New Year's Resolutions

I like New Year's Resolutions. I think it's fun to set goals, even if I don't come close to achieving them. It's probably because I like to make lists.
Apparently I never posted my New Year's Resolutions last year, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I tell you that I accomplished every resolution for 2009. Just Kidding! Here is what I remember from last year's resolutions (for my long time readers, parts may be familiar) -

1) Read a book a month. Despite past success, I didn't do so well this year.
2) Exercise more/lose weight. I actually did very well on the exercising part. I finished my 2nd triathlon in June (just a couple weeks before getting pregnant!) and ran in five 5K races (2 while pregnant!). I like doing races because it give me a reason to keep going to the gym, otherwise I'd probably just quit. Losing weight - no comment (even without being pregnant, there would be no comment).
3) Learn Spanish. My parents let me borrow their Rosetta Stone software and I tried it out at the beginning of the year, but didn't really get hooked into it. Coulson has been showing an interest in learning more Spanish lately, so we might try to go through some Rosetta Stone together sometime.
4) Get stuff done around the house (like unpacking and cleaning stuff, decorating projects). I actually did okay in this area. This time last year, there were still some boxes that we had never unpacked from our move and areas that were never organized and our wall were completely empty. We still have areas that are very disorganized, but they are more organized than they were last year. And we have some pictures on the wall, a few curtains hung, so we're making progress. And I've been getting better about actually cleaning my house, although sometimes I have to host a party just to force myself to do a real good cleaning every now and then. Two years ago for this category, my resolution was for Casey to get a better job so I could pay someone to clean my house. Well, we could probably fit it in out budget now and I have every intention of making some calls to get some estimates, but I still haven't done it yet - it just seems weird to have someone else clean my house, especially since as a stay-at-home-mom, it's kinda one of my main job duties. But with a third kid and dreams of graduate school in my near future, I think I might out-source some of my duties...
5) Apply to graduate school. My success on this resolution is a bit contradictory. I still haven't applied for graduate school (The deadline is March 31) but I did manage to take my first graduate course, which is even better. (I got an A!) If I hadn't taken the course, I probably would have applied already, but I was pretty busy with the class from the end of Aug. through December.

And now my resolutions for 2010!
1) Be a graduate student. I'm on my way - this morning I registered to take the GRE in February. I've already filled out the application, I just need to write a personal essay, get my transcripts and get my letters of recommendation. I don't know if I'll take a summer course, or wait until fall to begin. Ordinarily given my family duties in the summer, I would wait until fall, but they are offering a course on conflict in health care, which Casey was very interested in me taking.
2) Lose my baby weight.
3) Run a 5K race in less than 30 minutes.
4) Develop better sleep habits. I know, I know, I'm laughing too, I can even type this one with a straight face. The baby bump is already keeping me up at night and when the baby bump becomes the boob leech, I'm sure I'll get even less sleep. And I'm a softie on sleep training, so I'm sure it will be a while before we're sleeping through the night. So I phrased my resolution carefully and I'm going to try to be better about going to bed earlier when I have the chance - instead of staying up and watching Casey play video games while I play on the computer. (hmmm, it's 11:2opm, Casey is playing video games and I'm blogging. Guess I'll have to try again tomorrow...)
5) Allow God to use me to do His wondrous work. Sorry to phrase that one in such churchy/righteous language - I have some ideas about what He wants me to do (I've been praying about starting a Women of Vision group in Winston-Salem, I'm sure I'll blog more about that later), but I don't want to get too focused on one thing because sometimes He takes you in a different direction and I want to stay open to wherever this current path is going.

I love New Year's Resolutions!

I know a lot of people hate to make New Year's Resolutions because they are just the same old thing repeated every year or doomed to fail in the first few days, so why bother.  But I like to make resolutions.  Mainly because I like to make lists.  Yeah, I'm one of those list-people.  But not in an obsessive way, mostly as a procrastination technique.  If I have a lot of stuff to do, I like to sit down and "organize my thoughts" but really it's just an excuse not to actually start doing all that stuff.  If you've ever given me anything but never received a thank-you note, I can guarantee that your name is on a list somewhere.  Thank you for your kindness, I appreciate your gift.  (Well, now I can cross your name off my list. Just kidding!)

Probably most of you don't really care about my resolutions, so this is mostly a personal exercise of self-reflection on my own life.  Plus making it all public might make me more accountable to my goals.  Before I start my list for 2008, I'd like to review my list for 2007 and see how I did.

1. Read one book a month.  If I average this out over the whole year, I actually accomplished this goal!  I didn't realize this when I started to write this blog, but when I sat down and started counting (and referred to my Shelfari bookshelf) I was pleasantly surprised my count added up to 14.  Wow, I had no idea that I actually accomplished a New Year's Resolution.  That puts me in a good mood.

2. Exercise more/ lose weight.  This is pretty much a permanent resident on my resolution list.  I did really good for the first 9 months of the year.  Losing weight was somewhat easy since I had a lot of Charlie weight to lose.  And I worked out at Curves regularly until we moved in June and for a while at our new house I had a pretty good exercise routine with Jane Fonda going.  I had lost all my Charlie weight and was starting to lose those last 10 stubborn Coulson pounds.  But for some reason in October, I let it all go.  I must have gotten bored with Jane or something, because I stopped exercising and went and gained 10 more pounds!  Ugh!

3. Learn Spanish.  Another permanent entry.  I must have spent all my time reading because I didn't do anything towards this goal.

4. Clean my house more. Ha, ha, ha, ha!  That's funny.

 

And now for my 2008 goals (okay, it's kind of boring):

1.  Read one book a month.  Why mess with a good thing?  I welcome any suggestions for good books to read.

2.  Exercise more/ lose weight.

3.  Learn Spanish.

4.  Make Casey get a better job so I can pay someone to clean my house.

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