New Year's Goals for 2011

Instead of Resolutions, I am going to write my goals for this year. As a friend suggested, unmet resolutions can make one feel like a failure or discouraged enough to stop trying. So I am going to write Goals rather than resolutions. It's been proven that when people write down their goals, they have a much higher success rate than if they were to just make mental notes of their goals.

So here they are, better late than never.

1. Spend more time with family. I am making it a priority to spend more 1 on 1 time with each of my three kids, as well as making at least one day a month as a special family event. This is not so easy, as my husband works too much so having a day where he is home to do something with us is not easy to come by. His days off will usually fall on a day when the kids are in school (homeschooling was great for this, but my boys would not take their school work seriously).
2. Transition my volunteering commitments to home-based things like charity knitting rather than leaving the house to volunteer, as my children miss me and complain I’m not home enough when I volunteer. This will be a hard one for me, as I love to volunteer in my community and don’t like to turn things down. I’m committed until June, then I may allow someone to replace me. Last year I was asked by my family to quit volunteering, and I did drastically cut down the amount of time I went out to volunteer. But I get so much out of it, I decided to stay on board for another year.
3. Knit from my stash as much as possible before drooling over new yarn at my local yarn store. Very challenging, as I have just last month started to frequent this cute little store with Blue Sky alpaca…. Of course, I will allow myself to purchase things there for swaps, or special gifts, birthday projects… see how hard this is? But I definitely want to see if I can use up all my stash. That would be awesome, even though I don’t have a large enough stash. Also, yarn given to me doesn’t count for a stash diet, does it???
4. Learn how to knit and read at the same time. That would be great! I knit continental, but can learn the other way if that’s how people do it to read while they knit.
5. Really pay down my debt. Also, to set some money aside for savings/investing. That will make my hubby happy.
   
6. Actually get my taxes done on time this year. Oh, and return ALL my library books on time this year. The library makes enough money off my late fees to possibly open a new wing...
   
7. Declutter the basement. It’s No Man’s Land down there… but I want to get ALL the junk out. At least half of it by Spring. Start finishing the basement by the end of next fall.
8. Have knitted Christmas presents for each member of my family/friends done for 2011 Christmas. I wanted to do that this past Christmas, but started too late and only got a few done. This year I will plan ahead, knit ahead, and have each finished object in a Ziploc freezer baggie for me to see and remember it is done! I’ve already started by organizing a space in my closet for this, with empty freezer bags labeled with names on them. I will be going through my stash and putting the skeins for intended people inside the bags to help prepare. And maybe the pattern if I think of it.
9. Get in better shape. I plan on doing this through the winter with Wii Zumba, which is so much fun. This includes losing a few pounds/inches. I want to get rid of the muffin top, but also have more energy.

I will check back every month and see how these goals are going. Wish me luck!