new year's resolutions 2015

as of 11:59 tonight, we will officially be a week into 2015. crazy, right? i know that most people think new year's resolutions are overrated and cliche, but i honestly kind of like them. there's something satisfying about saying you're going to work on something for a whole year and then doing it. at least i think there is...i don't know that i've ever actually completed a new year's resolution.

if you remember the ones from last year, i can whole-heartedly say that i tried really hard on them for most of the year. my life has changed as far as laundry goes. i used to only do it when we needed it, but i was on top of my game almost all year long! it rocked my world. i sent a birthday card to everyone in my family for the first half of the year. then i was overloaded with all of the may and june babies and that went to pot. i actually did make a budget for every penny that came into our bank account, but whether we stuck to that budget was a different story. i think we successfully did it for maybe two paychecks out of the whole year? eesh. that could use some work. we didn't save a single dollar using the savings plan that i found. oops. and rather than blogging more here and on our food blog less, i just blogged less on both. so, if you look at it collectively, 2014 was a 38% successful year for us!

despite not being the best goal-reacher, i'm still going to make more for this year and ain't nobody gonna stop me. here they are, in no particular order:

1 - have a clean house. notice, i didn't say a cleaner house. anything with -er on the end is so vague. i'm pretty sure that for the majority of 2014, my house was a mess. i would power clean all day and then not do anything for four days when it was a disaster, and then have to start the cycle all over again. although i will admit that there's a sort of therapy that comes from cleaning a house all day, the fact that it's overwhelming and exhausting kind of outweighs the pros here. so, if i were to have a cleaner house instead of a clean one, i could get away with cleaning it every three days and i'd still be winning. but i wouldn't be much happier with it. what i want here is to be able to maintain a clean house. there are few things that compare to having a clean home and i'm determined to make it happen consistently this year. my only regret with this, is that it's taken me 4 years of marriage to be pumped about it. {yikes. sorry, babe.} with that said, i found a blog post that is going to help me make all of this happen! it comes from Simply Kierste and it's already done so much good for me! i save this picture to my phone and i check it daily, so i know which tasks to complete:

if you plan to visit us at all and want to stay in a clean home, you should make it happen this year. who knows what next year will be like.

2 - delete facebook off my phone. this one shouldn't be hard because it literally takes two seconds. it's the maintaining that's going to be my biggest challenge. has anybody else unknowingly trained their brain to turn to facebook when they have nothing else to think about? no? just me? well then. this is awkward. #secretconfessionsofsarah. there are times when i get halfway through scrolling down my newsfeed when i realize i don't even remember how i got there! i love facebook. i really do. i think social media sites were inspired {except for you, twitter. you suck.} and i love that i can live hundreds of miles away from my family and friends and i'm still able to stalk them every day. but, it's getting out of hand and i need to have my life and brain back. sorry facebook. it's not me, it's you.

3 - be a dog-walking-owner. this is more of just a reminder or a way to make me accountable by putting it out in the open. can i be honest with you? i don't know the last time i took copper on a walk. don't judge me. since he was a puppy, he's always pulled on his leash hard and it's so annoying and a total deterrent from ever wanting to take him. this past summer, we ran outside together almost every day and it was awesome! but then when winter came, along with the cold, that all stopped. after talking with a co-worker and my boss, i guess i was kind of shocked to hear that they go out in the cold to walk their dog every morning. i left both of those conversations feeling like the worst dog owner ever. so, since i'm waking up at the butt crack of dawn now {see next resolution}, why not throw in a little exercise with the pup, right? i'll keep you posted on how it goes. meanwhile, please pray for summer to come early.

4 - become a morning person. if you know me, you know how hard it is for me to get out of bed early. morning practices were never my friend. i always avoided early classes in college because i knew i would probably just sleep in. {totally happened anyway.} i remember years of girl's camp, where my leaders would basically have to pry my best friend and me out of bed. i think i vaguely remember a few instances with buckets of water? it was bad. becoming a mom has forced me to change that a little bit, but even then, we are lucky and addi sleeps in until 7:30 or 8. i usually don't even wake up until she wakes me up, which is still hard to do sometimes when i don't feel rested. not only that, but there are things that i need to get done, that are hard to do with an 18 month old running around. addi goes to sleep at 7:30 pm, so my thinking for the last year has been, "once she's asleep, i can get all the things done that i need to!" umm, have you ever tried to be productive at 8 o'clock at night? unless being productive is defined as 'blowing through every season of new girl, parenthood, and how i met your mother on netflix as fast as possible', then i'm not very good at it. to remedy my situation, i've decided to make this whole becoming-a-morning-person happen. {puttin' on the big girl panties.} everywhere i've read says to turn on a light the moment you wake up because your body will stop producing as much melatonin when that happens. so, for a few days now, i've set my alarm for 7 and whenever it goes off, i flip on my lamp and read or do whatever i need to wake myself up. it's been fairly easy. i upped it a little bit though this week and decided to start waking up at 6. to get up that early, i have to be in bed by 9, which has been easier than i thought, since zach likes to go to bed then anyway. do you know how easy it is to wake up at 6 when you go to bed at a decent time?? way easy! my head just pops off the pillow! in fact, i wanted to work out yesterday before i went to work, which meant i needed to wake up at 5:15. i went to bed at 8:30 and found myself waking up completely rest at 4 freaking 30. it was nuts! i didn't even feel like i needed a nap later in the day either. this is seriously going to be life changing for me. i honestly believe there is power in waking up early. in fact, i remember an lds talk that i heard once that struck me so hard, that i will never forget it. here is an excerpt from it. this quote is from president {then, elder} harold b. lee to the {at the time} brand new general authority, marion g. romney:

"if you are to be successful as a general authority, you will need to be inspired. you will need to receive revelation. i will give you one piece of advice: go to bed early and get up early. if you do, your body and mind will become rested, and then in the quiet of those early-morning hours, you will receive more flashes of insight and inspiration than at any other time of the day."

this is why i have also chosen to use scripture study as a motivator to waking up early. i haven't been very diligent in the last few years at reading the scriptures on my own and i've definitely noticed. i'm excited to see the changes and spiritual gain i get from doing it in the morning without any distractions.

i'm interested to know what your goals are for the new year. leave a note below to let me know!

-the mrs.