For most of my life, I’ve never been much of a resolution kind of girl. At least not the New Year’s-exclusive type. My opinion has often been, “Why wait ’til January 1st? If you want to change something, do it now!”, and while I still somewhat subscribe to that theory, I now think there’s something unique, if not poetic, about turning over a new leaf with the turning of a calendar page. Plus my cousin-in-law Heather (I’ve mentioned her before—the talented one who discovers and implements all kinds of things that I want to copycat) had a great blog about her resolutions for the year, and I once again am grabbing on to her coat tails. Thanks, Friend!!
1. Run a 5K. Ryan and I have talked about doing this for a while, and I think that this year is THE year we finally check this off. Once upon a time we checked in to an Astros Fun Run that takes place right around Opening Day, and if that’s an annual thing, then it looks like we’ll be running in the spring. Holy cow, that’s soon!
2. Pay off our car early, thus getting us to the glorious land of DEBT FREEEE (minus the house). Our current pay-it-off-early plan has us knocking this out in 14 months, but I’d love to write that final check before the end of the year. And then of course call Dave Ramsey. ‘Cause I want to hear that he’s proud of me.
3. Have a weeknight at-home meal plan. Several years ago I stared my weekly dinner menu to help me with my grocery shopping, money saving, and sanity preserving. While I still currently make the menu (usually…), my execution has gotten pretty shabby, and the few nights that all four Kirkseys are home are too often marred with last-minute trips out for dinner. No good. So this resolution actually comes in two parts. Part I is that I provide an actual, wholesome meal for my family on the nights when Ryan is in his grad school classes (and not lazily default to my typical peanut butter, macaroni, or fish stick offerings for my daughter. And I wonder why she’s not more adventurous with her food??). Part II is that I follow-through on my menu planning, prepare some meals during some available off-time that can be frozen for later use, start taking advantage of the gazillions of crock-pot recipes that are at my disposal, and STOP eating out during the week. The ultimate goal here is healthier nutrition for all of us and money saved…so we can pay off that car!
Alright, Internet world, the resolutions are out there. Please feel free, in fact invited to question me on my progress and pull me back on track. Let 2012 begin!
I say, if you’re going to run a 5K, what better motivation than chocolate! Ben is going to run in in this race: http://www.hotchocolate15k.com/dallas/. Sponsored by Ghiradelli! It’s in Dallas, so I thought you might want to know about it. We could all cheer you on! 🙂
I think #3 is a great resolution to have – I think I’ll copy you and try it too!
Ooh, I have very little faith in my ability to successfully run that far in a month. The motivation of chocolate at the end of it would definitely help, though… 🙂
I think that the Astros Fun Run has been around Memorial Day weekend the past few years, so that would put it at the end of May. Hope that helps with the planning.
Good for you in the eating at home department. That is a hard one and I am going to copy you and try to be better about that too. See you soon (very soon) yeah!!!!! Can’t wait to meet J and see how big J has grown.
Thanks for the shout out! We have very similar resolutions, so we could help each other out in the motivation department! I was doing really good in the running department until I got a gross cold this week! Oh well, start over next week, right? 😉
Hey Allison,
I tagged you in the 11 blog link up thing! You can see what it’s all about on my post from today. I hope you join in!!