Resolutions

I hope everybody had a fun, safe New Years Eve. We spent it at our friend's house down the road. We'd been planning it for a while, but then Jaime decided to make it a combined New Years Eve/Surprise Birthday Party for me. So I walked in the door, the last one because Tim had stalled, and everybody shouted "Surprise." At first I thought they were just playing around because I was the last one in or something, but then I saw that Jaime had actually made me a cake (German Chocolate, double layered and tiered) and there were gifts and balloons. It was really nice. We had dinner and played games all night. Thanks guys!

I've never really been one to set New Year's Resolutions, or maybe just not to keep them ;) But I've been thinking about a few things and figured, why not? I know if I write things down I'm more likely to actually do them, and this way I can post about them as I go.

1. First, and hopefully fastest, is the all popular "Lose Weight" resolution. I had been down to my post-baby-(even Tristen, I think)-low just before Thanksgiving. Then I went a little crazy over the holidays (oops!). I don't know how much I've gained, I don't dare get on the scale. But I KNOW that I HAVE gained because I can feel it. And I don't like it! I'm going to get serious on Tuesday. I know you're not supposed to actually set a date to lose weight, it has to be a life-style change. But we're going to Salt Lake for Tim's cousin's wedding reception tonight and I need to wait until Tim is back to work and the kids go back to school to get rid of the remaining Christmas goodies in the house (just to avoid their complaints), and Monday is my birthday. So Tuesday it is.

2. Second, and more serious, is to spend more quality time with the kids. Since I started designing blogs, and probably before then, I've spent WAY too much time at the computer and I avoid spending time with the kids. I know inside that I'm going to regret it. So, I'm going to work on staying away from the computer when I don't have an order...and I'm not blogging ;) At times in the past, usually during the summer, we've done a little homeschooling and I want to start that up again with Emme and Camden in the mornings. I'm thinking I'll let Emme pick a theme each week (or maybe we'll put several themes into a jar and add to them as we think of them, then she can draw one each week). Then we'll go to the library (and internet, uh-oh!) and gather information on that theme to learn about over the week. I'll work more with Camden on the basics. His speech has really taken off the past few months and I think he's ready to start learning the alphabet.

3. My last resolution is to get serious about photography. I really love photography but have kind of put it off to do my blog designs. But I've learned pretty much everything I want to know about designing and HTML now and really shouldn't need to spend so much time on that (when I'm not actually working on an order) anymore. I'm participating in a little study group on the photography forum my cousin told me about, but I think I'll kind of do what I'm going to do with the homeschooling and just pick one aspect at a time to research and really understand. The problem is that I find most of my information on-line, which brings me back to the computer. So I'm just going to have to find a nice balance.

So, that's all! I wouldn't want to overwhelm myself ;) and Tim is rushing me to get ready to go to Salt Lake. I'll keep you all updated.