Resolved: to BE resolved!

I have a love/hate relationship with New Years Resolutions.

Funny how, once we get a taste of how much work KEEPING them is gonna be, we kinda pretend we never made those promises, isn't it?  I find most years, by the time February rolls around, I've all but forgotten my resolutions.  It usually isn't until most of the Christmas festivities are over each year that I think to myself, "Oh shoot, I wonder if I've kept my resolutions?!  Now where did I write them down...."  Sound familiar??

I've heard Jonathan Edwards' 70 Resolutions talked about before, but never actually looked them up until quite recently. (here's the list ~ the numbers are messed up because the resolutions have been categorized after they were initially written down. In fact, it appears Mr. Edwards spent several years compiling this list.)  I can't believe he determined read them through WEEKLY to continually evaluate his progress.  SEVENTY resolutions EVERY WEEK!  That's ten a day!!

Definitely more ambitious than I am!

I've spent some time thinking about resolutions this year and the one I keep making year after year, but have trouble quantifying and even knowing if I'm working at it ~ namely, to make sure the people around me don't just hear I care about them, but that I actually make them FEEL cared for.  That's a very difficult one on which to measure success or progress!  I've tried to break that down into several slightly more concrete goals, so here's what I've come up with:

• Quit looking like a slob around the house and try to look nice for my husband even if I'm just home all day doing my usual thing.
• Have a date night once a month, whether at home or out.  (and if it's at home, it has to be different from our usual sit-on-the-couch-and-watch-TV routine after the girls go to bed!)
• Learn how to make pie crusts and make more pies!  (this was a promise I made last week to The Man, who sometimes complains of the meaninglessness of a life lived without pie)
• Take the garbage right out to the shed where it's stored while awaiting the next trip to the dump instead of just leaving it in the back porch for The Man to deal with once he's tired of how full the room is getting.
• Cook supper together with each of the girls once a week.
• Stay OFF THE COMPUTER while the girls are at home and awake (excepting weekends and other days when they're home all day ~ then I may allow myself some time)
• Have the pastor couple over for a meal once a month.
• Send the school principal and the girls' teachers little thank you notes (with or without little gifts of appreciation) at least 5 times throughout the school year.
• Have friends over for a meal twice a month (weekend company doesn't count towards fulfilling this goal!)
• Have people we don't know quite as well but would like to get to know better over for coffee at least once a month.

 As if that list wasn't daunting enough, there's a few more generic ones:

• Wash/dry/put away dishes, sweep, and clear off the dining room table every evening.
• Open a savings account for both girls (and determine together with The Man what "expenses" they will be responsible for.  I hate giving them the amount they get for allowance, specifically dividing it up into give, spend, and save percentages, but then ending up letting them use their savings as spending money for useless, frivolous junk anyway.  Seems a little pointless to call it "savings"!)
• Open an RESP for both girls.  (Mack is already too old to qualify for the additional government grant, but if we do it this year, at least AJ still does)
• Follow my modified eating plan for the ENTIRE YEAR, summer included
• Review this list weekly!

Here's to a successful 2013 and a New Year's Day next year where I DON'T have to admit I haven't changed at all!!