A New Year

I told Jared on New Years' Eve that I had some resolutions and I wanted to know his. He kind of made fun of me, but then he sat down and wrote his own list.

I do not believe in "resolutions" per say. I believe in setting goals and working actively to achieve those goals.

I think that 2009 holds some exciting things for me. Here are the goals that I have set forth to accomplish.

1.) Graduate with a BS in Social Science this year. I am in my last semester, and with some hard work, I will finally have a college degree.

2.) Get out of debt. We are sitting now at just over 20,000 in debt. We managed to pay it down over the last year. Jared and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary in December, and we have never been out of debt. We hope to pay off that debt this year and release ourselves of that burden.

3.) Get organized. There are places in my house that always have stacks of things that "need to be done". My desk is the main culprit. I spent some time last weekend cleaning, and managed to have only a pen on the desk when I was done. We are going to invest in some organizational tools so that everything in the house has a place and is in that place. We even made room in the budget this month to cover those expenses.

4.) Get rid of things in our house that are unnecessary. We have things sitting around that were once useful but that have worn out their usefulness. I am going to recycle them into things that are useful or pass them on to someone who can use it. This includes transferring all our old VHS movies to DVD etc.

5.) Take more photos and videos of Daphne. I feel like there are periods of time that I don't photograph or video Daphne very much. I am hoping to make photos or video of things that she is doing at least 3 times per week. Additionally, I want to post on the blog more (3x per week) because the things Daphne do now often morph into other things and are lost forever if not documented.

6.) Have a successful VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section) with our next baby. I have worked hard to set up the perfect circumstances for birthing a baby. Daphne's birth was fairly tramatic to me, and though I am at peace with it now, I feel like a lot of spiritual mileage can me made from a lovely VBAC.

7.) Discover the direction of my photography. I have been shooting weddings and fine art for some time at a fairly intense rate. By taking the next wedding season off, I have the ability to reevaluate where my photography is going and possibly work on some projects of my own that will help to further my photography.

8.) Get healty. I am feeling ill with this pregnancy, and it is causing me problems. I have never been so fat (literally). I may top 200 pounds with this pregnancy, which is a bit excessive for a 5 foot 2 woman. I am going to get on the treadmill and try out some yoga to make it easier to live with my body and get it back in shape when I've got 2 munchkins to chase around.

9.) Expand my garden. Last year, I had a very successful garden. I need to tune it more down to what we will eat and in what quantities. My garden will be a supplement to our CSA, and the veggies I grow will have to be different than the ones we get from the CSA. I am excited to branch out and do a more focused garden.

10.) Expand my animals and get better at it. I had a rough year with the animals. The goats did well, but I did loose quite a few chickens, and tragically, two of my prized rabbits (within the same week). I am getting more educated about the rabbits and working to be a better rabbit keeper. I have put the animals in Daphne's name with a heard name that will help her to expand as a future 4-H member. We can register our animals and make more meat for our table and more fiber for our clothing that will help us live more sustainably. I love using animals to work in tangent with our lives to improve them. Being a better caretaker will make this whole process more successful.

11.) FINISH MY DIAPERS. Thew new baby has quite a collection of diapers, but they are not all even done. I need to get them done as well as the auxillary pants and other things I am planning to do so that when the baby arrives, I do not feel like I have a lot of undone projects.

If I managed to accomplish all of those things, we will have a fantastic day enjoying our family and our projects while we grow as people. Here is to a new adventure.

4.) Get creative