Not-quite-so-new year resolutions

Obviously, my first resolution will be to blog more frequently. Jeez, I can't believe it's been so long. I think there are times when everyone else's blog seems so darn relevant that I totally freeze up, feeling like each and every blog post has to be poignant, meaningful, controversial, thought-provoking...etc. Not so. I am trying to remind myself that that point of this blog was to keep a diary of sorts about all those things that I want to remember: motherhood, my kids, my house, my marriage, my family. I want to be able to go back and show my son the blog posts I wrote during his adoption. I want him to see how much he was loved, even before we knew him. When my kids have kids and call me complaining about how tired they are, how messy their kids are (hee hee, makes me smile) I can serenely direct them to the many blog posts I wrote about the more, er, frustrating aspects of parenting.

So, first not-so-new year resolution: blog more.

Second resolution (very much related to first resolution): TAKE MORE PICTURES. I've seriously slacked on this one, y'all. I can't even really blame it on my phone, as there are some pictures on there, but not so many that it makes up for the complete and total lack of pictures on my camera. Oh, this leads to a sub-resolution to Resolution #2: learn how to use my camera. It's a pretty nice one, but what I don't know about my camera could fill a rather large "how to use this camera" manual. And finally sub-resolution 2 to Resolution #2: once pictures are taken, get them onto blogger so I can achieve Resolution #1.

Third resolution: SIMPLICITY IN ALL THINGS. I feel the need to simplify. To get rid of the amazing amount of (pardon my french) shit that has taken over our house and lives. I was going to take a picture of our basement to show you just how bad it is, but alas, I have no idea where my camera is at the moment (probably part of the problem re: second resolution). Seriously, the basement is bad, folks. When the cable guy had to go down there I wanted to crawl into a hole and die, such was my shame. My plan? I'm going to order and dumpster and throw out all that cannot be sold/donated/repurposed/saved & organized. Hopefully this will allow work towards another sub-resolution: start work towards turning the disaster area basement into a functioning room for the kids. I will also be going through the house and doing some serious thinning out of the kids' toys. I feel like we do a fairly decent job of rotating toys, keeping the bulk of what we have stored away. Yet I can't get past this basic fact: WE HAVE TOO MANY TOYS. Too many stuffed animals, too many plastic animals, too many random things for which I cannot find a place and so they get stuffed here and there, taking up precious room in my house and slowly killing my spirit.

Fourth Resolution: take advantage of the resources in my neighborhood. I am blessed to have amazing parks in my area, not to mention a kick-ass community pool. We have a nationally ranked zoo and waterpark, a minor league baseball team where you can spend an afternoon seriously on the cheap, bike trails, camping sites, splash parks, and my beloved Community Center. I challenge myself to take advantage of these things, most of which are free or crazy-cheap. I also want to do new things this summer: visit The Wilds (I hear it's amazing), hit the different farmer's markets around c-bus, take the kids to an outdoor concert, take the family to our neighborhood's fourth friday event each month (I'm ashamed to say we've never done this)...and, um, do more research so I can add more to this list.

Fifth Resolution: make time for friends. I've been bad about this. I have some pretty amazing friends in my town and I don't see them nearly as often as I'd like. I want more playdates! More girl's nights! I will not choose working out over a park playdates with my friends (totally embarrassed that I've done this...I'm kinda psycho about my runs). If I take pictures of said playdates and girl's nights, there's another check in the Resolution #2 box!

So, there ya have it. Out there for all to see so that I can be held accountable. There are so many other resolutions I want to add, but I'm going to stick with these top five and see how things go. Wish me luck!