The To-Dos of 2013

Before I became a Momma, New Years Eve marked a day of purging, cleaning and fresh starts. I would excitedly spend the day scrubbing the house from top to bottom, toothbrush in hand to hit all the tiny crevices, emptying out drawers and filling trash bags full of items no longer in use eager to purge our home of any and all clutter.  While this gave me goosebumps of excitement, it would send my husband into a spiral of nerves as he would try to save whatever belongings he could sneak out of the donation piles without me noticing.  You see, he isn't quite on board the "I hate clutter" train.  Instead, he tends to try to derail it.  But, once this train gets a moving, there is no stopping her.  (He hasn't quite figured out that I know all of his stash spots, so the next day I visit them all, reclaiming the clutter he tries to keep.  He has never noticed that I take them back.)

Once my marathon cleaning and purging sessions are over, marked only by floors clean enough to eat off and a trunk full to the brim of donations, I would get out my trusty notepad and one of my adored pens and go to town mapping out my resolutions and to-dos for the upcoming year.  You see I'm one of those people.  You know the ones...the organized to the brim, always working on a to-do project, activities planned out months in advance type of person.  Think Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner (and I will unashamedly admit that I have vacuumed cleaned my curtains before).  It gave me thrills to be so organized and on top of things, a giddy high that few other things in life can give me. 

Enter motherhood.  I gave birth to the love of my life on December 28, 2011.  We came home from the hospital New Years Eve that year and for the first time in my entire existence, I didn't scrub my house down, I didn't purge the house to its bare necessities and I certainly didn't map out any plans for the upcoming year.  Instead, I spent the day doing something far more important - I took care of my daughter.  I fed her, I held her, I sang to her, I changed her diaper far too many times to count and I fell completely and madly in love with her.  I let the organized to the till Heather go and embraced the go with the flow Momma within me.

When 2013 began its stealthily approach, I began to freak out a bit.  I desperately wanted to partake in my ritual of cleaning and purging, but with an active one year old on board and a growing pregnant tummy, it just wasn't realistic.  Don't get me wrong, I still clean and I still purge, but its done over time now a days.  However, I could still manage to hold onto one of my pre-Momma traditions and I so I sat down and mapped out some to-dos for the upcoming year.  They aren't as detailed or time consuming as they once were, but frankly nothing in my life is after motherhood.



1.  Focusing more time on cultivating a strong family core for my growing family.  This will be another year of change for us as we welcome our second child in May.  I want my children to know how valued and loved they are and for my husband to never doubt or second guess my feelings for him.  I want to make lasting family memories and traditions.

2.  Have more face to face interactions with people.  In this technology driven age, it is so easy for me to text or email someone, but it takes a bit more effort to actually drive over and see them face to face. 

3.  Getting our backyard and garden renovation underway and completed.  This will be our big DIY project of the year, but one I am super excited about. 

4.  Finish Daisylynn's baby book, start the new baby's book and create a scrapbook for the family's year.  Scrapbooking is one of the things I miss most, so I'm excited to work on craving some time out each week for me to do something I love.  I'm going to try out Project Life this year, which I'm hoping will be a bit easier than my traditional scrapbooking.

5.  Get better organized.  Yep, I want to be even more organized than I already am.  I think the biggest areas I need to concentrate on are meal planning (I really stink at this) and creating better daily cleaning routines.  Right now I love to spend an entire day scrubbing the house down, but that is not working as well as it should since time is more of an issue than ever before.  I've been sneaking peeks every now and again at Flylady and I'm going to try to implement some of her daily routines into our life.  I know for a fact I won't commit to all of her advice (I'm just not a set the timer and clean for fifteen minutes type of gal), but I'm enjoying her take on creating a daily routine. 

6.  Continue on our real food/green living journey.  I'm looking forward  to making more of our own goods, including bread, green cleaners, laundry soap and trying out some new things, like no poo.  I would also really like to try a CSA out.

7.  Update the master bedroom with some better photo collages.  Frankly our wall arrangements suck and I'm looking forward to sprucing them up a bit.

8.  Once the baby is born, I want to focus on getting back to a healthy weight.  I foresee lots of walks with the little ones in my near future.

9.  Stay within budget.  Saving money for rainy days and living within our means are very important ideas that Mark and I strive to live by.  I want to focus more attention on tracking our spending, cutting back where we can and saving whatever is left over.

10.  Start a blog.  Honestly, I don't really know where this idea came from, but I kept coming back to this idea over and over again.  Frankly I miss writing now that I am done with school.  I miss sitting in front of the computer, typing rhythmically away, pouring my thoughts out of my mind and onto the screen.  I miss the realization that comes with it.  So, I'm going to blog or at least attempt to blog. 

What to-dos did you create for 2013?