Forward progress

I can't remember a time that I made a written list of resolutions and managed to keep them for any length of time. But I've been thinking about a few goals that I've accomplished this year. Things that I've been meaning to get around to for awhile and finally did. This is an easier way for me to think about - having a list of goals that I will get to this year, rather than "From this day forward I will no longer ____."

Most of these happen to be domestic goals, but it's a start. I'll add some personal ones for 2012.

In 2011, I made some forward progress in these areas:

**Serving dinner at home to my family: I've struggled with this...well...since I've had a family. This summer I bought a Days-of-the-week wipe-off board at a garage sale for 50 cents and stuck it on my fridge. I also started doing once-a-month freezer cooking on a regular basis. On Sundays, I plan our meals for the week, pull out of the freezer what I need to thaw, and we're finally making it through the week without getting take-out. We usually eat out some on the weekends, just because we enjoy it and we budget for it. But during the week, dinner is on the table when Brian gets home from work or a few minutes after. *shew*

**Baking our own bread: Brian had a bread machine from his single days (can you believe that?) that has been sitting in our basement for years. I kept reading on blogs about women who never bought bread in the store and always baked their own, and while I wasn't sure I would go totally cold turkey, I wanted to try it. So I got it out, got a good recipe from a friend (thanks, Ab!), shared a bag of bread flour and yeast from Costco with another friend (thanks, Kate!), and baked my very own bread. DELIGHTFUL. Now, I'm not going to give up on store bought bread entirely, but I've been baking bread about once a week and using it as part of our meals.

**Stay within our grocery budget: I kept feeling like I couldn't find the time to cut the coupons and follow the sales the way I knew I should. And I was stressing over every cup of yogurt I put in the basket. And even though we had raised the budget a couple of times, I was STILL going over. I know it's only been a month, but this one is suddenly so much better. Emily, meet Aldi. Aldi, Emily.

**Keeping up with the laundry. Brian helped a ton with this one. We're in a routine now - I usually do a mid-week load full of stuff that we suddenly need, like a certain color shirt for preschool or a jacket that got really muddy. But other than that, we do a big push every weekend, and Brian and I are both working on it throughout the weekend until it's done. This is better than my previous routine, which was to wait until everyone is out of underwear and then swim in piles of clothes for 3 days, which might fall during a busy part of the week.

So for 2012?

**I'd like to figure out how to make exercise a regular part of my routine. Brian has done a great job with this and has been really consistent for over a year.
**De-clutter. It seems like there are tons of books out there on this topic right now (I don't read many books, but I read blogs and bloggers tend to read books and then blog about them), and I would love to decrease our stuff. One blog did a 40 bags in 40 days challenge during lent last year, which I think would be fabulous if I could get motivate.

**Get the whole family to eat more produce. I've been experimenting with ideas like putting the big bowl in the middle of the table so they are always looking at it, and slicing oranges with a knife so they look more appealing. I'd like to take more steps like these to increase improve this.