First of all, I'd like to take a moment to wish you all health and happiness and bucketloads of good luck for 2014 and to thank each and every one of you for calling by into my little corner of the web and reading my blog every day. I love reading all your comments and interacting with you so keep them coming !
So, on to the all important question - are you making New Year's Resolutions this year? I've decided to set myself "challenges" rather than "resolutions" because it sounds more fun !
1) The obvious one - the health kick and I'm sure I'm not alone here ! OK, let's throw out a number here - I'd like to lose 15kg by the summer. I've put a couple of kilos back on over Christmas so need to pick things up again. I'm going to start using MyFitnessPal again for tracking calories but also exercise. I now have a pedometer which is a great way of tracking how far I walk day by day so I'll aim for 10,000 steps per day (on average) which is what the NHS 10,000 Steps Challenge suggests. The kids love using the pedometer so it'll be great for inspiring us to go out for long walks.
2) Clear out the food cupboards - after buying a second half-price Christmas hamper in the sales to use up some vouchers that I'd won, my kitchen cupboards are all looking just about ready to explode so I need to make some serious space in them. I need to clear out my baking supplies but also my spices/cooking sauces/exotic ingredients cupboard so I'll see what I can come up with in the menu plans over the coming weeks.
3) Carry on the Christmas dejunk - just before Christmas, we took two big bags full of toys to a charity collection point and put several bags of too small clothes in a charity clothing bin. We've also managed to clear out the understairs cupboard which is where all the Christmas presents were stashed so I want to carry on. I've already told Pierre that now that he's a big boy, we can do away with bottles and potties. I also have some baby/toddler stuff like baby carriers and slings that I want to put on ebay.
4) Rethink our routines. All of the Madhouse kids are growing up fast so they can start taking on more responsibility for sorting out their clothes and school bags, etc which will free up some time for me. I also need to rethink the time I have between getting home from work and the school run - I usually have 80 minutes or 20 minutes, depending on the day, so I generally think that that's not enough time to do anything and waste it checking emails and reading blogs. If I go back to Flylady basics and "shine my sink" and do a "weekly home blessing hour" (targetting hot spots, such as clearing the areas that always get junked up, culling magazines and rebooting the laundry), that should make a big difference in the state of the house at the end of the week !
5) Keep on top of emails. Over the Christmas period, while all the PR companies are on holiday, I've managed to tame my inbox - yay ! If I reply to emails as soon as they come in rather than putting them off until later "when I have the time" (which I invariably don't !), it'll make my life a lot easier.
6) And a fun one to finish - last year, I signed up for the Good Reads reading challenge and set myself a target of 50 books, which I finished easily. I'd never counted the number of books I read in a year before so that was a revelation ! I'll set myself the target of 52 for this year, as that's one a week which sounds like a lot to me !
So, what about you? Have you set yourself any targets or made any New Year's Resolutions this year?
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Happy New Year Cheryl. Sounds like a good selection of resolutions there - good luck achieving them all.
ReplyDeleteThanks Zoe - happy new year to you too xxx
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