Before I think about my resolution for this month, I thought I’d look at my new year’s resolutions to see how I’m doing.

Obviously, I’m continuing my new month’s resolutions!

I haven’t yet made my to-do lists for tourist attractions to see before we move, but we did go to the Udvar-Hazy Center (Air and Space Museum) and I’ve scheduled some field trip somewhere next Tuesday, and Mount Vernon is free on the 19th, so we’ll probably go there too (I’ve not yet been in the house).

Organizing closets, going through photos, getting rid of stuff…not yet.

Haven’t touched hair dye so far. Resolve breaking down…

Did I really say I was going to potty train the baby ASAP? I think I meant that for next year…

I’m making an effort to run – 54.6 miles in January…not bad since I took a week off when I hurt my back.

Did January’s First Friday and have put this Friday’s Mass on my calendar.

Despite my whining yesterday, I have been doing some baking. A little more than usual. I did make a pie – pecan pie. I don’t like pecan pie, but Bill does. He thought it was good. Visually speaking, it needed work. Practice, practice, practice. As for sewing…the machine has a thin coating of dust…

And one-on-one time with the kids? It’s tough. We’re squeaking it in, but, interestingly enough, Billy really seems to prefer to include Fritz and the girls want to include each other. Fritz, though, would prefer alone time with Dad (not me)…like 3 hours every day minimum. Yeah, me too, buddy.

And this month? Looking at the above recap, the most guilt comes with the sewing. I promised Billy over a week ago that I would sew on his Bobcat patch for his Cub Scouts uniform…it’d be nice to do that before he gets his Tiger patch this month. I must finish my niece’s Communion dress. Bill wants a fabric book cover and all the kids want aprons (they’ve been reading the Kitchen Madonna‘s blog, I guess). I’ve got lots of extra ACU (camouflage) fabric that will do nicely for the book cover and aprons for the boys. And two of Petey’s footed PJs have holes in the toes (they are on boy #3 after all!). So this month’s resolution is to take care of these sewing projects and to continue to chip away at my goals for the year.

Let’s hear it, folks. How are your new year’s resolutions coming? What’s your resolution for this month?

Unlike my new month’s resolutions (which you can learn all about by clicking on the handy-dandy tag at the bottom of the post freeing me from the tedium of actually providing a link), it just wouldn’t be a new year without pie-in-the-sky optimism and some year-long goals for which to strive. Here are mine for this new year 2007:

1. Keep up the new month’s resolutions. Some of my simple, month-long commitments are challenging enough! I have no idea in January what I will need most to focus on in July, so setting monthly goals is helpful.

2. Speaking of July, we’re supposed to move to Kansas this summer. And we’re only supposed to be there for eleven months. So for this entire year, I plan to be in tourist mode. Later this month, I’ll come up with a list of must-dos in the D.C. area. Then I’ll come up with my Kansas to-do list. At some point, I’ll plan my en route to-do list. Suggestions welcome.

3. Because of the move, I have yet another opportunity to go through all of my possessions and part ways with all the things that someone else might love better and organize everything that I simply must keep.

4. Top on my list of things to organize: photos. Job #1: make backups of all my digital pics – just in case. Job #2: sort and store photos according to the various photo albums that I plan to make some other year.

5. I resolve to not color my hair at all this year. (My money says this will last until March.) I used to have very healthy, although very bland, light brown hair. Two years ago, I made the mistake of going very blond, just for fun, and I’ve regretted it ever since. My hair hasn’t done well under the stress of coloring, and I’ve tried to go back, but after a month the darker color fades away. You see, going blond, as opposed to going red or black, removes color from your hair. Color that you can only grow back. We’ll see just how long I can hold out with a two-tone hairdo. Or I just may go back to a short bob.

6. I resolve to potty train Pete right now. Starting tomorrow. He is 18 months old and can correctly identify when he’s stinky. I’m going for it. I’ve gone the gamut of potty-training and know that each kid will be a unique challenge. I figure I’ll start this one on my terms. In 4 or 5 months, he’ll be too contrary to everything that I propose he do. Besides, Jenny has already baptized every room of the house. If I’m successful by the time we move, I may have one urine-free home.

7. I already wrote about my PT goals for the year. They are limited because I hope to conceive and bear a healthy child this year. I’ll do my part: eat nutritious food, exercise regularly, enjoy lots of physical intimacy with Bill. The rest is up to God; so I’ll add some extra prayers to my regular line up.

8. Spiritually, I’d like a challenge too. I got an email two days ago from a friend proposing First Fridays for a group of us. I’ll have to see if I can get my non-Catholic friend to babysit the two little ones, since most daily Masses are around noon. In addition, Bill gave me a leather-bound book containing The Imitation of Christ, The Dark Night of the Soul, and The Interior Castle. I’m eager to dig in. But first, I want to finish The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Good Living – hysterical.

9. I resolve to get more in touch with my inner June Cleaver by sewing and baking more. I’m making my niece’s First Holy Communion dress right now. The pattern is actually pretty easy, and I think I’ll make some dresses for the girls for Easter. And I definitely want to make a slew of military Christmas stockings this summer. My little business did quite well – I had to stop pursuing orders because I ran out of white fluff and I ran out of time. If I can make them over the course of the year, my Advent won’t be quite as stressful and rushed. I’ve had the material to make red vests for the boys and my husband to wear for Christmas for several years now, and never done it. This is the year! And baking more. Bake bread. Bake cookies. And bake pies. I am not talented at baking pies. The only way to get talented is to practice. And so, one per month is a good, husband-approved goal. And I know just which one I’m going to make for him this month.

10. I resolve to spend one-on-one time with each of the kids every month. Bill and I will schedule 30 minutes a month with each kid. That may not seem like much, but right now they get zero. Scheduled-time that is. It’s hit or miss, or we count that hour in the emergency room while waiting for our turn, or it’s “the boys” and Dad or “the girls” and Mom going somewhere. This will be just one parent and one kid doing a kid-selected activity. After the half hour, other kids can join in (playing with Legos, at the playground, reading stories), but for that half hour, it will be a private activity. And we’ll mark it at the beginning of the month, so the kids will know when and can plan ahead.

Well, that’s enough. Pretty ambitious if you ask me. But I think the best way to improve oneself is by setting realistic, but difficult goals and keeping them in your mind often. What are your resolutions for the year?

In this hectic month of planning, shopping, decorating, and baking, I resolve that every day at some point between the hours of 2 and 4 pm, I will rest for 15 minutes. I will make a cup of hot tea with lemon and put on some nice music. I think I have a CD of Advent themed Gregorian chants which will be perfect.

I will not address Christmas cards at this time. I will not flip through cook books. And I will do everything I can to turn off the nagging voice that constantly adds things to my mental to-do list.

What’s your new months’ resolution? What is a new month’s resolution?

Ah, a new month. A fresh start in some small aspect of my life.

A few weeks ago, my sister proposed a novel writing challenge as my November resolution. I guess it’s a big thing. The objective: to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of November. Here are some FAQs, if you seem inclined (you can sign up to participate through the end of November). Some of my favorite quotes off their website:

Can anyone participate in NaNoWriMo? No. People who take their writing (and themselves) very seriously should probably go elsewhere. Everyone else, though, is warmly welcomed.

If I’m just writing 50,000 words of crap, why bother? Why not just write a real novel later, when I have more time?

There are three reasons.

1) If you don’t do it now, you probably never will. Novel writing is mostly a “one day” event. As in “One day, I’d like to write a novel.” {snip}

2) Aiming low is the best way to succeed. With entry-level novel writing, shooting for the moon is the surest way to get nowhere. With high expectations, everything you write will sound cheesy and awkward. {snip}

3) Art for art’s sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the hell of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and “must-dos” of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives.

And I can no longer find it, but there was something earlier on their website about doing it because randomly quoting your own novel at parties is so much fun.

Well, I was all ready to jump on the NaNoWriMo bandwagon, but Barb, the big mistake you made was giving me too much time to think about it! I started thinking about all the other things I planned to do this month, and quickly decided that this November was not a good month to try to carve out free time. First off, I need to get production going on camouflage Christmas stockings. And secondly, I had set aside the week before Thanksgiving to try to figure out how I was going to make this dress for my niece’s First Holy Communion using my sister’s wedding dress.

So this month’s resolution is to get all my sewing projects completed! That’s a challenge enough. I am flattered, though, that I have inspired others to think about new month’s resolutions (even to the point of them recommending one to me!). I see that Jennie has already listed her new month’s resolutions (see her sidebar), and did get all of her October resolutions done! If you want to know what the new months’ resolutions are all about, check out my July post. And if you want to see what other things I’ve done, well, there’s this handy dandy “post label” thing now and all you have to do is click on “New Month’s Resolutions” at the bottom of this post, and all related posts will come up! Cool!

Let me know if you decide to do a new month’s resolution. And if you take on the NaNoWriMo challenge, please let me know that too!

This is my last post on this topic since it’s the end of the month. Tomorrow, I’ll go back to being extravagant and wasteful! (sarcasm)

I live in military housing. Currently at this post, we do not pay for our electricity. It’s free! There is talk, and some posts have begun the process, of implementing a system whereby our electrical consumption would be monitored, a baseline would be established, and those who exceeded the baseline would have to pay for their excesses (those who went under the baseline would get a cash reward as well). This sounds reasonable, but change is never welcomed by the masses, and the protests (including legal ones) have been slowing the changeover.

This is my first experience ever with military housing. Two years ago, I lived in a house I owned in the real world. I had gas heat. I had no central air (just two window units). I paid for electricity, gas, water, and sewer. I dressed lightly (and still sweated) in the summer, and dressed warmly (and still shivered) in the winter. We turned off lights. We used blankets. We went to other people’s houses on really hot days!

I must confess that this past summer (and the summer before), I reveled in the cool of my air conditioned house, and I didn’t care how much energy it took to keep it at a reasonably refreshing temperature. Why should I? It’s free!

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did try to be responsible. If I wasn’t going to be home for a few hours, I would turn the A/C off (or set it at a higher temp). I would try to open the windows, especially in the spring and fall when the night temps dipped low enough to cool the house. Frequently, I have lain in bed at night with my windows wide open to the sound of the crickets…and the sound of all my neighbors’ A/C units kicking on.

One warm day a few weeks ago, I had a nice breeze coming in the open windows, and I heard my neighbor’s A/C unit kick on. It was the middle of the day. The temperature was around 70 degrees. There was nobody home next door (between work and school).

It really ticks me off. And it’s why I’m in full support of the whole baseline electrical consumption thing. There is no other way to get people to conserve energy (short of a gun to the head!). Even I, who don’t like to waste energy (it’s been ingrained in me from my youth to turn off lights, close the door (we’re not heating the backyard, you know!), and pay attention to how I use electricity), can easily get lazy about it. I forget to turn the heat down before going to bed…I’m only going to be gone for an hour, so there’s no point in checking the whole house to see if all the lights are off…oh, the kids accidentally turned that outside light on; I’ll get it next time I’m in the garage.

According to most people, I should be in opposition to this plan. I stay at home. I homeschool. I have a big family. We use a lot of electricity.

I think we’ll be fine. I don’t expect to get any money back. But it might be fun trying!

These new houses have programmable thermostats. I had one of those in my last house, and they’re great. I couldn’t figure this one out, though, so for months, it’s been unused. Last night, I was at a neighbor’s house, and I saw the directions to her thermostat still tucked behind it on the wall (ours came like that too, but I loaned them out to someone else and never got them back – and then they moved away!). I borrowed it, and finally was able to program my thermostat! Hooray!

Three or four years ago, I was visiting my parents at their home in Ohio. I went for a walk through the back alleys that cut between the rural town’s houses and gave access to backyards and detached garages. And there I beheld a sight that I am convinced could only be seen in Ohio: freshly laundered and hanging on the clothesline to dry were about a dozen zip-lock sandwich bags.

Even my own mother, frugal diva that she is, doesn’t do that! First off, my mom doesn’t buy the zip-lock bags because they cost too much. She buys the generic brand fold-over sandwich bags. Sometimes she buys gallon size freezer bags that are zip-lock (generic brand always), and she might re-use a bag that held a dry food like bread for the same item. But I’ve never seen her wash and dry ziplock bags. That is true dedication to the reduce and reuse mantra!

I do buy ziplock sandwich bags, but they are not often used for sandwiches. My kids don’t pack a daily lunch for school, and when we as a family pack a lunch for a day trip, I tend to use snap-lid reusable containers. So, this month I looked at exactly what I did with those sandwich bags.

The number one use I made for them was to store half an onion or half a tomato that was leftover after I made a salad or some other recipe. Easy enough to eliminate that usage, I have switched to using a snap-lid container for that need.

The second most common use for the sandwich bags was an on-the-go snack holder for the littler children. Snap-lids are not as effective, since Petey can’t open them and if he could, like Jenny, the spilled and wasted Cheerios or whatever would completely negate any benefit to using a container in the first place. The foldover bags won’t keep Cheerios from going stale and aren’t as easy to manipulate (for a baby). I’ll keep using these bags for that purpose, but I’ll be a bit more judicious in when it’s necessary.

And the third biggest use for ziplock sandwich bags? As storage for game pieces: Pop-Up Pirate daggers, Chutes and Ladders playing pieces, Sorry men and the deck of cards. Fortunately, one bag lasts a long time for this use.

This line of thinking extends to other disposable kitchen storage things like plastic wrap and aluminum foil. I’ve read in several places that using clear plastic wrap is the best way to store food in the fridge so that you can easily see what you have and use it before it gets old. But if you’re storing food for a family of seven, this suggestion is completely impractical because plastic wrap renders most containers unstackable and every blessed corner of my fridge is usually filled. Snap-lid containers work much better and you can see well enough into them to distinguish leftover stew from leftover chicken.

Aluminum foil, though…aluminum foil is sturdy and washable too. Perhaps I’ll get a clothesline and hang my washed foil out to dry…

Just yesterday, we got a delivery of new clothes for Jenny. Hanna Anderson? Lands End? One of Angoraknitter‘s handmade beauties? Oh, goodness no. I wish…

These are mostly summer clothing that is too big for her now, but will likely fit her next summer. Was I scouring eBay for great deals? Shopping online clearance racks for end-of-season sales? Nope.

A neighbor of mine has just finished her fall clothing swap out, and is weeding out the clothing her youngest daughter won’t fit into next year. It was hard for her to part with some of the dresses especially, since they were worn by all three of her girls. She gave them to me, because she likes my girls and it makes her feel good to think that they would be wearing these dresses. Most of these clothes are really nice, and I’m happy that people like her are so generous with me. It really keeps my kids’ clothing budget way down. Now I just need to find someone to give ME hand-me-downs…

There is a thrift store here on post. They only have one Saturday a month that they open, and it’s always packed. Another neighbor of mine says she goes regularly during the week, though, to check out the new arrivals. I will have to ask her to look for things for me, especially if I lose any more weight.

In August, when I did my own kids’ clothing swap, I asked for advice on how many outfits a (potty-trained) kid needed. I had scoffed at my husband’s suggestion of 6 outfits because I thought it was too few. My friend, Rachel (the one who remembered her camera for the field trips), recently told me she only keeps FOUR outfits for her kids. She said the transition was tough, and other items creep in (via gifts or whatever), but she says laundry is a breeze and she can always find her kids’ soccer socks.

It’s a sure-win formula:

Reduce the number of outfits we own.
Recycle and Reuse clothing worn by other children (within my own family and sharing and receiving from others).

This month, I am going to look closely at how I spend my money. I’ve been mulling the Thirty Days of Nothing project that Mary over at Owlhaven just finished. I read a bit of her progress over the month and think it’s a wonderful idea – to fast from consummerism for a month, to eat simpler meals, to avoid waste.

Of course, it didn’t take me very long in contemplating my own life to come up with a half dozen things that I spend money on that I don’t really need: premium coffee is top on my list. There’s nothing wrong with buying premium coffee, if you can afford it (which I can) and if it makes a significant difference to you (oh, yes, it really does). But I suspect that there are a number of things I buy or do automatically that do not significantly affect my life. This month, I am going to look hard at where my money goes and see if there are changes that need to be made. I think, in this spirit, I will also make up Christmas shopping lists!

What’s a new month’s resolution? I’ve done this in July, August and September already. What’s your new month’s resolution?

Is it September already? I am very sad to see the end of summer vacation rapidly approaching. We have all enjoyed the time off from nose-to-the-grindstone lessons. In fact, in planning the school year and the lesson plans (I’m not done yet), the first thing I did (so far, the only thing I’ve done) is plan when the breaks are! Now, I do love school and learning and teaching and short days with long, dark evenings that are perfect for snuggling on the couch and reading Kidnapped. But I will miss the days without an agenda, the ample supply of playmates for my kids, and the afternoons at the playground spent chit-chatting with other moms while worrying if the baby was going to break his other arm by falling off the platform.

Last month, I resolved to plan my dinners for this month. I also resolved to pre-prep as much as possible and to make weekly grocery lists for the fresh ingredients needed for those meals. I’m happy to say that I did complete this onerous task, but it took me almost all month! I just don’t have an entire weekend to devote to shopping and cooking to get it all done at once, so I did it a bit here and there. I am already reaping the rewards of this planning, and dinner-time is not quite the hour of dread that it often can be.

This month, I’m resolving to do something challenging, but not so. For September, I resolve to pray the Morning Prayer with my husband every day. This only takes about 5 minutes, but I admit that we’re not consistant in doing it. The challenge lies in doing it every day. The weekends, especially, are difficult since we get up later and the day is underway from the first moment with children demanding attention and us needing to get ready for things (like church). Perhaps I’ll bring our copy of Magnificat to bed with me and set the alarm to ensure those 5 minutes of peace before beginning our busybusybusy lives.

Do you have a new month’s resolution?

Last month I wrote about not waiting until the New Year to improve your life. Even small changes, like always pairing your socks before putting them away, can actually make your life tremendously better.

It’s a new month and it’s time for a new month’s resolution. Don’t worry about last month (unless you want to continue a new good habit).

August is the month I prep for school. I’ve tons of things on my to-do list from ordering textbooks to organizing the school day, from updating my daily routine for housework to going through fall clothes so my school year doesn’t come to a complete halt the day the temps don’t get above 70 degress (will this heat ever really stop though?).

But my new month’s resolution is this:

• Plan my dinner menu for the month of September
• Purchase all the non-fresh ingredients for the menu for the entire month (I have the freezer and pantry space)
• Prepare and freeze food for at least 8 days (2 meals per week)
• Make a grocery list for each week for all the fresh ingredients required for the menu.

The planning of the menu and the grocery lists won’t take very long to do. I’ll do the shopping as an extra trip next week when Bill is on leave.

Even the prep time for the 8 meals won’t be that bad. One meal that we have once a week (most weeks) is tacos, since everybody likes them. I’ll spend a few hours browning and seasoning about 6 pounds of ground meat which I’ll freeze in 1 1/2 pound batches – that’s 4 meals. Ten minutes in the microwave while I chop or shred tomatoes, lettuce and cheese, and dinner will be served with little cleanup required. And if the meat is thawed, the toppings prepared earlier in the day, and soft tortillas used, dinner can be on the table before the crowd even finishes washing their hands. This is a meal I plan for days when we have sports or some other activity either right before or right after dinner.

So, what’s your new month’s resolution?