Resolution Time

Happy New Year, eh, 11 days late.  The story of my life.  I thought in an effort to make myself more accountable (to myself I suppose), I'm going to post my resolutions for the year up for the whole world (or you 6 followers) to see.  Some are pretty standard resolutions, some are pretty specific to my crazy life, but perhaps if I put them up here I'll make myself actually follow through with them.

Before I start, I shared with dear old Whit on Near Year's Day that my family used to have a system for resolutions (his comment, "what doesn't your family seem to have a 'system' for?"  He's so RUDE...but I digress).  My family had a wooden resolution box--I think it was actually an old cigar humidor--that we stored in my grandparent's attic throughout the year.  On New Year's Day after the big meal, we would pull down the box, sit around the kitchen table reading our resolutions out loud in turn, and heckle every person for what they had and had not accomplished.  Then we'd throw away the old resolutions and pull out paper and pens to write a list of new ones for the year.  We would cerimoniously place them in the humidor, close the lid, and put the box back in the attic for another year.  This was simply the family tradition until my grandfather passed away (this of course means that I was doing resolution lists well before I was 14, I'll be kind and just say that I was mature for my age).  The new years after his death we simply left the box in the attic because more than anything, no one wanted to see what his resolutions were.  I've learned that sometimes when you lose someone very close to you, it's often easier for the grief process to change a tradition than to try and keep it going simply for the sake of tradition.  At least that's what my family does, and for us, it works.  The idea of making resolutions has stuck with our family though--my grandmother, mother, and aunts still make yearly, monthly, and weekly "to-do" lists that they hold each other accountable to.  I find that many lists slightly overkill.

So, in light of the number of the year, I'm making this one list of my top 11 things to accomplish in 2011; Resolutions, if you will:
1) Eat healthier.  Mr. Meat and Potatoes aka my husband also agreed to this one. 
2) Exercise at least 3x per week.  This could get interesting since I'm currently exercising 0x per week...
3) Minimize eating out to only 2x per week
     sidenote: obviously, part of the focus with these so far is to lose weight.  I'll just say that's my underlying resolution.
4) Pay off all revolving debt.  This one's nasty, and I absolutely hate admitting it, but it's there and something has to be done about it!  Thanks Dave Ramsey....
5) Do laundry on a consistent basis.  Like, more than once a month would be a good starting place.
6) Finish the fireplace. I think all of you have seen the previous post on that one.
7) Complete our entryway/bathroom project.  Details to come later.  There's currently a hole in the floor where the toilet is supposed to be.  No, seriously.
8) Make curtains for the guest bedroom and laundry room.  The fabric is already even purchased for this one...
9) Renovate our front porch.  Um, if you think there's something worse than a hole in your floor, it would be this extension of our house.
10) Plant a garden!  We've already got a spot chosen for this one, plus I think it will help with resolutions #1 and #3.
11)  Double the amount of blog postings for the year!  I think this is quite do-able, considering I had 17 last year, I'm only shooting for 34 this year.  It's an average of 2.8 per month. I. Can. Do. It.

So there's my resolution list.  Into the attic of blog-postings it goes, but I'm pulling it out again on January 1, 2012 to let you all know how well I did (or didn't) do.