Twelve Things for 2012

A new year of course means resolutions.  Here's a quick list of what I am hoping to work on this year.

1. Read 12 books for me.  That's one a month and when I look at it that way, it seems extremely manageable.

2. Develop a meal plan that works for my family.  I despise cooking.  I never know what to cook and my kids are EXTREMELY picky. I want to make my life easier with a meal plan.

3. Limit my computer time and focus more on my family. I spend too much time looking for the "perfect" things to do with my kids instead of spending quality time with them just doing whatever they want to.  I keep reminding myself that it is me they want, not the activity I've planned.

4. Do at least 12 of the things I have pinned on Pinterest. Looking forward to this!

5. Spend more time in nature.  I used to hike a lot and haven't in years, so I plan on doing at least 2 hikes/nature walks per month.  I'd obviously like more, but the point is to accomplish these twelve things, so I will start small.

6. Start a garden.  I always say I have a black thumb, but Bear really wants to have a garden this year.  Maybe she can turn my black thumb into a green one. 

7. Take more field trips.  I'd like to visit at least 6 museums/parks in our city that we haven't yet seen.

8. Learn to use Photoshop.  I feel I take decent pictures of my children (not talking about the blog's photos), but would love the help of Photoshop to make them even better.

9.Try to sleep 8 hours a night.  This means an earlier bedtime.  This is REALLY hard for me.  We'll see how I do.  I used to be a morning person, but having kids has flip-flopped me into a night owl and it is rare I go to bed before midnight.  I know that a lot of my impatience could be cured by more sleep.

10.  Use my copy of Parenting With Scripture more.  I love this book and need to get in the habit of using it more instead of losing my patience. 

11. Not get sucked into letting my children watch Disney movies.  So far, the few things they have watched have not helped their behavior at all.  (Nemo tells his father he hates him and tonight Bear decided to try out that line on her dad, which led us to bring out Parenting With Scripture and have a long talk with her.)  And on that note, although we love Frances books, the TV show is a no-go, as she uses the word hate in it as well and now J-jo loves to chant "Frances says Hate."  What's with the word hate on TV?  Don't they want kids to grow up LOVING others?

12. Review this list monthly, because what is the point of making it if I later forget about it?

I pray to fare better this year with my resolutions than I did last year.  How many of you have made resolutions?  Feel free to leave your links in the comments if you have blogged about your resolutions.