Happy New Year! I know I'm officially in my 30s because I'm finding myself choosing a "word of the year." Last year my word was "baby." Or maybe it was a phrase: "survive baby." I knew I planned to get pregnant, and I also knew I had a history of debilitating pregnancy and postpartum recovery periods. And so I find myself feeling really fulfilled and proud of myself looking back on my year! Did I accomplish anything besides "baby"? Not really. But the whole list was "baby," and it was freaking hard, and I did it! And Alice did it! One of our most impressive years yet! Fist pump.
Now that I have two kids and decreasing free time, I am finding myself craving something I never thought I would care about: organization. Systems. Working smarter, not harder. And so my phrase for 2023 is "Get Organized." I guess I'm FIRMLY planted in my 30s now. I spent most of my life operating under the misconception that organizing was pointless, boring, maybe pretentious?, and a waste of time. Now I'm seeing that if I put in the work this year to create better, more efficient systems for my own life and our home/family life, I will spend future years wasting much LESS time and able to enjoy living in the present more.
Here are a few areas that are currently problematic, inefficient, or nonexistent that I'd like to figure out/"get organized" in 2023. Probably won't get to all of them but it's a good direction and I'll be happy just to get to the end of the year and know that there's been progress:
1: Sickness Prevention. In the past we'd all get maybe one cold each winter. But since Jack started preschool it's a new virus (or two) every month for everyone. I know there's only so much we can do to prevent, but we're not doing great at them currently. So in 2023, vitamins for everyone! Water intake! More fruits and veggies! Better hand washing! And if all that doesn't carry us through next winter more healthy, then I give up and will probably never bother with vitamins again haha.
2. Home Organization. Instead of finding things for people in 2023, I'm teaching them how to find things themselves. And put things away too. It's a needed life skill. Jared does this well, but we tend to put things away in different places. So we're also going to carve out intentional places for everything so no one has to spend an hour or more out of their week looking for random things.
3. Regular purging/donations. The playroom is getting out of hand and Jack does not know how to let go of old/unused/broken toys. Honestly our bedroom is out of hand too. I'm probably the problem, it's me.
4. Family gospel study
5. Meal planning/grocery ordering system. This is the year I figure out how to meal plan and order groceries casually as I go throughout my week, and not in a panic when we're completely out of eggs, milk, and planned dinners. I actually have a goal to cook LESS this year because I want cooking to be a lifelong love for me. So I'm only going to cook when I'm excited about it (most nights I am), and on the off nights I'd like to lean into corn dogs and canned veggies.
6. Screen time plan. For me, replace evening screen time with reading by the fire. Something I've wanted to do for a while but will feel extra cozy once the built-ins are done and filled with books.
7. Kid eating strategy/plan. Jack was a great eater until this last year. I knew this was a possibility going into my pregnancy, as I knew I'd be spending most of the year in survival mode, not cooking, and hoping Jack could find his own snacks to stay fed. I'm glad he was able to do that, but now that I'm enjoying getting back into cooking it's time to figure out how to get my good lil' eater back. I have the Feeding Littles online course that I'll probably tackle next month. Bring it on.
8. Jack extracurricular activities for the summer so he's not just stuck at home all day with his mom. Age 5 is PRIME for running around with friends all summer, but we just don't have that kind of neighborhood here (going to be top of our list for our next move). Hopefully extracurriculars can pick up a smidgeon of the slack. (swim lessons, flag football, that kind of thing)
9. Family vids and pics organized and printed for walls
10. Home economy system. Aka, a chore chart and introducing Jack to the idea of earning, saving, budgeting, and spending money. Also introducing Jack to "listen here bucko, time to pull some weight and make a habit of picking up after yourself." I guess the economy system is slightly different than the chore chart. That's what this year is for though. We'll figure it out.
Ok, that was probably way more info than anyone needed, but there's my general direction for the year. And for Grandma (Hi Grandma!) here is a teaser picture from Alice's blessing yesterday. I need to compile all of the pictures on the computer and I'll share more next week. But for now, it was a beautiful day with family and my beautiful baby girl.
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