Thursday, January 2, 2014

New Years Resolutions

I will be quite honest and say that I'm not one who does New Years Resolutions.  In fact, I can remember the last time I actually wrote a list of them.  It was New years 1998.  My friend, Kim, and I were babysitting for a friend of my dad's.  He was having a get together at his house and he needed someone to watch his daughter, or was it son?  I can't even remember.  What I do remember is that Kim and I watched all the difference New Years countdowns in the bedroom where we were staying and celebrated every single one.  We were 12 and thought we were soo cool.  I'm sure we were.  During one of our many New Years celebrations we got out some paper and pens and began to write down our many resolutions.  We had a ton, and they were all pretty ridiculous, I am sure.

Now that it is 16 years later, I thought I could do my first list of resolutions.  So here we go...

1. Work on my marriage.  Ever since I became a mother, my main focus has been on my kids.  Which I would still like them to be up there in my main focus.  But I need to put my marriage up there ahead of everything else.  Without my husband, my children wouldn't exist.  Without my husband, I wouldn't have everything I ever wanted.  One day when my kids are old and grown, it's going to be my husband who is the one beside me.  So I guess this one should say, become a better wife.  Let's face it, we could all be better wives.  I want to put him and his needs first.  I want to show him that he is the best thing in my life.  I have this book The Love Dare, which is a 40 day challenge to strengthen your marriage.  Even if your marriage is "perfect" I would recommend it.  

2 Eliminate Debt.   Having debt really terrifies me.  When I see people buy brand new cars, I never think "Wow, nice car!" I think "Holey crap, what is your car payment and how much in debt are you from that thing?"  I understand that everyone has debt, however I think it's important to first eliminate a lot of it before you get so far into it that its suffocating you.  Last year, I really focused on paying off debt.  I was able to pay off 1/3 of my total debt in 2013.  This year, my goal is to pay off another 1/3... or half of what I have now.  No, I do not own my own home, and the only reason why, is because I don't want to make that big of a purchase until I can pay off everything else, including my current car payment, credit cards, and student loans.  I dream of the day I am debt free!  Then I'll buy myself a nice car and a beautiful home and have loads of it.

3. Send out birthday cards.  This one may seem a little silly, but I am awful at birthday cards.  I don't think I gave a single birthday card last year.  Not even to my mother, the woman who gave me life!  How awful is that.  Yet, when my birthday rolls around, I love to get cards... and I love anniversary cards.. and I love when people send my kids cards (thanks mom!)  But I rarely return the favor.  I know a lot of people out there love cards and knowing that someone is thinking of them.  So, this year,  I will send birthday cards to all the special people in my life so they know I care about them.

4. Save money for my kids. After Ryan was born, I opened up a bank account for him.  Yet, I never opened up one for Jake and he just turned 2!  Having money for my kids is very important to me.  I opened up a life insurance policy back in 2012 to make sure that my kids would always be taken care of if anything ever happened to me.  However, they should be taken care of always no matter what!  Growing up, my mom had a savings account for me, in fact I had two.  One that she saved up for me, and one that I saved up for myself.  I want the same for my kids.  This year I would like to put money into savings accounts for my kids from every paycheck!  Instead of me being responsible for that, I need to contact my school and have them just take the money out of my paycheck and have it deposited into my kids accounts.  So- first I need to open an account for Jake.

5.Floss my teeth regularly.  A few years ago, I started flossing every day.. and that only really irritated my gums.  That didn't last long.  Last year I started flossing on the even days of the year (Jan 2, Jan 4, etc.)  I actually did a pretty good job until we went out of town and I got all messed up with my schedule.  So this year I am going to try again and try to make it throughout the year.  Which means I'll need to floss right after I finish this post!

6. Blog more! I've always said that this blog is important to me.  I want to read back on this one day and remember all the little things.  I did an okay job last year until Summer ended and I started being lazy once the kids fell asleep.  So, every time I want to be lazy I need to remember that it's the little things in life I want to remember most.  In January 2nd and I'm already posting! Ha.


There you have it, now I can look back in 363 days and see how well I did.

1 comment:

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