Happy new year from all four of us!
A new year, a fresh start. I love this chance to reflect on how I want to spend my time during the year and what I can do to live my life the way I want. Chris and I both make yearly goals now and post them on the side of the fridge and I'm usually pleasantly surprised to see how much we're able to do in one year. There are other goals that become less important to me (like going on more hikes in 2012) and I don't force myself to accomplish them if it's just not happening.
In 2013 my focus is to be present and I'll share more about that tomorrow. I want to bring the be present mindset into all aspects of my life and it will be something I work on day to day. On the surface I'm not sure that it's obvious how my goals for the year support this focus but to me it makes sense. You'll see more organizing and savings goals for this year. These goals serve to improve an area of my life that I spend more effort on than I need to be (organizing goals) and to give us more financial security and peace of mind (savings goals). Accomplishing those things means I'll have more time and mental bandwidth to be present with my family.
Goals for 2013 are:
+ Create a meal planning and grocery shopping system that works for us. Right now we do an OK job of this - we have food to eat and eat a balanced diet - but we lose track of our favorite recipes, I'm constantly asking, "what should we have for dinner?" when making the shopping list, and too often we don't use all the vegetables we get in our Chow Locally share. I'm hoping to streamline everything before the baby arrives so that we can spend less time thinking about groceries and dinner and more time with the baby.
+ Organize our digital lives, especially our photos, and make use of the pictures we take. Right now we have files and photos split between SIX different computers. Some things exist in the cloud, others do not. Some things are getting backed up, others (alarmingly) are not. We don't print out pictures from events and trips or everyday life. I'm worried that in April we'll become inundated with baby photos and will completely lose track of pre-baby photos and never make use of baby photos. I want our son to have family photo albums or prints to look through one day of our adventures and day-to-day together.
+ Have $13,000 saved in our emergency savings account by the end of the year. Barring any need to use our emergency savings we'd like to increase this account by $2,000 while also being able to afford the expense of a new baby.
+ Go easy on myself, and Chris, as we grow into parents. My be present focus is so important here. I'm so excited to see what being a parent is like and to go through it with Chris; to see what we're like as parents and as a family. I want to give myself, and us, room for all this change. This might mean scrapping my weekend to-do lists more often than not and not letting that stress me out. It might mean having less time to blog or finding a different exercise schedule. It might mean the house gets messier than I'd like...or that we find a way to have the house cleaned twice a month instead of once. I'm sure it will mean making compromises in our relationship and finding new balances in our time and attention. It will definitely mean being a supportive partner to Chris, continuing to show my appreciation for all that he does, and to let him parent in his own way. I know we'll learn so much from each other.
Wishing you a wonderful 2013!
