Resolutions For A New And Exciting Year!

We had a wonderful, family-filled Christmas vacation all the way over in Ontario and are just now settling back into life at home. I've just caught up on reading other people's blog posts about New Year's resolutions, and feel like it's time to put mine out there in the world. Hopefully by sharing them with the vast audience of the internet (ha! more like my 2 regular readers!), I will be more accountable to following through on them. Time will tell!

Resolution #1: Have date nights with my husband once every couple weeks. We're still easing into leaving Ellie alone with a sitter (aka Grandma), but in order to get better at it we have to just do it! So our general plan is to start by renting a movie and watching it in one of the hotel rooms upstairs. Once we get more comfortable with that, we may venture out for the occasional date!

Resolution #2: Try new recipes. I got a cookbook for Christmas with lots of yummy, easy meals in it that I want to try. Not only that, but Adam and I really enjoy cooking together so hopefully this is something else we can do together in addition to date nights. We also really want to learn how to make our own sushi, so that fits in well with this idea!

Resolution #3: Work on my business idea. I'm still not quite ready to share it with the world, but if I can put more time and effort into the idea, I might be ready soon! One thing I was hoping to do was to use a babysitter a couple times a week and devote that time to working on my business plan. I would need to take my laptop and work outside of our suite (but still in the building in case I need to nurse Ellie), but it would probably be the easiest way to make some actual progress.

Resolution #4: Keep our home simple and clutter free. This is a huge challenge, particularly around holidays and events like Christmas and birthdays. Having a baby makes it especially challenging! People are always incredibly generous about giving gifts to babies and children, but what I need to be better at is proactively communicating to our family and friends about what we need/want and what we'd really like to avoid. We're currently in the middle of a big time decluttering of our house, so this is a step in the right direction. We just have to keep it decluttered! Ellie's first birthday might be a challenge!

Resolution #5: Pay off the car loan. Provided we don't have any major changes to our financial situation, this is completely feasible! It definitely means sticking to our budget and might mean forfeiting trips that we had hoped to take, but it would be worth it to have the weight off our shoulders! After the car loan is paid off, we would only have student loans remaining.

Resolution #6: Exercise. This isn't the typical New Year's resolution about losing weight or going to the gym X number of times each week. I simply want the endorphins! I have a hot yoga class coming up this week that I am absolutely DYING to go to. It's not the physical exercise that I care so much about, but the amazing feelings that I can't even do justice by attempting to describe. It's something I can do that makes my soul feel good!

It's always possible to make a million lists of things I want to do or change, but I want to stop there. If I keep it short, it will likely be even more manageable! Next I have to make my goals for January and see if I can work towards some of these resolutions in baby steps starting with this month...