i hate new years

i realized this year that new years is my least favorite holiday. there is just so much pressure. pressure to do something fun. pressure to stay up late. pressure to wipe the slate clean and make all sorts of unattainable goals for yourself. pressure to completely turn your life around overnight. and i don't like it.

i like having a good time, but i don't like feeling like it is forced. like i have to come up with some epic event that will go down in history or else i am a loser. and i do like staying up late, but only if i know that i won't have to take care of my kids the next day or the week after while i recover. yes, i am one of those lame moms now. i think it's hereditary. (boom, roasted!).

and i realllllly hate new years resolutions. i think they are stupid. because you can't make reasonable resolutions, like "i won't eat chips". it has to be something extreme, like "i won't ever eat anything unhealthy for the rest of my life". which obviously isn't a realistic goal.

so some of my friends have written lists of goals or things they want to accomplish instead of resolutions. these seem to be more reasonable, so i thought i would do it too. and then the list got really long, because there are more than a few things i would like to start/quit doing. so that overwhelmed me too. but after having a small meltdown when jason informed me that we had a lot of extra crap in our house to get rid of, i decided to take a second look a the list and take a little advice from jason.

just pick something. something small. something that i can get done. and then do it.

so it started by me taking the small things and extra clothes to goodwill. and some of our baby stuff to teen mops. and boxing up the rest, in a nice and neat way, to tackle another day.

and that wasn't nearly as hard in reality as it was in my head. which calmed me down enough to look over my list and narrow it down. so here are some things i want to do this year. maybe they won't all start right away. maybe they won't all continue all year. but it's a doable list of small life changes, that will hopefully develop into habits and eventually just my way of life. here's to 2011.

-finish decorating the kids' bedroom

-start (and finish) decorating our bedroom

-finish the half-way started projects in the kitchen

-work-out three times a week (even if it's just a walk around the block)

-do one family activity each month - go to the zoo, have a picnic, go to a water park

-have people over for dinner at least every other week, hopefully turning into each week

-do fun projects with hiba and matthias, and do fun things with them. no more sitting at home and watching tv! (well, maybe a little sitting at home and watching tv....)

-become more involved in our church and get to know the people there

-clean my house on a regular basis (i originally said clean each room every week, but let's not be ridiculous...)

-write letters, we'll start with one a week. maybe by the end of the year i'll even be sending birthday cards.

so there it is. my 2011 list. i think i can do it. it doesn't make me hyperventilate and i don't think it's so drastic. it's almost even doable. so maybe after this year, i won't hate new years quite so much.