Resolutions

I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions, but there are some things I want to try to work on this year. Yeah, I know, it's a little late, but hey, better late than never, right? I'm also going to try to do periodic (maybe weekly or monthly?) reviews to keep myself on track. I figure if I detail them here, it will hold me a little more accountable. I'm keeping my list to 5, so that it will be easier to manage and keep track of.

#1: Prayer/Reading Time
This is something that, I'm ashamed to admit, gets cut short more often than not. I've tried getting up earlier (Miles 5:30 wake-up time makes that difficult), staying up later (I end up falling asleep) and even using Miles' naptime (I invariably get busy doing other things and never get to it). It seems like I'm so busy, but in reality, I'm not that busy at all these days. I seem to waste a lot of time on the internet, or looking at garden catalogs, or even knitting. So I thought I'd try limiting my OTHER activities until I've gotten that vital time in. Here's my new idea: I'm not going to even sit down at the computer, pick up my knitting, or read anything else until I've spent at least 30 minutes with God in the AM. Non-negotiable.

#2: More spiritually oriented kid activities.
Kaylee is getting to the age where she where she understands things better. We've started singing a grace at lunch each day, so they can learn the graces. This is going well. We've done Bible stories time before, but somehow it keeps getting dropped. I remember when I was kid, Dad used to read us Bible stories before bed. New step in the bedtime routine: one Bible story/discussion every night, right after teeth-brushing.

#3: Menu Improvements.
I've been trying to cut down our grocery bill lately, so I've decided to make a few changes to my menu. The first, and probably the most easily implemented, is to have Meatless Mondays. Our biggest grocery expenses are meat and dairy, and I won't give up dairy. It turns out that there's a whole healthy eating campaign for Meatless Mondays: they even have a website with recipes and such. Anyway, I thought we'd try it. If anyone has any great meatless recipes that they'd like to share, please send them on over. We're always looking for tasty new recipes. Today I'm going to make some slow cooker vegetarian chili from All Recipes. It got good reviews so we'll see how the family likes it.

The next thing I'm planning to do menu-wise is to have one "no grocery shopping" week per month. That is, I'll try to plan our meals and eat entirely from the fridge, pantry, and freezer. There is one small caveat to this however: I'll make an exception for milk. We just can't go a whole week without buying milk unless we really stock up the week before! Luckily we usually have a fairly well-stocked pantry. Maybe this will give me the incentive to use up some of those ingredients that have been lurking in the back for who knows how long. Next week will be the first try at it, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Finally, I'm going to try to put more fresh, home grown and/or preserved foods on the menu and depend less on packaged food and on the grocery store in general. We do pretty well at this, but we can do a lot better. Hopefully I'll get my chickens this spring, so we will have eggs sometime this year, and maybe even a few extra to sell/trade to friends and family. I'm also expanding the garden and planning to can/freeze more produce this year. This will make more work in the summer, but it'll pay off next winter when we're snowed in for days at a time. Plus it's healthier.

#4: Keep the "spring plant craze" under control.
This one will be difficult unless I stay completely OUT of greenhouses. I love plants, and spring makes me a little crazy when it comes to ordering and buying plants. So I'm going to try seed starting for my annuals and vegetables . And no new perennials unless they're on clearance. Hopefully.

#5: Keep my craft projects under control.
With this new knitting craze, I'm starting to get half-finished projects again. To keep this under control, I'm going to try to keep my "on the needles" projects to a minimum of 3. I'm also going to try to buy quality yarn on sale, maybe online, so I don't overspend. If I have a list of upcoming projects, I might be able to find the yarn cheaper in advance, and I won't be so tempted to pick something up just because I like it. Maybe. Notice that this is last on my list. I have a feeling that the knitting will slow down considerably in a couple of months when I'm busy outside again.

So there's my list. Wish me luck!