Commitment & 2013 Resolutions

In order to be committed all year long, I need something to be committed to.  I’ve decided on twelve resolutions… some might seem silly, but these are things I want to challenge myself to complete this year.  Each month, I’m going to keep you updated on one of my resolutions.  Twelve months to a better me, right?  Due to their nature, some of these will be month-long resolutions and some of them will be year-round.  I’ll keep you posted on how I’m doing.

January: Love more, judge less.  This will be my topic on here for the month of January. We all judge others, as much as we deny it or try not to.  It’s probably my least favorite thing about myself right now.

February: I’m starting the Insanity workout on Sunday, January 6^th.  If I stick to the Insanity calendar, I will finish the program on Saturday, March 9^th.  I figured that by February, I should be well into the program, so I’ll share with you my struggles and victories during this month.  Heck, if I get the ambition time guts, I might even post some pictures.  We’ll see how much I feel like embarrassing myself by next month.

March: Use my crock pot at least once a week.  I hate coming home and scrambling to figure out what’s for supper.  The crock pot requires some extra planning, but the time it saves is WELL WORTH IT.  During the month of March, I’ll share my weekly recipes along with any time-saving dinner tips or tricks I stumble upon.

April: It’s tax month!  What better time than April to talk about getting out of debt?  This is another resolution that will span more than just one month, but I thought it might be a good time to share our progress and our struggles with debt.

May: Complete my first 5k.  In the month of May, I will be completing a 5k with one of my best friends!  I couldn’t possibly be less of a runner, so this is a big one for me.  

June: Make my house a home.  We’ve lived in our house for two years now and it still doesn’t feel like “us.”  I want to do what I can this year to personalize our home and make it feel more like a family house… and less like a college dorm.  Oh yeah, and I’m on a budget too, so maybe it should be “make my house a home… on a budget.”  Remember April’s resolution?  I don’t exactly have a ton of money to go out and buy things.  This one will be an interesting journey, and it will take me more than a month to do it.  I’ll keep you posted.

July: Find three things to be thankful for at the end of the day, every day.  Being thankful isn't just for November, folks.

 

August: Drink more water.  The recommended amount of water for the average adult is 64 oz a day.  At this point, I doubt I drink 12.  I’m terrible about drinking water… I just don’t get thirsty.  For the month of August, I’m going to share with you the ways I trick myself into drinking more.  Along with drinking more water, I’m also going to continue (and hopefully improve) my clean eating /cooking goal that I started in 2012.  I’ll share my favorite recipes that are child and husband approved.

September: Use a new word every day.  The deterioration of the English language makes me sad (I'm being semi-ironic here.  I could've used a much more descriptive or interesting word than "sad."  Get it?).  Dictionary.com will be my new best friend for the month of September.  With any luck, I’ll find a way to sound like a person who done went and got a college education.

October: Find a way to help someone every day.  I think it’s important to pay it forward, especially when we live in a society that is so self-absorbed and concerned with personal gain.  I also hate the cold, so I wanted to do this during a month when we’re not likely to get a blizzard, so I don’t get myself sucked into digging someone’s car out of a snow bank or something crappy like that.  

November:  Do more things with O.  Again, this will be a year-round goal for me, but I’ll be sharing our activities in November.  I’m guilty of seeing fun projects in Pinterest or coming up with neat ideas and thinking, “We should do that… someday.  Not today.  I don’t have time to clean up that big of a mess tonight.  Maybe next week…”  Don't get me wrong; spend time together reading and playing, we just don’t do things like finger-painting or playing with Play-Doh, or playing in the snow.  Time to fix that.

December: Keep a steady cleaning schedule.  I don’t think there are two dirtier words than “house cleaning.”  They’re relatively harmless alone, but when you put them together, they inspire dread and loathing.  I’m a little OCD and a lot germophobic so I don’t let my house get too icky, but I’ve always had trouble sticking to a regular schedule.  I usually wait until ten minutes before company is coming, or let it stack up until I can’t stand it any longer and spend my entire Saturday scrubbing and dusting.  I want to do less of that this year, so I’m going to spend the first eleven months of the year getting my butt in line, and then I’ll report back to you in December.

*BONUS RESOLUTION*  Quit using ellipses (…) so freaking much.  Seriously…  It’s tired, overused, and usually used incorrectly… just look at Facebook.  Ok… getting it all out of my system… almost there… alright.  We’re done here.  For the year of 2013, I’m limited to ONE ellipsis per blog post and it must be used correctly.  

*BONUS BONUS RESOLUTION*  Stop using so damn many exclamation points!  Who the heck do I think I am?  I’m not a cheerleader anymore, it’s time to stop putting so much enthusiasm into every freaking sentence when it’s unnecessary!!

There you have it… my 2013 broken down into not-so-neatly-organized months.  I hope I can stick to all of them!  Do you have any resolutions?  I want to hear them!