Resolutions 2013

As part of my attempt to get back into blogging, I'm going to be completely original and post some resolutions for the new year. Exciting, right? In no particular order...

• Wear a smaller jean size by my birthday - if I lost 15 pounds, I could wear everything in my closet. I've lost 33 pounds since Grace was born (yeah breastfeeding!), so I just need to get stricter and keep on top of what I eat. This probably means keeping a food log, which is no fun, but it works
• Not eat out so much - if money was no object, I would gladly eat out every meal. I was doing great about cooking nearly every night, but then pregnancy and new baby derailed me. Now that the baby is 16 (!) months, I don't have so much of an excuse anymore :-I
• As part of eating at home more, meal plan. If I commit to planning something, and have it written down, I feel (slightly) obligated to follow the plan.
• Drink less soda and coffee shop coffee. I don't keep soda at home, but it's not uncommon for DH to be nice and bring me something a few times a month. Those few times do add up, both in my wallet and on me. The drinks also start to feel more like a need and less like a treat. By limiting soda to when we do eat out (which will be less), and coffee to special outings with DH, they will both seem more special.
• Physically move more (see the first item on list). I don't know if that means finding time to walk around the neighborhood (which I don't want to do with the kids by myself, or all by myself), or if it means doing something inside the house (to the amusement of BB, I'm sure)...
• Find a church and stay there. My family and I have visited nearly every church in our area, and there's just no perfect church. There really isn't. We kept expecting to feel "led" to a certain church, but as that hasn't happened, it looks as though the best thing to do is just find a church that has the least objections and attend. I realize that this is a complex issue and I am simplifying it a bit in interest of this list. I will probably write more about this item on a later date.
• Budget. I think we do okay spending-wise except for eating out and drinks. But we do have a little bit of debt that has lingered around that we have been slow to pay off, and we don't have as much in the emergency fund as we should have. So, by being more conscious of our spending, we will hopefully end 2013 with those items taken care of.

Well, that's my completely original list. I just know that no one else has a list like this ;)