This is a tad late, but I wanted to share my 2012 resolutions, which requires your help, too.
1. More family time and vacations. A fair (or unfair, depending on how you look at it) amount of our time is spent working on our house, cleaning, and doing other work related things. While we definitely love to update our house, sometimes we feel stuck at home because we’ve got a project to finish up. Which means we don’t do nearly as much fun stuff as we’d like. So, we’re going to try to balance our time better. Whether we take an extended vacation to another state, a small in state trip, or a day at home doing something fun. I’m a workaholic, so perhaps setting up a schedule and sticking to it will help keep me off the computer doing blog business. Basically, enjoying a little more of this:
2. Simplify. I usually clean, declutter, and organize our house (or certain rooms) three or four times a year. After returning home from Minnesota, I got in a mood to clean while taking down the Christmas tree. I sorted through the boys’ toys, putting baby toys in storage, getting rid of anything with broken or missing pieces, or things with more than three pieces. Vincent is terrible at picking up his toys and I finally had enough.
I can’t wait to get the kitchen organized when we’re finished. Then I’d like to turn my attention to the neglected basement bedrooms. We’ve been stashing large and random stuff in the closets, some of which doesn’t have another place. But we could get it organized.
3. Lose 20 to 30 pounds. Hopefully putting this out there will encourage me. Before having kids, I would have been happy losing 15 pounds. But, I still haven’t lost the weight I gained when I was pregnant with Everett. Apparently my body hits a plateau, gets comfortable, and stays there for several years. Which would be great if I were already at my goal weight. Hopefully next year (or sooner!) I’ll look 30 pounds lighter than this:
Perhaps more of number one will help with this.
4. Work on new art designs. When I feel I’m going crazy, I find a creative outlet to helps me cope. I’ve already added two more prints and three cut out designs to our Etsy shop. Hopefully I can think of something pretty to share with you in 2012.
5. Finish lingering projects. We ‘finished’ our basement nearly two years ago, but we’ve still got details to wrap up. Nothing major, which is why we’ve been able to put if off for so long. Just touch up paint, adding door knobs, closet doors, and functional furniture. Ben and I are the masters of 95% completion. If just takes an eternity to get that last 5% done. Maybe this is the year.
6. Update the blog to make it better. Over the last few days, I’ve been fiddling with the arrangement, trying to make navigation easier. That includes our projects page; I’ve added category headers for definition and I’m in the process of adding photos for each project so you know what you’re getting into before clicking. But, we can always make the blog better. And here’s where we need your advice. Would you mind taking a few minutes to answer our questions?
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So, we’ve shared ours, want to share your resolution(s) with us?
ourhumbleabodeblog.com 
Those are some great resolutions! I am so excited to see what 2012 brings to Our Humble A{Bowe}d. You and Ben are so talented!
We moved recently and I “thought” I had de-cluttered and downsized significantly but not enough. I am back at it again and determined to keep only what I love and use. The rest is leaving one way or the other!
I find “things” are taking way more time than I want to invest in managing and caring for them.
For toys, we tell our 3 year old that if he doesn’t put away his toys, the toy monster will get them while he sleeps. When this happens, we keem them away for a few days and then reintroduce them. I can hardly believe it has worked as well as it has, but we have seen drastic improvements.
Also, my email had a link for a poll, but when I clicked it, it went to an error page.
Hi Wendy,
That’s a great idea. I’ll have to give that a try. 🙂 And, if you want to take the survey, here’s a link to get you there: http://ourhumbleabowed.polldaddy.com/s/2012-resolution-survey
Thanks!
Amanda
Nice goals Amanda! I think they all seem realistic and attainable = ) For me is to make my tiny blog better – though much known yet = )
Like “JD,” I need to take care of the clutter. Actually, I often take out things we don’t use, but it doesn’t seem to make a dent. To me anyway, my husband would say otherwise. I want to be more minimalist, not to an extreme, however.
Good luck!
I only shared one goal of mine, but I have a total of eight!
the pics and video of your boys are so cute!
you look great and i totally dont think you need to lose any weight – although i know that we see ourselves in a much more critical light! i could stand to lose 50lbs but that seems like such a daunting challenge so i’m just trying to reduce my portion sizes. i actually love healthy foods but i eat way too much of them! 🙂
since moving into our new house last spring, we have so many projects on our to-do list that it’s overwhelming. my goal is to focus on one project at a time, complete it, and then move onto the next. just this past weekend we closed off the extra door that was in my son’s bedroom – and will paint this week. (http://anexcellentadventure.blogspot.com/2012/01/one-where-they-built-wall.html)
we’re starting on our kitchen next. eek!
Can I have a Jennifer Hudson moment? I LOVE weight watchers. Not sure if you’ve ever tired (or tried recently bc the plan has changed), but I’m also for a diet that is not so much about dieting but a lifestyle change. I used to have a HUGE sweet tooth and the diet has really helped with that too, other than the weight loss and all 🙂 But I can relate to feeling like my body gets in a happy spot and refuses to change. I’m 4 months in and 15lbs down – -which I figure is pretty good providing I survived the holidays.
Good luck with your resolutions!!
Great resolutions!! Good luck!
Great plans! But even greater present as it is. Take it easy, and take care of you four!
I’m so glad to know I’m not the only 95% completer. I have so many little projects that are almost finished and would not take much time at all to finish up but I dread doing it. You’d think we would be excited that it’s almost over but instead I drag my feet. Hopefully I will get better about that this year.