New Year, New Resolve

I have been a terrible blogger.

I am inconsistent and let lapses happen that go on for months at a time.

I feel bad about it because I know for a while I had friends who actually read this and I have left them hanging too often.

So it is a new year. A time to start things off as we wish for them to continue. Many have made resolutions. I don't. Resolutions always seem doomed to failure at the first slip up.

I do, however, have goals. There is not an area of my life that I do not wish to work on this year. In light of that, it seemed appropriate to revive the old blog, to dust it off and put it to use journaling and chronicling my goals and progress toward achieving them.

Personal:
Health -
~Eat better - include at least one fruit and two veggies in every day
~Exercise - I have all kinds of exercise aids, a treadmill, a Wii Fit and the new one Wii Fit Plus, videos, DVDs, and the great outdoors. Now I need to put them to work. I will be taking this goal a month at a time. I know I have to start small and work up. I will post my true goals for this in another post or this one will get too long.
~Lose weight - hopefully the above two will translate to this last one.
Personality -
~Be more positive - This goal is meant to change my thinking and attitude. I know I will never be a true polyanna but I want to be more able to find the good and positive in my life because I know there is a lot there. This goal may be tweaked as we go but I am going to start out with find and write down one or two good things each day.
~Yell less - I am tired of being the one whose voice is heard above the rest all the time. I want to work toward a calmer me.
~Be a better parent - This goes with both of the ones above. I need a more positive approach to being a parent and a better way of dealing with the frustrations that come along with being the parent of a teen, a tween and a little guy all at once. To that end I am going to start by rereading Love and Logic and How to Talk so Your Kids Will Listen and Listen so Your Kids Will Talk.
~Be a better wife - Matt needs more positive attention from me and that is all I am willing to say about that. ;-o
Make more me time - scrapbook more, explore more beading, blog and journal.

Household:
Be tidier
Declutter and rid my house/life of unneccessary junk -
Create and maintain a cleaning schedule that will provide our family with a healthy, cozy home to live in.
Plan more - meals, shopping lists, schedules, etc.

Financial:
Budget, budget, budget!
Make reducing debt a major focus of our spending plans
Keep current on all bills

Having written all that down, it seems like a lot but so much of it goes hand in hand that I can work on many items at once. The next post will have my specific January goals because obviously this is a list of year long goals.