – we did a decent job of this last year, but ultimately a successful long term marriage takes work and time away from other responsibilities.  Ideally I would like this to be monthly.

2. Have personal dates each of my kids – as sad as it is to hear, rarely do I get alone time with any of the 3 kids that live at our house.  I normally have all of the kids together, or the two younger ones.  I would like to take them out every so often by themselves to make them feel special and increase my bond with all three of them separately.  

3. Establish and keep up a bedtime routine – chastize me now, but I have never had a bedtime routine for my kids.  Some days we read, some days we stay up late, some days we don’t eat until 9.  In a perfect world, by December, I would like for there to be a familiar routine for the kids when it comes to bedtimes.  

4. More playtimes, less screen time – my kids are screen junkies.  Please don’t judge me.  The ‘no screen time before 2’ message did not make it to my house.  I would like to change some of that and limit the TV/screen time to a minimum on a daily basis.  They do a good job of this, but I want my kids to play without interaction with electronic equipment, especially with the large volume of toys that have been collected over the Christmas and birthday season.  

Personal

1. Work out 3x per week, 30 mins per day – in the last few years, my office has opened a fairly impressive small gym in the top floor of our building.  For months I was working out before work and I would like to start that again.  I just need to get my butt in gear and get started again.  I am hearing the ‘it takes 21 days to make a habit’ mantra.

2. Take care of me – for a few years after I had my children, I felt like I lost myself.  I was overwhelmed and swamped with the complete life change and to be honest, I feel like I am just now getting back to close to the person that I was before I had children.  I would like to focus time and energy this year on taking care of me, as selfish as that sounds.  I am lumping a bunch of items in this group, like journaling, getting a good ‘face’ routine, wearing makeup more, getting back into wearing heels, etc.  

3. Lose 60lbs by December 31, 2015 – 2014 was a decent year for weight loss for me.  According to my thyroid doctor, I am down 40lbs last year, and I would like to do better than that in 2015.  Corry and I have had grand success with some of the Advocare products and, more importantly, just realizing that healthy eating habits need to be a focus for the family.  I have confidence that I can blow this goal out of the water in 2015!

4. Drink at least 100oz of water daily – in the height of my weight loss in 2014, I was drinking 180ish oz. of water per day and feeling awesome.  I had more energy.  I was sleeping better.  I could clearly think.  Yes, I was going to the bathroom like 95 times per day but it was worth it and I would like to make that a habit.  

Money 

1. Save at least $2,000 by December 31, 2015 by taking meals to work – in order for me to maintain weight loss, I have to take my breakfasts, lunches and snacks to work every day.  The good part about that is that you also save money by not eating out during those meals.  Even if you assume that I spent $4 for breakfast and $6 for lunch and $2 for snacks every day, which are relatively low estimates for eating out, that could still save $240 ish a month just by taking those meals to work.  

2. Meal plan & weekly grocery shop – I need to reiterate: I love to plan.  Based on how my Pinterest looks, I love to plan meals for my family.  As much as I love to monthly grocery shop, I can’t always give that the attention that it needs and it is ultimately quicker for me to weekly grocery shop.  I can think about what I need in the car on the way to the store instead of spending at least an hour trying to go through 25ish recipes and trying to determine what we need to last us for a month.  

3. Eat out no more than 4x per month – let’s face it:  sometimes I am lazy and just want someone else to do the cooking, especially if Corry is out of town.  I want to resolve to eat out no more than 4 times a month but ideally I would like for it to be no more than twice per month.  I am keeping track of what we are eating every day for dinner/weekend meals in my planner so I will be able to remember when we ate out and what we had.   

4. Save $3,000 more in our emergency stash – we have a relatively decent sized stash for emergencies saved up already, but it could always be bigger.  I would like to increase that by at least $3,000 by the end of the year.   

Extra 

1. Complete RAK Facebook challenge – this is the Random Acts of Kindness Facebook challenge that I just signed up for.  Last year I signed up but never did anything about it.  This year I added it to my resolutions for the year, so I would be constantly reminded of it and not quite as forgetful as I was last year.  

2. Store at least 7 days’ worth of water – it is time for me to get serious about storing some water for emergencies.  In my opinion, water is one of the most important things that you can store for any kind of an emergency.  Seven days certainly isn’t a lot but it is a start.  

3. Build rocket heater/stove with Corry – we talked about building one of these last year and never did.  2015 will be the year.  

4. Blog 3x per week – this should be self-explanatory and completely achievable.  

2014 New Year's Resolutions Update - Week 1

I am currently still running the Price Convalescent Center with the babies.  Because of this, I am less than excited about taking the time out to blog and I am sorry about that.  I figured that today would be a good day to provide my weekly update on my resolutions. 

2014 New Year's Resolutions

• Personal
• Post one blog everyday.
• I have actually been doing awesome at this one.  I posted one everyday so far and that is amazing considering that I have been less than motivated to do anything this week except sleep and deal with sick kids.  When things slow down a bit, I plan to make a more formal schedule of when I want to post certain types of blogs.  Until then, they are going to be more random.   
• Go on more dates with my husband. 
• So far so good.  Last week we were invited to a friend's house to have dinner with some other couples.  It wasn't the traditional 'date' but since it was almost an hour and a half drive one way away from our home, it definitely provided us a night to step away from the kids and spend some quality time together. 
• Start going on 'dates' with my kids, i.e. manicures with Grace, play-dates with Isabella, etc. 
• This has not happened yet, but let's just blame it on everyone in our house being sick.  I will work on it. 
• Home
• Do 52 'Pinterest projects' for the year.
• I have already completed 2 of the 52 promised ones for the year, so we are off to a good start.  I have ideas for a few more for the month but nothing solid yet.   
• Stock freezer with prepared meals once per month.
• My weekend to grocery shop and meal plan for the month is coming up soon.  I have planned to add at least a few meals to that meal plan to cook one month.  No plans so far as to what those meals will be. 
• Do 12 'preps' for the year. 
• Nothing so far.  Plans need to be made.   
• Health
• Drink more water. 
• This has also been going well.  I have a Contigo 32oz water bottle that makes it easy to get in a large amount of water at work, since only two of those equal the amount of water that you should have for the entire day.  I had forgotten how much you have to go to the restroom when you drink the proper amount of water.  There has only been one day this last week that I have had less than 64 oz of water, which is awesome. 
• Do some form of exercise 5 days per week. 
• Failed so far.  I did sign up and take the class to be able to use the fitness center at my job, so that's a step in the right direction, at least.  We have treadmills and elliptical machines which I am excited about and a few other machines that I probably would not use to be honest with you.  This will be helpful to use while I am on lunch and need a workout.   
• Take all medications and vitamins regularly.
• I failed again on the weekends, but during the week I have been doing awesome.  It is easy for me to stay on schedule and take all my medications like I am supposed to.  Something about the weekend throws off that schedule and makes it impossible somehow.  I am going to get better. 

Overall, I have been doing well with all of this.  Since the beginning of the year, I have also been doing better with a lot of other things.  I have been eating better and in much smaller portions.  As of the last count, because of that, I have lost almost 4 lbs this last week.  I am definitely sticking with that.  I have also been doing a really good job at ensuring that my appearance is kept up with.  Over the last few years since I had my younger children, I have lost a bit of myself and this year I am determined to get that back.  I have been getting back into wearing makeup every, wearing heels to work and dressing in cute clothes and not totally for comfort.  I also have started using a hair straightener, which I have had in my bathroom for years and never touched. 

How are you doing on your resolutions? 

2014 New Year's Resolutions

Sigh... didn't we *just* make New Year's resolutions?  It seriously feels like just yesterday that I started regularly writing on this blog and came up with my 2013 resolutions.  Before I had children, time never seemed to fly by the way that it has since my kids were born.  Hubby and I were just talking about this yesterday that it has been 9 months since our eldest daughter moved out of her mother's house.  Seriously, when he mentioned that it had been that long, I almost fell over.  Time just flies by out of control. 

I will recap my 2013 goals in another post, but let's just sum it up by saying that I learned a lot about setting realistic goals and expectations for yourself when you have small children.  I am going to categorize them into three different areas similar to last year.  I will try to update once a month or so on my progress. 

2014 New Year's Resolutions

• Personal
• Post one blog everyday.
• This was on my list last year.  I really am happy with posting blogs.  I love sharing recipes and I love corresponding with other people who blog.  This year I crossed an awesome un-written goal off my list of 10k views on this blog.  That was amazing and felt awesome!  Without stressing myself out too much, I would like to make a more formal schedule of what kind of blog is going to be posted on what day.  I might try to plan that out and see what happens.   
• Go on more dates with my husband. 
• I don't know any married couples with children that feel like they spend enough quality time with their partners.  I know that I don't.  I want to change this for the better this year.  I love my husband and would like to spend more alone time with him continuing to build our relationship.   
• Start going on 'dates' with my kids, i.e. manicures with Grace, play-dates with Isabella, etc. 
• Rarely, do I go anywhere with only one child.  Normally, I have at least 2, if not all 3 kids with me and I am usually doing something that would be boring to them, like grocery shopping, shopping at Target, etc.  I would like to change this and go on at least one date per month with the kids.  I am going to try to do this in combination with Corry because it's important for them to spend alone time with their father as well. 
• Home
• Do 52 'Pinterest projects' for the year.
• I tried to do this last year and failed miserably.  I am determined to accomplish this during the year.  I really like Pinterest for crafty type things and recipes.  I will definitely be able to accomplish this if I put my mind to it.  The original idea is to do one per week to make this more easy to complete.   
• Stock freezer with prepared meals once per month.
• We did an awesome job of making freezer meals and eating out of the freezer this year.  I want to continue this during the year.  I like doing the big monthly meals, but, honestly, it is easier if I just double or triple recipes that I am making for dinner or on the weekends.  I like doubling recipes that I put in the crockpot, because usually I can just put those in freezer bags, freeze them flat and they are good to go.  Super easy to thaw and heat up for easy dinners. 
• Do 12 'preps' for the year. 
• Most of Americans need to store more water, food, and supplies.  I want to get better at this during the year.  We were barely decent at something like this last year, so I would love to get better at this during the year.   
• Health
• Drink more water. 
• Last year, my resolution was to stop drinking sodas.  As much as I would like to stop drinking sodas, I have more belief that I would be able to drink more water than stop drinking a soda.  I keep reading different ideas about how much water a person should really consume.  I am going to shoot for at least the recommended 64 ounces, but I would like to shoot for half of my body weight in ounces of water. 
• Do some form of exercise 5 days per week. 
• I would like to go on walks after work at least 5 days per week, and I think that I am also going to try to walk at least 30 minutes per day at work on lunch.  I am going to try to bring my lunch most days to work which allows more free time on my lunch hour that would normally have been spent driving to get food, eating there, and driving back.  This should totally feasible. 
• Take all medications and vitamins regularly.
• I only take 2 prescription medications - both for my thyroid.. well, my lack of thyroid actually.  I don't know why it is so hard for me to remember to take these medications.  It's got to be a mental block for some reason.  I was never a big fan of taking medicine when I was growing up, so when I had my thyroid out and was told I was going to have to take a medication every day, I knew this was not going to turn out well.  I know for a fact that I feel SO much better when I take it regularly, so I just need to buckle down.  I was told at my last doctor's appointment that I had a relatively severe Vitamin D deficiency, so I have recently started taking my pre-natal vitamins again (no, not pregnant... I just have like 8 full containers laying around my house), Vitamin D pills and Iron pills.  It's easy for me to remember this regimen when I am at work, but when I am home it's more difficult for some reason.  I am determined to get better about this.   

What are your resolutions for this year? 

Resolution Update: Part II

So it's been more than a month since I started blogging everyday and since I made these resolutions; perhaps I should check in and report on how it's going. 

Personal
1. Be more "girl"y, i.e. wear makeup, do my hair, etc. - I am still fighting the sickness of 2013.  I have worn makeup more than this year already than I have since my daughter was born, but I could still do better.  This is a daily struggle since putting on makeup sometimes is a fight in my head because ultimately you just wash it off at the end of the day. 
2. Blog everyday. - I am now in a pattern with this.  It's no longer a struggle of *if* I should write, but more *what* I should write which is a good switch. 
3. Go on more dates with my husband. - I have some things planned, but no updates as of yet.

Home
1. Do 52 "Pinterest" projects for the year. -No new Pinterest projects since the last update.  I have done 3 out of 52.  This needs work.   
2. Stock freezer with prepared meals once per month. - We cooked a chicken spaghetti that was added to the fridge and my husband charred some chiles that we use all throughout the year.  I really need to work on this.   
3. Create a monthly budget and stick to it. -  Judge all you want, but we are one of those families that would rather have less money throughout the year to get a bigger tax return in February.  I get my work bonus at the same time and it seems like we accomplish more this way than little bits throughout the year.  I am hoping that this will push us back into a good money zone.  We aren't struggling right now or anything but we are not doing awesome. 
4. Save more money every month. - See above. I moved money into our savings this month. Was it as much as I would have liked? no.
5. Do 52 acts of preparedness. - I have not purchased anything from the list or done anything on this list.  This is horrible and I resolve to work on this. 

Health
1. Stop drinking sodas.  Since December 31, 2012, I have had the equivalent of less than one soda.  I have had sips here or there with awful headaches but nothing except diet and probably less than half of a can.   
2. Do some form of exercise 5 days per week. - Let's not speak about the fact that I have failed completely on this one. I will get better. 

Overall this is NOT a good update.  Except for the blogging and the soda it has been awful.  It has to get better. 

-Sara

I'm a TV addict, I think

When I was growing up at my parent's house, I never really cared that much about TV.  We never had cable.  I 'missed' it growing up because all my friends had cable.  It seemed, at the time, like everyone else in the world had cable.  And we didn't.  Cue the sad teenage violins.  Even though we didn't have cable, television was always on but mainly just as background noise.  I rarely remember watching any specific shows or series programs or anything like that.  If you ask my parents today, they are strictly devoted to several shows about celebrities dancing or singing or ice skating or something else ridiculous. 

Throughout my younger 20's and up until just a few months ago I have done that same thing, except with cable.  Once I got my first apartment, I got cable.  Rebellion from your parents: party of one!  Rarely though did I get involved in any one TV show especially a current show because I can't ever remember what channel or what time it's on.  I would get involved in the Food Network any time of day or night and could always get sucked into those marathons of Law and Order: SVU.  Who doesn't love 19 straight hours of Benson and Stabler?   

Corry and I have always had cable since we moved in to our first apartment together.  However, since having kids, I have now become more aware of the shows that my children watch on television.  Before we go any further, I will say that my children watch television and they have learned an exponential amount of awesome things from educational television.  I am not a follower of the 'no TV before age 2 or your baby's brain will rot and fall out' mindset, nor do I believe that exposure to violent or sexual behavior on television shapes the way that we grow up.  I love SVU, but that doesn't mean that I am going to go out and assault someone.  I digress..

Before we moved into this newer house, in an effort to save money, we talked about getting rid of cable.  We didn't have that much spectacular stuff with our current cable package and it was well over $100 a month including taxes and fees.  Ridiculous.  And what's even worse is that we watched like 5 channels on a regular basis.  Even more ridiculous. 

My husband couldn't have been happier when he saw a NeoTV box on the Black Friday deals in our area.  I, of course, didn't know anything about it but was quickly schooled that it could stream Netflix and Hulu.  Sold.  I originally missed live television, but now I can't even tell you that I notice it.  Plus, I get to become involved in shows that I never watched before, like Survivor.  I have become a Survivor crazy person.  How did I never watch any of the first like 24 seasons of this show? 

I would like for one of the positives of this year with my new exercise resolution to be that I get more exercise, yes but possibly less television.  I want to not be one of those parents that entertains my children with television.  I want them to remember that we went to the park, and out to the zoo, and that we played games, and not that they knew which channel Cailou was on everyday.  I'm working on it... as soon as Survivor is over! 

2013 Resolutions

Ok so one of my 2012 resolutions was to write on this very blog more ... and it failed miserably.  This year I am going to take a new approach.  In order to accomplish the resolution this year I am going to write every day around the same time.  That way it makes it like a job ...  a more enjoyable version of a job, I suppose.  Here's hoping that I can do it.  I am also taking on more than one blog.  There are some topics that I would like to discuss or get assistance with that I understand that the general public will not be interested in so I will not bring them here.  Once I establish those other blogs I will link them here..

So, my first post will be my 2013 resolutions.  They are numerous but should be easy to accomplish.  Because I am a list maker, I have organized them into categories.  Later in the week, I will detail how I feel that I will accomplish them. 

Personal
1. Be more "girl"y, i.e. wear makeup, do my hair, etc.
2. Blog everyday.
3. Go on more dates with my husband.

Home
1. Do 52 "Pinterest" projects for the year.
2. Stock freezer with prepared meals once per month.
3. Create a monthly budget and stick to it.
4. Save more money every month.
5. Do 52 acts of preparedness. 

Health
1. Stop drinking sodas.
2. Do some form of exercise 5 days per week.

Once every week or so I will update on my progress.  Eventually I hope to have more of a schedule to my blog about what kind of post gets posted on a certain day of the week. 

Happy New Year!! 

Resolution #4 Become a better money saver

Yes, I skipped #3.  Yes, I have already messed up that small string of daily posts that I had going.  Yes, I have other stuff going on and luckily can restart.  Thank the Lord there are more than 30 days in this year... not all is lost.  I decided that #3 didn't necessitate it's own blog post since it's fairly straight forward. 

On to #4 - become a better money saver.  First, let me say that I dislike talking about money.  I talk about money when necessary with my husband or my parents but rarely with anyone else.  My husband and I are blessed with jobs that afford us a comfortable lifestyle for a nominal amount of stress yet saving money has been a struggle for me for 29 years and for the both of us the 5ish years that we have been together.  I will say that we have awesome intentions.  I am the master of making plans.  My personality dictates that I need lists and plans, etc but have an issue always following through with this one issue. 

Because my son is 6 weeks old and thinks that it is cool to party all night I have been watching a lot of late night... strike that... over night television.  A lot of this includes different exercise programs promising me a Brazillian's butt, abs from that blonde chick from the View, and several different kitchen appliances that basically promise to do the cooking for me (which would be awesome if it was really true!)... however a lot of it also includes Suze Orman.  The other night Oprah decided that someone else besides herself could have a show on her network and had Suze Orman teaching something that looked like a money conference.  During one of the six(!) episodes of this conference she stated that she recommends at least eight months worth of living expenses in savings as an emergency fund.  Yikes.  Just doing some rough math in my head, we are SUPER behind that goal.  I can make a thousand excuses for why we don't have that much in savings and, of course, I could make ten plans to have that much by the end of the year but I would really like to actually accomplish this goal and not just say it aloud. 

I think that I am going to do a compounding plan this year where during one month I help save money doing one item, then during the next month I do that saving money task and a new one.  Should make it easier and less painful then trying to implement like ninety new tasks all at once.  My first month's goal will be to start using more coupons.  Not like the crazy coupon people that you see on TLC now... I don't need a stockpile of sodas and boxed cereals.  I would just like to be more diligent about using coupons for items that we are actually going to buy.  Luckily the stores that we shop at that have loyalty cards allow you to load coupons onto those cards and also use manufacturer coupons. 

I am going to take some time during this week to try to research some of the crazy couponing and see if there is something that I can utilize for our everyday usage.  Let me know if you use coupons or have any tips. 

Resolution #2: Utilize the parts of Once a Month Cooking that work for our family

Let's just get it out of the way now and say that I have an unhealthy obsession with Pinterest.  If you have ever been on it, you understand - here is my page http://pinterest.com/saraprice/.    Feel free to follow.  I get on tangents where I pin weird stuff but mostly foods that I want to try, stuff for my children or arts and crafts ideas.  Side note: After my few posts about my resolutions I plan to start a daily post of "this is neat" type entries.  Mostly from things that I find online or see on Pinterest and want to share with more than my followers.  If you haven't been on Pinerest, you could never understand and should join.  I will send you an invite, if interested.  Now that we got that settled let me also say that this entire idea was found on Pinterest on this woman's blog:  http://pregnant.livejournal.com/17071127.html

Let me go back:  I have been bugging my husband since we got pregnant with Silas that I would like to do some sort of OAMC (Once a Month Cooking) to start before we had the baby so I wouldn't have to worry about cooking when I was on maternity leave.  Based on how Isabella was as a newborn and what I have found to be the case with newborns they are not fun and tend to scream/cry A LOT so I was fairly confident that if I had another "high needs" child that I would be uninterested in my husband coming home from work and having one of those "what do you want for dinner?" conversations.  He refused every time to even entertain the idea.  There was also a reason... and looking back there was always a good reason.  Reason #432 why I love my husband is he sees how we live and is able to be honest about how things will work in the future based off of our past experiences.  I have a tendency to have a more rose colored glasses-type review of our past when it comes to making decisions about our future.  We, as a couple, have a tendency to buy food at the grocery store with the intentions of cooking and eating at home and, in the past, have still eaten out instead of eating that food at home.  He knew that if we spent $200-$300 on food to prep, possibly cook, and freeze that it would end up getting freezer burned or not being eaten until after it's freezer shelf life expired.  And he was right... we would have. 

Then he found that blog post on Pinterest.  Of course, he was on Pinterest on accident looking around for car parts or naked ladies *wink* and not for recipes or anything that the website should be used for.  He was instantly enamored with this idea and brought it up to me one night.  I will say that our grocery trip cost more and made more portions on some dishes than originally stated but all in all worked out the same.  We have made and frozen all dishes except the enchiladas, but have only actually tasted two of them so far so I am not fully comfortable sharing them yet until I taste what was made.  Reviews of her recipes and our version of the recipes coming soon. 

I tell you all of that to tell you that one of my resolutions this year will be to utilize the parts of OAMC that work for our family.  We like having fully cooked, or almost fully cooked meals in the freezer that just have to be warmed up.  We like having stew, soup, chili, sauce type meals that you can freeze in freezer bags flat to save space.  I like to cook my meals over the course of a few days instead of one big cooking spree.  This prolongs the agony, so to speak, but leaves me overall in a better mood and more apt to be a more pleasant person once the meals are cooked.  One thing that I will change next time is to do all of the "prep" work the day before, i.e. chopping veggies, browning and portioning out meats, etc as that makes the actual cooking go a lot faster. 

Any other tips and tricks from once a month cookers?

Non-resolutions

So I am sure that everyone has experienced this... December 15-ish, if not before, you start to get nervous thinking about your "resolutions" for the following year.  Almost everyone will include at least one about "Exercise more" or "Lose x amount of weight".  Most people do really well in January, possibly on into February.  Gym memberships *and* attendance at said gym are up, I can imagine, like 100 fold in the beginning of the year.  Then slowly you start to get busy.  You start to make excuses like you are too tired after work.  You are too tired before work.  You forgot your gym clothes.  You took the stairs twice today and that should count as exercise.  The next time you think about it a month has gone by, then two months, and then all of a sudden you can't even remember when you saw the inside of the gym yet.  You are not alone.  You are certainly not the only one who fails at resolutions and goals that they make at the beginning of the year. 

Why is it that we fail at goals, wishes and wants for ourselves that we are SO passionate about at one time during the year?  Why is it that at the beginning of the year we have so much faith in ourselves and our abilities that we are willing to stake our future year's worth of happiness on the smallest statements?  It seems as if we are doomed to fail if we claim those statements as goals that we are interested in achieving.  It's like we, as humans, need our subconscious to trick us into achieving these goals by not putting them out there in the open.  That, perhaps, we need something like subliminal advertising to help us out with these resolutions as most people during the year will not keep even one of their resolutions.  I know that, in the past, most of the time by May I would have forgotten what any of my resolutions were from the beginning of the year. 

This year I decided that I wasn't going to participate in this "tradition" of making a decision at the beginning of the year that I was going to fail at throughout the year.  Instead, I am reviewing my life now, in February, for little things that I would like to either change or start doing that are manageable, because let's be reasonable... I have a husband... I have 4 children, 2 of which live with me full time and are under 2... I have a full time job that I love enough to want to spend more than 40 hours at... I don't have time for "change the world" type resolutions. 

However, I *do* have time for the following resolutions:

1. Have more patience today than I did yesterday
2. Utilize the parts of Once a Month Cooking that work for our family
3. Write a blog post everyday for at least 30 days
4. Become a better money saver

I am going to attempt to start #3 today.  I will utilize one blog post each to explain the four and their importance and significance to me in my life today.