Goals for 2011

I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, but I do have some things that I've been wanting to get done, so I figured I'd make a list. Some of these are written on our "Things to do" whiteboard, something I put up in the hopes that if we read them every day, we'd actually get around to doing them. So far it's worked pretty well, keeping track of things from as simple as grocery lists to daily errands to weekend projects. Some of my goals are a little vague at the moment, but I'm trying to see how much I can actually fit into my day with my new work schedule.

1) Increase my physical activity. 

I do a lot of running around at work, but I know I still need to work on cardio and muscle strength. I have a gym membership, but with my screwy schedule, I haven't been going very often. I want to get into a more consistent routine, going to the gym probably around 3 times a week. I know I'm supposed to have a concrete goal, but we have dogs so I feel a bit guilty if we don't walk them too.

2) Improve my eating habits.

Now that Dustin and I will both be home from work every evening, I want to increase the number of times we eat dinner at home. We have gotten into a terrible habit of eating out a lot. I've never been a big chef, and I don't know a whole lot about cooking, but I'm hoping to change that. Our local wine shop offers some cooking classes, which may be just what I need to motivate myself in the kitchen. I'm hoping to consistently eat at home at least 4 days a week (we'll be keeping Pizza Bomb night and Sushi night, of course). I've been looking through my cookbooks and am hoping to have a meal schedule set before the weekend is over.

3) Keep a cleaner house

It seems like every time I walk into our house, it's a disaster area. Even though Kieko tends to strew her toys about the house every ten minutes, I know I can't blame it all on her. I'd like to keep stray papers from spreading all over the house, only to be stacked up to be organized and filed "later". Dustin recently reorganized the space under our stairs and the laundry area, but our 'guest room' remains a complete disaster area. It's become the room that we shove everything in when we are sick of looking at it, but don't actually want to do anything with it. The room is such an embarrassment. In the unlikely event that someone stays over, we literally have to make a path to the futon.  Prepare yourself for the pictures!

The horror!

The horror continues

4) Improve the organization of our kitchen

I know that this is part of cleaning the house, but I feel like the kitchen is it's own little project. Our kitchen is very small, so a lot of stuff is stored on top of our cupboards and counter tops, or in the laundry room in the basement. We recently put up a pot rack, which has freed up some cupboard space, but I'm hoping to make everything a little more visually appealing. We'll be installing a shelf above the cat's water fountain (beside the cabinets toward our living room), where we will move my cookbooks (which are now stores next to the microwave, in the hopes that I will pick them up more if they are in the kitchen and not the spare room). I'd also like to get a shelving unit of sorts for our laundry room to function as a pantry, where we can keep our canned goods and less-used small appliances.

See the huge mess of a counter top, despite the addition of the pot rack.

 

5) Paint the bathroom.

Remember back when we painted our living room wall red?  Well, at that time I had also bought a can of green paint for our bathroom. It has since sat in either our hallway closet or the closet under the stairs.

I believe this current shade of white is called "blah"

Valspar's Cactus Shadow.

6) Hang more photos/art in our house.

We bought a bunch of picture frames from Ikea back in October, and they have been leaning up against the counter separating our kitchen from living room ever since. In our defense, Dustin spent a lot of time touching up photos for our wedding book and Christmas presents for family, so we haven't really had the time, but I'm ready to get these puppies filled and up on the walls!

Our stack of Ribba picture frames from Ikea.