(warning--long and kind of contemplative and NO PHOTOS. Ahhhh!)
So I was going to title this "back on the wagon" but then I remembered that falling off the wagon is usually said in referral to somebody going back to something unfortunate, like drinking or something. So it doesn't really apply. And then I thought of "back to the grindstone" but seriously, how cruddy does that sound?So I just went with back. We're back. To normal life I guess, back from the fun and exceptions of the holidays. It's a little depressing, but I'm trying to focus on the good parts, not the depressing parts. (I'm not usually too good at that, so bear with me.)
I am not one to make big new years resolutions, although I think they're great. Life just changes so much so often that if I made a big list of stuff to do all year I don't know that it would necessarily apply by the time summer rolls around. But I am a big believer in short term improvements. And I think that taking opportunities such as the new year to start these improvements are great.
So. We have some things to do.
We made a bunch of life improvements when we moved out here to Providence. It was a really good time for that, because things really changed for us. I was done with school. Kris was done with school and moving to a much more work like environment. Work really eased up for me (there are very good and very bad things about that, but I appreciate being a little more free)
and Max didn't have school at all for the summer.
I set aside one day a week to clean the whole house and do all the laundry. Besides the fact that I hated that day SO much and dreaded it coming around, the system worked out great. The house was generally clean and we always had clean clothes, and most weeks I even was able to get them put away.
Sometime here in the fall my cleaning system all fell apart. I think I just didn't want to do it anymore. It went from once a week to doing some stuff once a week and some stuff every other week, then just to doing laundry whenever I could and cleaning up (and by that I mean deeper cleaning) when I couldn't live with it anymore. Lame.
So I'm going to try to do better with that. And even if it's deep cleaning every other week and laundry and some other stuff once a week, it's still better than nothing.
Another improvement we made when moving out here was a more spiritual kind. We actually started having Family Home Evening regularly for the first time in forever. It's been great. Max loves it, and it makes him feel special. It's been good for all of us. Even though our lessons are incredibly short, it's still great to have them, and to talk about gospel things together. A couple of months ago we also started reading the Book of Mormon together on sunday evening. I was a little apprehensive about trying that because Max doesn't pay attention to stuff sometimes, and I thought it might just be a huge pain. But since he's getting really good on his reading we'll help him out to read some of the shorter verses and he loves it. It keeps him paying attention for at least most of the time. And it feels great to do it together.
So we definitely want to keep up with those things as we go into this year. We want them to be a priority.
And of course the one that everybody has on their list. Fitness. I was doing so great in the fall. I made more progress on weight loss, good eating and general better health than I have in forever. And the last couple months didn't go so hot. But luckily there's not a lot of damage done. So I'm planning to pick up where I left off. I'm hoping to get back to the gym several days a week and do as much physical stuff as I can otherwise also. When it's not freezing I like to walk Max to school, and that's about a 4 mile trip there and back and then there and back again. I was doing that a lot in the fall. So hopefully I can do that again.
And I was cooking all our meals and using super healthy recipes. We're already doing better with that this week and last than we were there for a while. So we'll be able to do that again.
Making progress only makes me want more progress!
So there you go. Those are my new years thoughts. And we'll see how it all goes!
