Wishing everyone a...

I am looking forward to starting a new year! We've decided on one more week of vacation (gotta love homeschooling flexibility) to give our library time to re-open and all our holds to come in. Plus, we have a lot going on with friends this week!

Yes, I have resolutions for the New Year, although I prefer to think of them as goals.

1. Keep up with the diet and exercise I've been doing. Today, I haven't been too careful, but it is a once-a-year holiday! Back to South Beach tomorrow. I did do my exercise though - I'm using the Couch Potato to 5K program, and just re-started this week. I'm roughly 17 pounds down since Thanksgiving, which is the absolute best I have done in years! I find that the whole family is eating more healthfully with me watching everything so closely.

2. Keep the housework up. I tend to live in what the FlyLady calls C.H.A.O.S. - "Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome", so before Christmas, I cleaned like a maniac! My goal now is twofold: keep it clean, and then tackle another part of deep cleaning once a week.

3. Focus on saving money and paying down debts, which means actually sticking to the budget. We're trying to follow Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace plan in 2012.

4. Getting, and keeping, homeschooling more organized. Since we're trying a more structured format once again, and I work, we have outside commitments, etc., organization is key. I'd like to have a weekly plan, know where all the supplies are, know where all the library books are, and things of that nature. This goal actually ties in nicely to the housekeeping goal.

5. Focusing more on Cricket's reading. We're having her assessed for some issues sometime in January/February. Maybe this will help with her reading, maybe not. Either way, I want to dedicate myself more fully to getting her really reading.

I figure these five goals will lead to a lot of other good things. For example, just 17 pounds lighter, and I have a ton more energy, enough that I played baseball with M and the kids for an hour and a half this week. Having more energy means I can do more. Healthier me also seems to equal healthier family! Having the house cleaner means I can organize it better, which in turn means we will know where that exact art supply is, and I will have time (and the place) to make homemade play dough, or these cool trilobite cookies! Financial peace will allow us to build more of a savings account, and getting more and more out of debt all the time is a great feeling. We can also teach our kids financial responsibility. With homeschooling more organized, we'll be more likely to follow through with it, and we may even get to all the fun projects I am always planning! And if Cricket could really read, I think she'd enjoy it a lot more, plus it would just make so many things so much easier.

I think my goals are pretty realistic. I don't plan to lose a million pounds, do a triathlon, re-make my entire home, or get Cricket up to a college reading level in 2012. Nor so I plan to be completely debt-free, or have a gigantic savings account. Of course, all that is a bit exaggerated, but then I have tended to exaggerate my goals in the past!

Do you make New Year's Resolutions?