Man, I can’t believe I’m sitting here at the end of 2012. It seems like we just brought in the new year. 2012 was the year of baby #3, being featured in a book, and working long hours over at Momaroo and The Fresh 20.
So in these last few hours of 2012, I want to list out some of the things I hope to see happen in the next year. Here goes!
1) Vacation. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, I’d prefer it just be to load up the van and hit the road to North Carolina. Right to the beach, right where we walked along the surf, looking for seashells and enjoying Rita’s. Sure, I imagine we’ll spend a good chunk of our beach time chasing two toddlers around, but at least we’ll burn off all those Italian ices!
2) Declutter even more. It seems every month we take a big load of bags and boxes out of this house. While it feels good to get rid of all of the junk, I don’t want to do it so often. In general, I just want there to be less in this house.
3) Finish painting the interior. We did the living room and then stopped because life got in the way. We just need to pick weekends and tackle one room at a time and get it over with. I can’t imagine the kitchen being brighter, but I’m so excited for it! Let’s get on that, Hubs, okay?
4) Picnics and more trips to the park. I have a gorgeous picnic basket to use, we have plenty of blankets to choose from – so we need to just do it. The boys will run around and burn some energy and we’ll have yummy food and lots of memories.
5) Take the kids to the lake. We don’t have to go camping or anything, but we used to go all the time and swim there. While it doesn’t compare to the ocean, it’s still fun and only takes a couple of hours to drive to.
6) Pay off debt. I know we won’t pay off the van or the house (unless we win the lottery this year), but we can still tackle the other debts that we have. If we do it right, we could have just the van and house left at the end of 2013!
7) More dates with the husband. Even just a few hours that we could go get lunch at someplace WE want, or to go shopping, or even go to the park and just walk around like we did on our first “date” would be nice. I’d like to go away for the weekend, but I don’t know if the kids are ready for that or if we have anyone willing to watch them that long. I’m determined though – we need to have that US time.
8) Cook and/or bake more. I hate the cleanup part of it, but maybe Hubs will help with that since he gets to taste test?
9) Goes hand in hand with that pay off debt one, but I’d like to build up our savings and not touch it.
10) Take more pictures and use my Nikon more. I have to be honest, that beautiful camera we purchased is so neglected. I want to use it more, and play around with settings and just experiment. Maybe work on food photos a bit since I plan to cook more?
This is getting hard…
11) Oh! Fence the backyard! And get a table and chairs so I can sit with a glass of lemonade while the kids run around and play are are contained in the yard and SAFE. Right now we have to chase G all over as he does not understand the boundaries and that the alley right next to our yard is not a play area. Man, fencing the yard would be awesome!
12) Fix up the front yard and side flower bed. We started and then stopped. We need to fix the retaining wall, weed like crazy, more lava rocks on the side, and then figure out how to spruce it up and add some curb appeal. It’s so blah right now. I can’t wait for spring so we can get out there!
13) Be more positive. I’m tired of reading on Facebook about how someone’s life sucks, or how boring their life is. Get up and do something about it then! I want to be around positive people, supportive people, and I’m making that a priority in 2013. I want to support others in what they do and I want to be supported.
As far as professional “want to”s, that’s a whole other post!
Happy New Year!