Mom's New Year's Resolutions - add yours!

1.   Work out.   I'm enjoying the T-25 workouts and need to keep it up.

2.  Teach the children that a closed door means that they shouldn't come in.

3.  Write more letters.  It's so much fun to get non-bill-type mail.

4.  Actually clean the clothes that don't fit out of the clowns' closets and pack them away instead of just moving them into the next child (where they then sit because they're too big).

5.   Instill a love of washing dishes in the oldest clowns.

6.  Read a book.  A real book.   That has nothing to do with homeschooling and/or parenting.  But a book that fosters my own imagination.

7.  Drink coffee while it's hot.  Unless it's a special ice coffee, and then drink it before it gets watered down.

8.  Make friends.   As in, work on and consciously reach out to the local friends that we've made.   I've relied on social media for way too long for human interaction, and I'm coming to realize just how superficial those relationships really are.  We all look so active and interconnected.....but are we really?    I resolve to make time to gather with people in real life, make phone calls (eek, I hate phone calls) and extend, and accept,  invitations to socialize.

9.  Find a hobby.  Or maybe just write more, since that's the hobby that I truly enjoy.   I've tried knitting.  I've tried sewing.  I've tried soap making.  I've tried cooking.  I've tried baking.  And while I enjoy all of these things, none of them has "stuck" as a hobby that I come back to, time and time again, except writing.    

10.  Hang up pictures.  Our walls are too bare.

11.   Tithe more.    Every year, we challenge ourselves to find another couple % of our income to increase our tithing amount.    We currently sponsor a child in Rwanda, and give to various organizations (our parish, Sisters of Life, and the local Catholic radio).   This past year, we added local-level needs as they came up, but it's time to add in more regular donations.   Who do you donate to, and why?

12.  Eat breakfast before 10 am.   Unless I'm sleeping until 9:45, that is.   But try to eat within 30 minutes of waking instead of putting it off to take care of everyone else's breakfast and chores and find myself shoveling carbs in my mouth two and a half hours later because I'm starving by that point.    Chores can wait.  Feed the kids, then feed myself.  No chores.

How about you?  My plan is to attack one of these each month, and focus mainly on adding that resolution in during that month.  So instead of doing it all at once.......build them, one on top of each other.   Share yours in the comments below!