After a lovely evening playing board games with friends, Darling Man and the Boy and I came home, had a small toast to the new year and fell into bed. This morning, the first of a brand new year, I made myself a pot of tea and sat down to think about what I would like to change about me and my surroundings.
I know that resolutions don't really work - the level of expectation is unrealistic when one does that - but I do have goals that I've been working on and will continue to work on with regards to my health. I've joined Weight Watchers to try and get a grip on my weight issues. I've been exploring dietary and exercise changes to help deal with diabetes and high blood pressure. My diabetes medication makes me quite sick, but I'm leery of a change at this point, as my mom had a severe reaction to a change in her medication. I react to almost everything pharmaceutical - to me it's a better bet to just not need to take them than to start trying different ones. That's what I'm aiming for. I want to participate in at least four 5K races this year. I walk them rather than running, but it keeps me active in that I don't dare slack off on the walking every day since I know I've got a race coming up.
That health stuff is an on-going project. The REAL project for this year is to do something about my house. We've been living here for six and a half years and it still looks like we've just moved in!
I got out my legal pad and started making a hit list and had four pages full by the time I got to the top of the stairs! I stopped at that point - I want to make myself a note book to keep these ideas in. Here are some examples of what I want to do:
SMALL HALLWAY (between family room and garage) - New register cover, curtain for door window, paint woodwork, replace light fixture, clean out closet, put up a new cork board, lay laminate on the floor (which would be a continuation of the family room).
FAMILY ROOM - Lay new flooring, get rid of shelves and get a proper TV stand, hem curtains, buy area rug, fix rocking chair and reupholster.
KITCHEN - this is pretty much a renovation... I've been slowly replacing appliances so now I'm down to the stove and range hood - move fridge to opposite wall, build peninsula and cabinets, remove upper cabinets along the sink wall and install open shelving, paint cabinets white, tile countertops with a light to medium grey tile, paint, install lighting in the pantry, new lighting over sink and ceiling light, new stone-motif vinyl floor.
That's just three rooms. The living room and dining/sitting room, downstairs bathroom and the staircase have their own lists and I haven't even started the upstairs or outside list! There's a lot to be done and it'll probably take more than a year to get it all done - but we've been kind of skating along for the last 6 years, so it's time to start tackling some of this.
In the meantime, I've made a couple of little changes that will get us started...
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| The living room has chairs in it. Still waiting to get rid of dining set, so we still have the china cabinet in there, but it's a move back towards living room status. |
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| A new sofa sleeper in the sitting/dining room is a welcome addition when we have overnight guests.
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4 comments:
I agree about the resolutions - I always feel like I'm just setting myself up for failure but, like you, I really want to make some life changes this year. We'll have to keep each other on point so this time next year we can giddily say "We did it!"
Wow, you have your work cut out for you! Good luck, it'll be worth it.
okay... you made me feel guilty. I need to write a bunch of lists. sigh. :)
I heard on the radio a woman talk about 5-minute resolutions...instead of cramming the whole pizza in your mouth at once, take little bites. I think making lists will probably help with that!
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