Thursday Thirteen

I totally forgot to do a TT last week, so I'm doing it a day early this week.

With the new year coming up, as usual I am spending some time thinking about the changes I want to make to have a better year. Last year I started out doing awesome and following my plans, but then I totally scrapped my goals towards the middle when things started going south in my life. It took the PE to make me realize how important it is to me to remember these goals and to keep working towards them. I will need my friends and family to help keep me in check and remind me of my goals and to encourage me to stick to them. So here we go!

1. I will do my best to accept myself the way I am - not just how I look, but who I am as a person. I will try to love myself a little bit more and take time for me without feeling guilty. Along with this, I will try to stop caring so much about what others might think of me. I always worry that people don't like me or only like me out of pity. That's silly since I'm obviously a pretty cool chick.

2. I will make sure to let my loved ones know how much I love them and appreciate all they are and do and what they mean to me in my life.

3. I will eat a better diet and focus on drinking less of the bad things (pop and alcohol) and drinking more of the good things (water and coffee...coffee is good, right? hehe).

4. I will work hard towards my goal weight and will go to the gym at least three times a week and one the days I don't go to the gym I will do some sort of exercise at home whether it be doing a workout video or even just taking a walk or playing outside with the kids. I just gotta get up and around!

5. I will blog and write more. Writing is such a great way for me to work through my feelings and is a way for me to express myself in ways I can't do in person or by just talking. I write so many blog entries that I never publish because by the time I am done writing them I feel better and realize that if I publish it, it'll only make the negativity in my life last longer.

6. I will spend one on one time with each of my children doing something special at least once a week. That can include going on a special trip, playing a game, or even just bringing one of the kids with me on errands. It's important to have that time with them and to get to know them and learn what they like and don't like. They are only little once and are growing so fast - I don't want to miss it.

7. I will work a lot harder at my relationship with Chris. Right now it seems like we focus so much on the kids that we aren't taking enough time for our marriage. We NEED date nights and time together without kids.

8. I will do fun projects and games with the kids as much as possible. It keeps them busy doing something good and helps us spend time together.

9. I will have professional pictures done of our family at some point this year. We never have and I only have about 4 pictures of all of us together total since Sam was born.

10. I will do my best to keep the house clean and organized. I would like to have it decorated a bit better but I will need help from friends and family for this because I am completely stupid when it comes to making my house look good!

11. Less screen time, more people/kid/friends/outside time! More time spent honing my talents, interests, and skills (like music, crochet, and photography).

12. I will spend less money!!!!!! I SWEAR. And this may sound selfish, but I will spend less money on the kids and more on myself. I honestly never buy anything for myself which is why I don't have clothing that fits or looks nice on me, why I'm still wearing nursing bras even though I'm not breastfeeding anymore, and why I only own about two pairs of shoes. My self esteem needs a boost big time, so having clothes that look nice on me and a variety of things to wear will help with the physical aspect. Learning to love myself more (see number one) will help with the other aspects. I shouldn't rely on others to tell me they love me to be able to love myself. Though it's nice to hear nice things about me too, haha!

13. I will relax. I will take time to just be.