My word for 2010 is do. I have so much that I want to do this year so I really feel like this is the right word for me to focus on. I'm a list maker so I thought it would be a great way to start off my year of doing by creating a list of all the things I want to do. At the end of the year, I will repost this list and highlight (and link to) all the things I got done! I also want to check in with myself on this list each month when I do my roundup.
Ten Things I Want to DO in 2010:
- Blog every day in 2010. I usually come pretty close to doing this each year already. Last year I only took a couple of days off. I've been blogging very regularly since 2005 so I've established good habits in this area. The challenge will be maintaining this schedule in addition to my regular posting at The Daily Digi. It will be busy, but I'm very committed to creating and participating regularly in both places. I also keep up a personal family blog but I'm not worried about that because when I forget a day (or week or so) my kids remind me lots of times to get back on it. So I will be doing A LOT of blogging in 2010. Blog every weekday in 2010. This was a goal that I needed to change as the year developed. My new plan is to blog here Monday-Friday and take the weekends off.
- Lose weight and improve my overall health. I'm not setting a number goal here. Truth is, if I only lose 1 pound by the end of the year, it will be better than I have done anytime in recent memory. I can't keep going up. I just don't lose weight when I diet so it comes down to this. I am going to have to exercise as well. Regularly. This is in direct conflict with #1 (see above) as blogging requires sitting on your tushie in front of a computer.
- Organize my photos. This is another big one and frankly, I'm pretty sure it will take more than a year. I may be organized when it comes to digital supplies, and even my closets are pretty darn neat, but photo organization is my Achilles heel (weak spot). I have folders and folders of scanned photos on my computer that are not in any order. I have boxes and boxes of photos in storage. I have loose paper scrapbook pages that need organizing. Lots of work to do in this area.
- Do the projects I've been bookmarking. I have a lot of books that I've read (some I've just glanced at) that are full of projects and ideas that I actually want to do. There are tons of magazine articles, blog posts, email newsletters, and pdfs that have things in them I want to do. Collected recipes, patterns for projects, photos that inspire me, all fill my hard drive and bookmarks. I also have taken many online classes and filled my hard drive and binders with the materials that have inspired me. Now I need to do them!
- Keep on scrappin! I completed 200 pages in 2009 and I see no reason why I can't match that number this year. It isn't about the number of pages though, I want to focus on the quality, specifically being sure that I tell the story that I want to convey with each page.
- Practice Photography. This goes with #4 in a lot of ways because I have books and files full of photography ideas that I want to learn and try. I've taken online photography workshops that I want to put into action. The biggest thing I want to do relating to photography is to just be sure I'm regularly taking photos and learning new techniques and ideas.
- Do fun things, go fun places. I guess that might sound sort of vague, but I'm open to some new adventures this year! We are hoping to travel to Washington D.C. and we have a few other small trips around Utah planned. Of course I always love to take field trips around town as well. It is too easy to spend all of our time studying and working, so I feel like I need to put this on a "to do" list for the year to remind myself to take some time out to play. We have oodles of board games and toys that aren't getting used that much, a closet full of craft supplies. Oh, and the Legos! I got a bunch of Legos for Christmas so now I just need to have some fun with them and my camera. :)
- Teach my children. This may seem very basic but I want to remind myself throughout the year just how important my responsibility is to teach my children and prepare them for a successful life. I homeschool both of them so that is a big part of what I'm talking about, but I also feel such a need to help them learn the basics in life. I want them to be able to take care of themselves. This is especially tricky because my son has special needs due to his autism which means that we have to work harder on some things that others might just take for granted. Of course it is just as important that I meet my daughter's needs as well and I want to prepare her to be a strong and independent young lady. I saw this post last year on My Super Charged Life about 40 things to teach your children and it really inspired me. I would like to tailor this list to our circumstances and add a few more things to it.
- Fix up the house a bit. I'm so lucky to live in a nice home and we have done a lot to improve it over the past few years. There are a few more little things I would like to do, and now that we've been here 5 and 1/2 years there's some wear and tear to deal with. The bathrooms need repainting. Our front porch cement is cracked. Our back patio cement has sunk in places. You get the idea. The biggest thing I want to do is to get new kitchen countertops and a new stove and dishwasher. Our kitchen is small but I think if we freshened it up a bit it would feel so much nicer. I plan to use a lot of the ideas I wrote about in the Use What You Have Decorating post on The Daily Digi to bring new life to some tired rooms as well.
- Keep it simple. I've always been a big believer in this motto and I'm amazed at how people really make things so much harder than they need to be. I swear some people just thrive on drama and complaining. I never want to be that type of person. Sure we are all busy, but I love what Steph wrote about this on The Daily Digi. We all have the same amount of time each day and while my family is always very busy and has plenty to do, we are also really blessed because of that. Our schedules will be so much easier to maintain if I focus on simplicity in our lives and our routines. No need to re-invent the wheel, I want to focus on what works for us. That means that meals don't have to be fancy and the house doesn't have to be perfect. A clean and well functioning environment is much more important to me and will provide more benefits for our family.
This list is a good representation of some of the ways I want to use my word for the year. The idea of spending more effort on the "do" part of life has been on my mind for awhile now. In most cases I already have the tools, the supplies, or even the knowledge to do something, it just comes down to the fact that I actually need to DO it!
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What do you want to do this year? If you were to make a list of 10 things you want to do in 2010, what would be on it? Are any of your items the same as mine? Which ones are different? There are no right or wrong answers here, just some interesting stuff to think about on a Monday in January.
