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In the past I’ve made New Years Resolutions but I’ve never stuck with them. For one reason or another they became good intentions that never came to pass.

Last year I resolved to start working out. It was awesome, I was going to the gym about 3 times per week… and then our insurance changed with my husbands new job and the gym membership was no longer something they reimbursed me for. Without the extra $20 laying around, the gym became a thing of the past. I still miss my Body Pump class.

Technically I could work out at home. My resolution for 2012 was to use my Wii Fit every day. That occurred for maybe a week? I just don’t feel motivated to work out at home.

So this year, out with the old resolutions and in with the new. New resolutions for a new and improved me. They’re more like goals.

1. Go to Bed Earlier at Night / Get Up Earlier in the Morning.
I’m a night owl and don’t feel fully awake until noon. I also work from home which means during the school year I have a two year old around the house and in the summer a six year old as well. Starting soon I will probably be taking on part-time babysitting a friends four month old during the week. Finding time to work between taking care of the kids can be tricky so I rely on the evenings/late night to get my work done.

2. Set Work Goals.
This goes along with what I sad above. I only have limited time to get my work done so I need to be better about staying away from Facebook and Pinterest and the rest of the Internet Demons and prioritizing my work and rewarding myself with quick Facebook breaks.

In addition to my horrible time management skills, much of my work doesn’t have a definite time table. There’s a general time frame that it needs to be done, but I need to take the time to just do it without waiting until the last minute. My work is also varied. For those who don’t know, I manage multiple websites which involves listing books, new book covers, authors, etc. I need to get that info up as soon as I receive it so I’m not scrambling at the last minute. I also design book covers, I need to get those done ASAP as well, preferably working a couple months ahead of where I should be. As part of my job I also format books for Kindle. I’ve already made a change with that and now I make sure Kindle files (as well as epubs) are ready for release the same day as the print book and the PDF file on our website. The problem is that I still have a big backlog of books to get done in addition to the new ones.

3. Finish the First Draft of my Novel.
I’m not sure if I mentioned it on this blog or not (I know I mentioned on my book review blog) but I participated in National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) in 2013 and won! This means that I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days. Pretty amazing since I’ve never written past 14,000 words on one story.  However, despite having written 50,000 words to one story, it still doesn’t have an ending. Before the year is through I will have an ending to my story and be starting the process of the second draft.  This is another goal that ties into #2 – set goals. I’ve got to set aside time to sit down and write.

4. Consistently Make Weekly Meal Plans.
I think weekly meal planning is awesome and more people should do it. Myself included. I do well one week, then utterly fail the next week. It’s the sitting down and forcing myself to figure out what to make that kills me. Then sticking to it throughout the week. I’m going to try to plan a couple weeks out so that I have some leeway. Then, after work on the weekends I’ll buy what I need for the week and if I realize I don’t have an ingredient, I’ll have The Husband bring it home after work. (I bet I haven’t mentioned the fact that my car died so we are now a one vehicle family! We’re trying to hold out until tax time to purchase a mini-van. I’ve got my eye on the Honda Odyssey! But we’ll see.)

5. Blog Once a Week.
I am the first to admit that I’m a terrible blogger. Believe me, I take photos of every meal I make with the intention of blogging them later. Alas… later rarely comes. I get caught up in other things and later continues to be later. So, in 2014 I vow to blog once per week. Either on this blog or my book review blog.

6. Be More Consistent with the Kids.
Everyone says consistency is the key with kids but for me it’s hard. I am going to try to make a daily schedule that says at this time we do this, at this time we do that. Hopefully, with a little bit of time, the routine will be second nature for all parties involved. Right now the only thing I’m pretty consistent with is that as soon as The Big One gets home from school she has to do her homework.

7. Keep a Log of The Big One’s Puking.
OK, this is a weird one, I know, but hear me out. My daughter will be 7 this spring and for most of her life she’s been a puker. Long car ride? Puke. Upset that Mommy is going to the doctor? Puke. Excited to sleepover at a friends house? You guessed it. Puke.

My goal with this is to keep a detailed log of all of these incidents including how the weather was, what she had eaten, how she was feeling before she puked, etc. Try to find a way to get a handle on this. Already we’ve had two incidents – New Years Eve and today. I think today is probably a real case of the flu, but my guess was that New Years Eve was emotionally triggered, she was going to spend the night at Grandma’s house.

8. Yell Less, Talk it Out More.
I hate to admit it, but The Husband and I are both yellers. When we get to that point, it’s just easier for us to let it all out and yell at the kids. I’m hoping that #1 will help me with this, getting more sleep and all, but it breaks my heart to know what this is doing to my children and being unable to stop myself.

I told The Big One that if Mommy or Daddy yell at her, she needs to tell us, “Please don’t yell” to remind us that this is not the right way. I also had her make a resolution to cry less and instead to take a deep breath and tell us why she’s upset instead of going right to tears. Her crying at the drop of a hat is probably our number one yell trigger, it usually begins with, “STOP CRYING OVER EVERY LITTLE THING!” But it’s a two way street. We’ve all got to make the effort to get this in check and I think we’ll all be happier for it.

So there you have it. My New Years Resolutions/Goals.

Have you made any resolutions for 2014? Have you stuck to your resolutions in the past? If so, what have you found to help you keep your resolutions?