In lieu of making New Year’s resolutions, I am making goals for 2009. Why? For some reason, I think I will be more apt to work on a goal. You may be thinking, “What is the difference?” To me, New Year’s resolutions seem to be more trite and often forgotten by the second week of January. A goal seems more habit-forming and permanent.
1) Eat out less often. I like to eat out. I like someone else to cook our meal, serve it to us, and clean up after us. The kids get to order what they want instead of having to eat whatever it is I feel like making. However, the amount of money we spend on eating out is atrocious. Eating at home can also be healthier than eating out, although when you have children who despise french fries and always order fruits or veggies as their sides, this isn’t as much a concern for me. Anyway, this goal leads to the next one…
2) Be more frugal and mindful of our spending. Jared and I have never gone through the “poor, starving student” stage together. We have been blessed to have great employment opportunities throughout our marriage. This has utterly spoiled us. We want something, we go buy it. This has rubbed off on our children, much to our chagrin. We are trying to teach them the concept of saving up for something that they really want. Now it is time for me to teach myself this concept. I need to take stock of all that I have been blessed with and learn to appreciate and value it. This segues into the next goal…
3) Be content with my blessings. Instead of wishing I had a 12,000 square foot house with an indoor/outdoor pool and full-size basketball court in the sub-basement on a 10 acre lot but still in a city with a SuperTarget within 5 minutes of my 8 car garage, I should think about how blessed and lucky I am to have the home that I do have. I should give thanks for the warmth we enjoy inside our home when it is 16 degrees outside and the food overflowing our pantry when there are too many people wondering where their next meal is going to come from. Instead of raging about the unfairness of being 30 and uterus-less, I should realize how absolutely blessed I am to have the 6 brilliant and beautiful kids that I have when there are women struggling to bear one child.
4) Learn to let things “roll off my back.” I have always been an (overly) emotional person. I let things and people bug me and bog me down. Jared, however, has mastered the art of letting things roll of his back. He doesn’t let slights and situations bog him down and uspet him like I do. Consequently, he sleeps much better than I do at night. Which leads to the next goal…
5) Learn to become a morning person. I am NOT a morning person. At all. Never have been. I detest mornings. I am a night owl, just like my parents. However, with 4 children whom attend school (early) in the morning, I would really like to learn how to not dread the sound of the alarm clock, to not hit snooze so many times that a indentation has formed in my snooze button, and to not walk around bleary-eyed and zombie-esque all morning long. That’s where the getting a good night’s rest without rehashing life’s injustices comes into play. Perhaps instead of counting sheep, I will count blessings.
6) Become a better scriptorian. Ask me about any Jane Austen, Jodi Picoult, Chris Bohjalian, Henry James, etc., novel and I will give you a full synopsis and opinion about it. But my 7 year old delves more deeply into the scriptures than I do (true, the kid is an anomaly and is actually frightening in the depth of his knowledge and wisdom and photographic memory). However, there is no excuse for someone who is such a voracious and enthusiastic reader to not be a better scriptorian.
So here is to 2009! Let it be a transformative year!
I’d love to hear your goals/resolutions…
