Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The Year of the D's

So we are officially three days into 2012, and I have finally decided on my New Year's Resolutions.  They all begin with the letter "D" for some reason, so I'm going to roll with it.

1) Devotion
I want to place more importance on my daily prayer life.  Luckily, I am able to attend Mass four days a week at work, but I want to add to that more family rosaries and maybe a weekly Adoration and Benediction. 

2) De-Clutter
This is a huge priority for me this year, and we've already made great progress over the past long weekend.  I cleaned out the kid's coat closet and found seven size 8 boy's jackets.  Seven!  And they were all hand-me-downs.  Now we only have one spring jacket and one winter jacket in each size. 
When my house is clean and clutter-free, my whole life feels so much better.  I am at peace and I want for nothing.

3) Diet
Well, what would a New Year's Resolution be without a renewed commitment to diet and exercise.  I've got the exercise part under control, but I'm trying to be more strict in what I eat during the week, and save treats for the weekend.

4) Discipline
I'm talking about general discipline in all areas of my life.  I want to be disciplined enough to stop procrastinating what I need to do, and actually complete the tasks before falling on the couch every night.  I want to be disciplined in everything from my half-marathon training to my use of Natural Family Planning.  I want to serve my kids a home cooked meal every night and stop our weekly McDonald's trips.  I want to be disciplined in flossing my teeth and taking my vitamins.  I want to be thankful for all the gifts God has bestowed upon our family and stop seeing what I think I'm missing.  Basically I want to be healthy physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally - and it all takes discipline.

5) Debt
We have been trying to save a little each month for the past few years, and now I'm finally at a point where I want to stop saving temporarily, and start paying off debt more aggressively.  The way I have it planned (and we all know how funny God thinks our plans are) is that we will have my van, Phil's van, our IRS loan, and our college loans paid off in two years.  It is worth living simply to be freed from debt!  Of course we will still have our mortgage and car payments once we need replacement vehicles, but we're striving to get rid of our current debt as quickly as possible.

I hope by the end of the year I will feel that I accomplished at least some of these goals.  Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future, and today is a gift from God - that's why it's called the present.  I want to live each day recognizing that gift and challenging myself to make the most of it. 

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

5 comments:

  1. I want to make a lot of people happy this year...starting with my family. I want to see my kids laughing and hubby laughing a lot. I LIKE HAPPY!

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  2. What a great list!! I'm going to (hopefully) post this week my word for 2012. I think I need just a word to focus on this year and then incorporate that into different areas of my life.

    BUT, I do have a few goals this year too. One is to get back in shape and be in the best shape I've ever been...including trying to take up running and doing at least one 5K (thanks for all the inspiration for me to get off my bum and try!!;) I think I need to work on giving myself a break once in a while this year too. I have a lot of 'Mom Guilt' and try to do too many things and push myself a lot of the time. Need to let go of a lot of the perfectionism. With two little ones in the house this year I figure it's a good time to start letting that all go ;)lol.

    Happy 2012!!!

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  3. How cool that you themed your resolutions around the same letter! We have some similar goals. :o)

    I'm a new follower and fellow Catholic Mother Online. Please feel free to stop by my blog! :o)

    Jamie
    For Love of Cupcakes

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  4. Blah. You're all good and stuff. The extent of my resolutions were "Try to not yell at everyone who has the misfortune of crossing paths with you. Maybe cut it down to yelling at every other one. Or every third one."

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  5. Good for you!! Lofty goals, but I know you can do it.
    I've not made a resolution in years, perhaps I should start?
    Happy new year!!!

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