Looking ahead to 2011

As last year, this will be another year of firsts for us.

This March we will be welcoming Bree, our first baby girl!!  Obviously, I'm going to be spending a good portion of the next couple of months preparing for her.

This will also be the first year that I will not be working (aside from some lessons) without being in school.  With Bree coming, I will not be advertising my lessons this year, so I will only keep the students I already have or get by word of mouth.  I will spend this year working on the house and taking care of Bree.  Next year, I can pick up more lessons again.  As I noted in my firsts few posts; for this year, I'm going to attempt to contribute to the household income not by trying to earn more but by saving more.  That will lead to several changes: not eating out as much, organizing the house so that we can find everything and will use the things we have, etc.

To begin that process, I invested in a freezer and a stand mixer (for pizza and bread dough that my hand mixer can't handle) as my Christmas presents.  I've also been looking at what I can do to improve the organization & storage options in my home.  Today, my mom, my mother-in-law and I are going in search of baby & storage items that are on sale!  We'll get some fun girl time and be useful at the same time!  As I said before, include someone else in your organizational challenge.  They might have a good idea or know of a product that can help you, plus it's just more fun that way!

This year, don't make the same old resolutions, make a plan.  Take those big goals and break them down into small steps that you can accomplish in a day or a week.  You will have a much better chance of success at that big item if you can see that you have been successful at completing the smaller tasks leading up to it.

I have started on my plan with my Christmas purchases.  I have also cleared Bree's room of items that we can't use for her and checked Josh's old carseat & stroller to see if we can still use them so I know what we need to purchase.  My mom will take care of painting and putting the room together once we have made our purchases.  She's the creative one.

Once we have made our purchases, the first thing I am going to do is work on a chore schedule.  I don't want to get behind or bogged down by the simple things that need to be done.  If I schedule time each day to take care of one or two of these "must-do" items, they won't build up and catch me by surprise.  One advantage to this is that, if we have unexpected guests, we should be able to get the house presentable fairly quickly.

The next task on my list is to go through the kitchen and inventory the items in the cabinets, pantry & freezer.  I will use that inventory to make a cooking/donation plan to make sure we use all of the food before it expires.  From there, I will move on to the laundry/mud room and cleaning supplies, then the mound of papers, magazines and miscellaneous items on my desk and organize my office supplies.

Obviously, it will take me several steps to get around the whole house, but each time I complete a task, I will feel a little better and be encouraged to do the next one.

Happy Planning and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!