2011 Resolutions/To-Do List

We had a tame New Year's Eve by pretty much anyone's standards: we had my family over for games and pizza, and then celebrated "midnight" on east coast time so we could get the girls in bed.

Keira had a blast tossing "confunny" into the air (and don't anyone DARE correct her pronunciation), while Ellie preferred to yell "Happy Noo-nee!" and then throw it directly at the ground...


...and then try to pick it all back up again:

So here it is, 2011. Taking what I learned from last year's list--namely, don't bother putting down anything I don't actually want to do--here's my list of resolutions and things I'd like to accomplish this year:

Work smart, not hard.

True, it's a business world cliche (I might as well also resolve to "think outside the box" and never to "reinvent the wheel"), but I seriously need a dose of this in my life. Back in high school, I took on way too many commitments and started living by the rule of If This Task is Not an Emergency, I'm Ignoring It...and since then, I've made a habit of letting things slide that end up coming back to bite me later. Ellie is, what? Almost two years old now? And I have yet to finish putting the baby-proofing latches on our kitchen cabinets (or to nag Bear into doing it instead). Rest assured that the poisons and dangerous items are up high, but the tablecloths, the Tupperware, and the pots and pans are fair game for the girls to constantly pull out and drag all over the house, just for funsies. So, the price I pay for not being smart and just baby-proofing once is the daily, sometimes hourly task of un-destroying our house. It's silly, and it ends in 2011!

This year, instead of finding myself out of tomato sauce every freaking time I need it, I'm stocking up. Instead of letting laundry build until it requires a marathon session, usually ending with clothes being abandoned in the washer, dryer, or a wrinkly pile and then needing to be re-done, I'm doing a load a day: wash, dry, and put away. No exceptions. Instead of washing out Ziploc bags because my eco-guilt won't let me throw them away, I'm forking over the money for these and saving myself the hassle. (I'd like to save myself the money, too, and use this site to help me make my own, but that goes back to the "only resolve to do things I want to do" rule: I want to be able to sew, but I don't want to learn to sew.) Instead of finding myself scrambling when birthdays and holidays roll around, I'm preparing and shopping for them the month before. You get the idea: basically, I'm gonna grow a brain and then use it. I hear life runs more smoothly that way!

Keira's preschool scrapbook

I'm not a super-crafty person and usually stick to photo albums, but now that Kiwi's coming home with class pictures and little art projects and such, they're begging to be scrapbooked (is that even a word?).

Mommy & Me class with Elliana

By the time Keira was Ellie's age, we'd done gymnastics and I had a bazillion pics of her in a wee leotard. My urge to keep things as "equal" as possible between the girls, along with my even greater urge to collect more cute leotard pics, demand that I enroll Ellie-Bug, too!

Donate blood at least 5 times

Here's a handy tip, by the way: don't skip around to different agencies like I have, which results in multiple "You're due to donate and we desperately need your blood!" phone calls and emails every month. This seemed kind of cool at first-- having such desirable blood made me kind of like a real-life Bella Swan--but then I remembered that Bella is incredibly annoying...as is being hounded constantly by LifeStream, the Red Cross, and the local blood bank.

Finalize our wills

The fact that we actually MADE wills was a huge accomplishment of last year, but they still need to be signed by three non-relative witnesses in the same room as us. How often are we hanging out with a group of non-relatives and feel it's a good time to say, "Hey, who wants to help us finalize our wills?!" Not very often, apparently, but I want this one done and over with so I never have to think about it again.

Finish re-painting the hallway for the last time ever!

Before and after pics coming soon eventually!

Watch at least two seasons of "Buffy"

Bear's sister and Bittle have been campaigning for this one for years now, and they show no signs of slowing down: Bittle recently told me that Buffy is one of her favorite things. Not favorite shows or favorite things to watch, but favorite things in existence. It's hard to ignore an endorsement like that. It's even harder to ignore "Friends" reruns and reality TV, but I'm going to try!

Err on the side of empathy

Why is it so easy to look at other people's circumstances and decide what they "should" do? Sometimes I can be a jerkface, whether intentionally or not. I used to pretty much take everything at face value, but over the years I can feel myself becoming one of those people who has (and sometimes shares) opinions about things that are really none of their business. For example, when my sister was in the hospital recovering from her c-section, I found out she probably wasn't going to continue breastfeeding and was a little disappointed--not in her, but just that she might be missing out on something I found to be a great experience with my own kids. I texted Bittle that I was bummed my sister was "giving up already" or something to that effect...

...and accidentally sent the text to my sister.

You know, the one who was still in the hospital? The one who was recovering from a c-section? Already feeling judged by the nurses and probably hormonal and overwhelmed? Yeah, that sister. She's the only one I have, and fortunately for me, she was more understanding than I could ever have hoped for and accepted my groveling, but lesson learned: sometimes I just need to be more understanding and/or shut up. (And, for the record, I'm not anti-formula at all--the girls both had plenty in addition to nursing. I do not belong to the La Leche League, nor do I consider myself a "breastfeeding Nazi." I am, however, apparently a jerkface. Time to change that.)

Take an overnight trip with Bear

Last year, we let the girls spend the night at Grandma's house; this year, we're taking it up a notch. Check us out.

Make our house prettier (inside and out).

This will be done in direct compliance with the NEVER REPAINTING THE HALLWAY EVER AGAIN rule...in fact, I may not attempt to paint anything else at all in 2011. I do want to change a few things in our living room, make our bedroom look nicer, and get some landscaping done to make the front of the house less bare, though.

Note to self: do not consult Bear with decorating ideas until after they are done, lest he veto them. He won't let me do this in our hallway:

I'd like to do the wainscoting, too, but alas, "learn to use a miter saw" is not on either one of our lists. Perhaps I should resolve to play the lottery, and then maybe I could afford to hire someone to make it all happen!