Looking In

An Office marathon, can it get better on a Wednesday night with basic network TV ? Possibly. This is the time of year that really gets me thinking. Right before the dial clicks over and we are into the next 365. Normally I have a pile of projects that got started and never finished.. good intentions on top of great ideas alongside some fantastic revelations gone stale. Not so this year. For the first time I actually feel like I have my s*** together. I spent some of my Christmas cash on organizational stuff for my life and the house.. and I actually made use of it. It is sitting there doing is job of keeping me organized and if feels incredible. I look around and instead of feeling defeated, I feel empowered. I have started looking for more things to clear up and my mind feels light and fully functioning. Having actually accomplished my unattainable to do's is making me feel ambitious. Do you ever do that? Do you feel like you could take on the world after you find a way keep your "stuff basket" clear? I started thinking of other things in my life that I could change. I am always looking for ways to improve and as the girls get older, I have more motivation to make these improvements a reality. I am not a big fan of New Years Resolutions. I love the idea but I always feel like a big fat failure when I .. well.. fail. I have recently started keeping very close track of our money. We have always had a sort of internal budget, but in an effort to make a real go at buying a house one day.. I am learning to track it all in a budget program. It has been really interesting to see where it all goes.. in all honesty it is going exactly where I thought it was in the amounts I imagined so.. that is good news in my book. I am pleased with us. There are improvements to be made but.. for the most part I have not needed any TUMS when reviewing these numbers.

This lead to thoughts about time. More specifically the way I spend my time. I think there is a lot of room for improvement in this area of my life. Particularly the time I spend alone during the girls naps and with Stephen in the evening. Lets just say there are few movies in this house that I can not quote line by line. I justify it by reminding myself that I spend my days keeping up with/ playing with/taking care of twin turbo engines. Still, would my mind be sharper and my spirits higher if I spent more time reading or doing yoga than napping to old Frasier episodes? I am curious. Somehow I am able to do my housework and cooking chores when the babies are awake.. so napping is a luxury I allow myself as a sort of reward for a job well done. Still, I wonder how my life would be different if I spent more time doing something more stimulating instead?

So. Here is my idea, my project for this new year. I am going to attempt to end 2010 with 365 posts on this blog. This is not a promise.. this is a goal, and I think it's doable so no raining on my parade, ok? I also want to make some changes to the way I spend my free time.. so I am going to document it here each day. Not sure how all this will look yet.. it's still budding in my mind but.. I am excited. I think it will be fun to see if I can start to be as pleased with the way I spend my free time as I am with the way we spend our cash.