A Cold New Year

It is 17 degrees outside right now! I took Lucy to school and bundled us all up: hats, gloves, mittens, coats. When I dropped her off, I noticed the other kids had coats on (not zipped) but none of the other attire I consider crucial to surviving the chilly air. At least we still have our Texas plates on our car so they know we're rookies at this sort of thing and definitely not used to anything below 35!

I love the start of a new year. Beth Moore has a great spiritual outlook on her blog. But right now I am thinking more on the practical side. I have a lot of things I am wanting to do better and like the idea of having a time to start fresh with it all.

1) Our budget. Now that we have been in Missouri a few months and know generally what things cost, I'd really like to be able to track every dollar that we spend more accurately. Mark is so great about managing our finances both short term and long term and trusting me with the spending of it all. But there is much need for improvement on my end and I'm challenging myself to see how far I can make our money stretch. I already use coupons but if anyone has any other special ways of savings I'd love to hear about it!

2) Managing my home. More specifically, cleaning. I was not blessed with the clean gene and I mean in regards to both cleanliness and clutter. Sure, I have two kids at home but I know several other mothers who manage their children and their homes. Lucy is willing & able to help and I need to take advantage of that now. Again, anyone have a good system for keeping things up? I tend to do one day of major cleaning and it wears me out. I have tried breaking it up with a little each day but I don't have the discipline to stick with it.

I won't list anymore because I feel overwhelmed just looking at those two! I am grateful that one I have had listed in the past is accomplished and that is in cooking. I hate to cook (probably because I am such a picky eater and don't like to eat many things) but with help from friends and a great free subscription to Kraft Food & Family, I can organize my meal planning a month at at time with one trip a week to the grocery. And we don't eat the same meal again for another month! It's not always fancy eating, well ok, it's never fancy (we just had homemade bacon wrapped corn dogs the other night - yum!) but it's better than nothing.

So happy 2008 and happy goal-making!