New Year’s Resolutions 2014

On Wednesday I published my past new year’s resolutions. Creating a goal every year or so has really helped me to accomplish a great deal in my life. Last year I wrote “The Neverending Story of Home Renovation” at the beginning of January, which helped me to create the “Project List.” This lineup will be along the same lines but will be specific things that I want to finish this year. It will include life goals as well as home renovation projects. Here they are in no particular order. I was going to try to list them in order of importance, but it was too difficult to decide which were more significant.

1) Leave the country – I try to leave the country at least once every year. If you read this post, then you know that I have succeeded more often than not. I do not want to break the streak now. I have a trip planned for China in March. One more dot on my map at least.

2) Write at least one post a month in Spanish – I am a Spanish teacher, and I have many friends who do not speak English. I would like for them to enjoy my blog as well, but so far I have not been diligent about writing in Spanish. These will be at “Cabo de sueños en español.”

3) Move more – No, NOT to a new house, just my body. Moving is more important than exercising, and all exercising is a form of movement. I am determined to be more active overall and hope to “exercise” at least five days a week for a minimum of a half an hour. It would be nice if this would lead to some weight loss, but I would be content to just be in better condition. Kahlua will also be happy if I take her for more walks.

4) Visit one of the last six states on my list – I have been to 44 of the 50 states and hope to get to all of them. My goal is to have all 50 checked off by age 50, but I will do at least one of them this year. That means a visit to Maine, Utah, Washington State, Oregon, Alaska or Hawaii before 2015.

5) “Finish” the kitchen – I had to put finish in quotations, because nothing in my house is ever truly finished. However, there are only a few things left to make this room more acceptable to me. The first is to replace the counters. I despise the counters that we currently have and will be happy to see them go. Then, we need to move one outlet and tile the back splash. We already bought the tile and have been waiting a year and a half to get to this step. After some touch up painting and painting the back door, I will be happy with this room. There are a few other things that I would like to do eventually, but they are not necessary for my comfort.

6) Take better care of the garden – Last year we planted a lot, but then we traveled for most of the summer, did not water the plants and lost most of them. This year I want to be a better steward and harvest more.

7) Do more for Douglas – I need to be a better wife. He does so much for me, and I do not do nearly as much for him. He is part of the problem, because he refuses to ask when he needs help or even admit that he might need assistance with anything. That means that I have to guess when there is something that I could do for him.

8) Finish cleaning out and organizing the basement – It has come a long way for the hoarder’s basement we started out with in 2013, but it still needs a great deal of work. We had one garage sale last year and made over $400. I am hoping to have another one this summer to get rid of even more. There are also some items that I would like to put on Craigslist.

9) Paint all of the trim in the living room and dining room – How embarrassing that it has taken us this long to do. I am sick of looking at half painted crown molding and baseboard, not to mention the door in the living room. I would eventually like to replace that door with a solid one, but in the meantime a coat of paint would make it look much better.

10) “Finish” the dining room – I love my little black and white table and my great grandmother’s chairs that I painted and recovered the seats. It was a great look for my last two apartments, but it just does not fit the decor of the Cape of Dreams. I will look for a good home for the little table, and recover the chair seats with a fabric that will tie in the colors of the room. I may have to repaint them, but I am hoping that I will not have to. I also need to refinish my great grandmother’s dining room table.

11) Regrout the tile in the bathroom – There are more projects that need done in the bathroom. The tile for the floor is sitting in boxes in the basement, for example. However, I do not want to be overly ambitious in my list for this year. I am going to focus more on the kitchen and dining/living rooms and be happy if the tile gets regrouted.

I realize that there are more than ten items on this list. I had to refrain myself from adding even more. There are so many things that I would like to accomplish this year, but I need to be realistic and focus on my efforts. Wish me luck! Is anyone else creating new year’s resolutions?

Happy Homemaking?