new year’s resolutions – The UnderToad

New Year’s Resolution Idea #1

Ahh, New Year’s Resolutions.

Sorry. I like them. And while I know many people make the same resolutions year after year, and fail year after year, I’m one of those people who makes just one resolution and usually keeps it. Perhaps I’m setting my sights too low. Perhaps I know exactly what I can accomplish.

Whatever. My resolutions are not typically enormous habit changes. They are usually a one-and-done type of goal. Real examples:

2007: lose the weight I gained with first pregnancy (who knew that one wouldn’t be an issue for me?) and run another marathon. (check)
2010: reduce my grocery budget by 10% (did closer to 30%, overachiever check)
2011: find a dentist and make appointments for me and the girls (check)
2012: get pregnant in time to have another baby before January (check)

Certainly not momentous nor life-altering, but there is a certain level of accomplishment that I still feel whenever I make and keep that one resolution each year.

And then, some years, I skip it altogether. More than once I’ve written about my “word of the year” thing. I mean let’s be honest, New Year’s Resolutions and New-Borns (or pregnancy, for that matter) don’t exactly peacefully co-exist.

So though I’m not necessarily labeling it a resolution, my biggest focus this year is to live in some Beth-Moore-style freedom from the guilt that I might not actually be enjoying every single minute of these oh-so-short baby years, and to embrace my more comfortable perspective that it is okay to admit that things are difficult.

Things are difficult but not impossible. Things are sometimes miserable, but my life, overall, is not miserable. I’m happy with the way my clothes fit, but it is okay to admit that I’m not in love with my post-baby back pain, outty belly button, hair cut, and general lack of the physical and mental strength to actually work out at the gym. It is okay that I’ve given in and hired a housekeeper, and it is also okay that there is no maintenance of the floors and bathrooms in between her every 5th week cleaning. (Dark carpet. Blammo.)

So I’m spending the year accepting that what I once would have labeled “mediocre” is currently my excellent.

And if you see me in the grocery store looking like I have it somewhat together and ask, “Four kids?! How do you do it?” I plan to answer you the same way I answer everyone else: “Well, you know, prayer and alcohol, not necessarily in equal parts.”

And truthfully, that’s okay with me right now too.

Confessions

2015 New Year’s Resolutions?

Let’s be honest. New Year’s Day, for all intents and purposes, is a recovery day from that New Year’s Eve party with the carmel flavored vodka shots. And this year, because it fell on a Thursday, meant that Friday was that weird day that basically nothing got done at work.

For me, when the company left, the refrigerator was sparse, the laundry pile was high, and the bathrooms were starting to itch. Saturday and Sunday were spent catching up on all the chores I ignored over the long holiday, and finally de-Christmasing the house.

That is why I’m declaring, here and now, that my actual New Year starts today.

I love technology. I love using the computer to organize, categorize, and simplify my life. Obviously. I write a blog. I share a Google calendar with my husband so we can synchronize the lives of our six-person family. I have a ridiculously detailed Excel spreadsheet to calculate my weekly grocery budget and keep track of my spending and my savings. I review and catalogue all the books I’ve read using Goodreads. I no longer resent being reminded by Facebook of birthdays. And if I’m being completely honest, I admit that I am both physically and emotionally calmed through an hour of browsing organization ideas on Pinterest.

That said, there are simply some things that I’ll never be able to fully give up on the good old fashioned pen and paper for. I have always been a goal setter, a list-maker, and a journaler. I get excited by an empty steno pad and a brand new pack of fine point sharpies. This is why, every January, I look forward to starting a new weekly planner. Though I no longer need to make note of school-project deadlines, I still cling to the physical sense of accomplishment gained from striking through one more item on my things-to-do list.

Blame it on a whole new manifestation of my selective Type A obsessive compulsion, but for some reason, this year, I convinced myself that the six dollar pre-made planners available at CVS no longer meet my needs. Combine this notion with my love of technology, and you better believe I spent the better part of Christmas weekend searching through a myriad of free printables to create my own planner at home.

And guess what I found?

Nothing.

Not a single template that looked any better than what I could buy at the store. And worse? Nothing to download and simply tweak here and there to fit my specifications. So I did what any insane mother of four would do. I endeavored to create my own template.

The work was stupidly painstaking; it required a hand-drawn model, several printing trial and errors, and more than a couple SHIT!s before I got it right. Even then, once fully printed, I decided I wasn’t completely happy with it so I put my trusty paper-cutter to work and whittled it down to a more pleasing size and shape.

You better believe that in my desire for something so personal, I was completely happy to spend the better part of six nap times hunched over a computer until I got it right. But then I decided it would be stupid to have spent all that time making something that I alone would benefit from. And lucky for you, I am turning over a new leaf for 2015.

Click here to get my FREE DOWNLOAD and step-by-step instructions for creating your own customizable, personalized, completely awesome, fits-in-your-purse, less than five dollar 2015 weekly planner.

I’m not really making resolutions this year. I have some goals. And I’ve categorized my goals into some focuses. And I fully intend to, if nothing else, start each month with a clean slate, no matter what I did or did not accomplish the month before. So that’s what my 2015 planner looks like. What does yours look like?

Confessions

Word For The Year

I’m continuing with the Happiness Project idea of choosing a Word For The Year.

Two years ago my word was JOY. In the face of becoming a full time stay-at-home-mom with a gross social deficiency in making friends with other women, moving to a new town, supporting John in opening his own law practice, buying a house while still owning two-thirds of an unsold condo, and hitting year two of birth control induced hormonal imbalance, I needed to focus on looking on the bright side. Hah.

Continue reading “Word For The Year” →

Confessions

New Year’s Resolution Time

You know I’m a sucker for a brand new calendar. I get excited about re-starts. A new journal. Empty gradebook. Clean sheets. Serenity now.

So obviously I’m not against New Year’s Resolutions. I tend to make them and I tend to keep them. In my adult life, the secret to my success has been to focus on but one resolution for the year, and to make it realistic.

I can only remember a few specifics.

Continue reading “New Year’s Resolution Time” →