13 in 2013

I’m not good with resolutions, but my 12 in 2012 post last year really helped me to define my goals for the year and stay on track, so I’m going to do it again this year.  I wasn’t 100% successful, but I was proud to write my post last week where a good bit of my list was completed.  And despite adding another one to the list, I’m hoping to increase my completion percentage this year.  So here they are, my 13 in 2013:

1) Clean for 10 minutes each day.  Last year I made the resolution to be a little cleaner, but this year, I’m getting specific.  Recently, I read an interview with Matt Paxton from the show Hoarders where he recommended that everyone make a 10 minute sweep of their house at the end of each day.  When I read it, I thought “that’s easy enough, I should do that”.  So I’m going to.  Here’s the thing, at the very end of the day, I’m too tired to do much of anything, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t make a 10 minute sweep of my house when my girls are sitting down eating dinner or just after I put them to bed.  I’m adjusting the advice a little, but as long as it’s towards the end of the day [read: when the kids can’t destroy my progress] it should be okay.

2) Bring my lunch to work 2-3 times per week.  In 2012, I did much better when it came to not eating/ordering out when I was at home, but I noticed that I was eating take out much more when I was at work…like 5 times per week.  It’s a huge drain on our budget and the food I’m eating for lunch typically isn’t very good for me.  Hell, most of the time I don’t even like what I’m eating, but I eat it because I must have lunch.  Hopefully, bringing my lunch will provide tastier, healthier (and cheaper!) options.

3) Carve out some “me” time.  I plan to write more on this topic later this week, because it’s a post in and of itself, but for now I’ll just say that I need to work some time for myself into the schedule, because that hasn’t been happening lately and I don’t think it’s healthy.

4) Get Hazeline sleeping on her own.  Hazeline doesn’t like to sleep by herself, and for nearly 2 years, I’ve accommodated that.  She falls asleep in our room and I swoop in as quickly as I can and pick her up in the morning.  I’ve always kind of liked that we spend a little time with just her (after Greenleigh goes to bed) each night, because let’s face it, that’s the only time it is just Hazeline.  But now she’s almost 2 years old, and what started out as cute is now becoming a problem.  She’s dependent on us to sleep.  While I don’t want her in hysterics in the morning, I do want her to at least be falling asleep on her own.  In her own room…or in Greenleigh’s room…I’m still toying with the idea of having them share a room.

5) Lay out outfits for myself and the girls the night before (on “school days”).  My morning routine is a mess and needs to be streamlined.  I flat-out waste too much time in the morning, but I’m often too tired the night before to plan things out.  I think I’m going to put 5 outfits together over the weekend when I’m folding laundry, so they’re all ready to go for the week.  This will save me at least 10 minutes in the morning, and that’s 10 minutes that I need.  You know, to attempt to be at work “on time” or whatever that is…

6) Exercise as a family.  The new community that we live in has miles of walking paths, but we currently don’t use them.  We’ve  considered getting bikes, but that hasn’t happened yet either.  The time to instill healthy values is now, so I better start doing it.  I can’t promise the frequency, but we will exercise as a family in 2013.

7) Attend at least 2 blog conferences this year.  My conference experiences last year really helped me as a blogger and I’m looking forward to going to more.  I’m currently signed up for BlissDom this March in Dallas, but the second one is up in the air.  Current candidates are Mom2.0 Summit, SheCon (if they do it again this year), or SheStreams.  Or maybe BlogHer again?

8 ) Take a family vacation to someplace other than Disney World.  As much work as a family vacations are, I would love to pack up the kids and take them to some place new for a few days.  Some place we can all explore together.  And although the girls love it, Disney World doesn’t count since we go there a lot already.  Maybe a trip up north like Boston or NYC in the fall?  Or go see the Riverwalk in San Antonio in the spring?  Or stay in Florida and head over to the beach on the West Coast of Florida?  It doesn’t really matter as long as it’s just the 4 of us in a new place.

9) Try some new recipes.  Our dinner menu is in need of some perking up.  Who am I kidding?  Our meal plan needs a total overhaul.  I feel like I make the same 5 recipes over and over again, and one of the “recipes” is mac n’ cheese from the box.  In an effort to find a new meal plan and fresh recipes, I’m partnering with emeals.com to get this one accomplished!

10) Reduce the use of the word “no” when it comes to my kids.  Late last year I reviewed Talking to Toddlers, a parenting audio book.  In that review I said that it changed how I parent my kids – I wasn’t kidding.  And one of the biggest lessons that I learned was that I say no all the time.  And many times for no good reason, other than it isn’t convenient for me to say yes to whatever my kids want to do.  I don’t want to clean up the mess that will surely result from their actions, or I would rather they sit quietly instead of running around our house being noisy.  But the truth is they can clean up their own messes (or at least Greenleigh can) and running around being noisy is what kids do.  While I don’t intend to let them swing from our chandelier, I’m going to try to think before I automatically blurt out the word “no” in response to one of their requests.

11) Keep my car clean.  My husband will be happy to see this one on the list.  My old car was always a mess.  Actually, it still is a mess and waiting to get cleaned out so I can sell it (gotta get to that soon).  Since I got my new car in November, I’ve been trying my very hardest to keep it clean because I know how quickly things can go downhill.  To make this goal achievable, I’ve made the girls responsible for all their own trash, we clean out my car at the end of every roadtrip, and I try not to leave things in my car overnight.  I’m still scared I’m going to fall back into my old ways though.

12) Perform random acts of kindness all throughout the year.  Nothing terribly big, but paying for the person behind me at Starbucks drive-thru or leaving a coupon on the shelf next to the corresponding product can brighten someone’s day.  Every now and again, I do things like this, but it’s normally around the holidays.  I want this to be an all year thing.

13) Make weekly to-do lists at work.  I get a great deal of accomplishment from crossing things off a list, but I so rarely take the time to write the lists out.  I can’t promise to do it everyday, but once a week at the beginning of the week is totally do-able and will no doubt increase my productivity.

What’s on your list of goals this year?  Anything you want/need to accomplish in 2013?