Sunday, December 27, 2009

Happy New Year

The trouble with New Year's resolutions is that there is too much I want to do. Too many areas for improvement. I want to take better care of my health, save money, be a better housewife, a better Christian, a better mom. I need to spend more time writing, more time reading, more time cleaning, more time exercising - and yet there aren't any more hours in the day. My biggest task is trying to decide how to make some resolutions that are both realistic and doable. So here are my biggest areas for improvement and some free thinking about how I might achieve change while still maintaining some level of sanity:

  • My personal time. I want to spend more time in personal devotion, prayer, and Scripture. I want to set aside a chunk of time every day for silent meditation, prayer, and reading. Now the only time there is silence in my house is when I first get up. 5:00am is when I have some time all to myself - but I'm usually on facebook. I think I'll need to make a facebook-cutting resolution in order to achieve half of my resolutions.
  • My health. I need to be much more aware of my body and it's needs. I turned 38 last week and I am reminded of how close to 40 that is. And I keep hearing and reading about how once you hit 40 everything is that much harder. I hear the metaphorical clock ticking... two more years to get myself in shape... two more years to lose the weight, gain the muscle, lower the BMI... I'm not an idiot - intellectually I know how it's done. I know I need to cut back calories, get more exercise, eat more fiber, drink more water, avoid trans fats, more veggies, less fried foods. I know I need to get more aerobic exercise and I know not to neglect the weight training. Sometimes I feel like my whole body is just falling apart - my physical therapy isn't working anymore so my arthritis is coming back in leaps and bounds. And I know carrying this extra weight is not helping me. I have this new, strange pain in my hip - sudden and piercing it comes randomly and stops me in my tracks. And I know it's a combination of getting older and carrying way more weight than my hip joints can handle. And I'm not morbidly obese or anything - how do those people who have 100 pounds to lose feel? How do they walk around and not feel pain? In my mind I can visualize being slender again, limber and graceful, feeling lots of energy and being happy with how I look. So somewhere in here is a resolution. But how to make it manageable... that will be another post altogether.
  • My house. Ugh - my house. I am a terrible, terrible housewife. My house is cluttered and unkempt and I spend way too much time looking for things that have been lost amidst the chaos. Now a good place to start is my good friend's blog, Organizational Management for Moms. She's a full time stay-at-home mom and I am in awe at her skills. One of her posts on that blog was about a cleaning calendar that you can get to keep your house clean by telling you what to clean every day. I'm planning on downloading the calendar to see how I like it. I'll let you know how that goes. My thoughts for this resolution is something like "I will spend an extra thirty minutes every night cleaning the house." That might be doable.

Think I have enough work to do? Sigh. It's a lot, right? And it shows how unsatisfied I am with myself, which may be another post altogether. But 2010 is a whole new year - a clean, fresh slate. A slate on which I can write my own changes. And with God's help, maybe I can make some good changes and be that much happier with who I am. Wish me luck!