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| Me braving the gusty winds while standing under one of the Window arches at Arches National Park in November. |
January. The month of goals, self-betterment, and new beginnings. The problem is, I can hardly catch my breath in my efforts to keep up with life as it is, so who has time to notice that I'm supposed to be starting anew? I feel like I'm still chasing December 29th.
The first time I decided to publish my New Year's resolutions, I was pleasantly surprised at the end of the year to see that I had accomplished almost all of my goals. The next year didn't turn out so well. Last year, I smartly declined the role of making any resolutions at all since I was pregnant with Mr. Owen. And since Mr. Owen's arrival, I have found that keeping up with three kids and the housework is much more overwhelming than it was with only two kids for reasons I can't quite articulate. Why should one more load of baby laundry make it feel like I can't EVER get the laundry done at all? Why should a nursing baby make me feel like the dishes have doubled? Why do a few extra baby toys on the floor make me feel like I am trying to master a corn maze rather than just get through the front room?
Even with all this, I feel I want to somehow improve on last year's non-efforts at goal-making. So here they are:
1. Lose 10 lbs.
2. Do good things in my life "more often."
Let me explain. I feel like I need to quantify my weight loss because just saying "lose weight" in no way keeps me from reaching for a fifteenth cookie. And though I am pretty good about getting to the gym and exercising, I know that if I don't do better with my eating, I'm not going to get anywhere. Lose 10 lbs, therefore, encompasses a desire to eat better as well which will hopefully reflect in a definite number on the scale. Ten pounds is also just slightly more than the weight I still carry from my pregnancy, so I don't think it is too lofty of a number.
As for number 2, I feel like life is just too busy for me to say that I want to blog once a week, get to the temple every month, play with my kids for at least an hour everyday, etc, etc. Instead I am only going to hold myself to doing those things "more often." I will hug my kids "more often." I will try to get to the temple "more often." I will try to be more organized, make dinner, exercise patience, write in my journal, read scriptures, play trains, and paint fingernails "more often." You get the idea.
Consider that my theme for 2013.