My (one) resolution for 2010

My resolutions for the New Year all sort of blur together, because they're all a part of the same theme:

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In 2010, I want to nest.

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I want to cook healthier, more colorful food for my husband and me.  I want us to eat smaller and healthier portions of everything.  More vegetables and less beef and chicken, more fish.  One serving of bread.  Green vegetables, yellow vegetables, purple, red, orange vegetables. Baked, boiled, grilled, and chilled.  I want to drink less sodas and more water.  (Actually, for myself, muster up the nerve to cut the Coke.  Drink water, and only water.  Don't cut it cold turkey, but nobody needs all that sugar multiple times every day.)  Eat out less (and in turn, save more money), eat a healthier diet, and eventually (hopefully) lose a few extra pounds in the process.

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Finally spend the money Carlton gave me for my birthday to install a pantry-sized cabinet in our kitchen.  It was a sweet, thoughtful, gracious gift from Carlton, and I've even picked the one I'd like.  It's tall, with an upper storage area as large as our existing upper cabinets.  The middle section would give me a whole third drawer to use for storage in the kitchen (I know!!!).  The lower section is as large as one of our existing base cabinets.  Yay, storage!  This is an awesome gift from Carlton, and I've got to go get it already!  Believe me, you'll know when I do.

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I want to keep our new home tidier than I do now.  I only work 3 days a week most weeks, and I still don't keep up with cleaning/folding/putting away laundry.  Or scrubbing bathrooms.  Or vacuuming.  Or cooking every night.  I touch on everything, but the entirety of each task is never done.  One of my resolutions for 2009 was to push through my compulsive need to do each step of each process just so or else start over... and if there's not enough time to do each process just so, it's so hard to even start the project at hand!  I have to push through this crazy mind-block and just do it already.  (I will never be featured on 'Hoarders'... I will never be featured on 'Hoarders'... I will never be featured on 'Hoarders'....)

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I want to fill our new home with hearty new furniture: a sofa, end tables, a media cabinet, a china cabinet, a master bed frame, night tables, our own end tables and area rugs and dining table and chairs.  Buy lamps to light the rooms, and hang art on the walls (mine, purchased, printed, handmade, whatever we like!), paint the rooms, sew drapes for the windows, paint the front door red, install wallpaper and beadboard the laundry "room", just... fluff our nest and make it our home.  Toss mix-matched toss pillows on the brown-and-ivory ticking sofa, lounge in the roughed-up leather barcalounger, find a chair and ottoman to replace Dave's, find a respectable desk for Carlton's computer to sit at, find a table I can use as a crafting/sewing table.  Make our home a comfortable, cool, mellow, artistic expression of myself... with a bit of Carlton's say-so in the mix.  I am, after all, formally trained in house decorating and room planning, y'all!  "Come and relax now. Put your troubles down. No need to bear the weight of your worries here, let them all fall away." -Dave Matthews

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While this isn't really "in" with the theme of nesting in my own home, it does involve helping someone else start her own nest.  I want to be a strong, sturdy home base for any stress my mom and sister may bump into along this road to marriage that my sister is now on.  She's got quite a few months ahead of her that will be filled with lists, chores, projects, more lists, letters, emails, phone calls, even more lists, invitations, parties, celebrations, showers, more lists... and the list goes on.  I remember everything my mom did for me in the planning of my wedding.  No good deed went unnoticed, and she did a lot of good deeds for me.  I was, after all, in the process of finishing up my last semester at UWG, taking all sorts of finals and presenting final projects, putting together my senior exhibition, and planning a wedding on top of all that was just a lot to handle.  My mom made so many lists, called so many people, and handled so many things for me... it's just hard to imagine everything she did!  And I know my sister helped a lot with all of that as well.  She was an amazing Maid of Honor, and completed any and all duties my mom or I would assign to her.  She was great moral support, honest in her opinions, and quick to help whenever and wherever she was needed.  I hope I can be that moral support, that honest Matron of Honor, and that quick-to-help sister that I know I needed when I was a bride-to-be.  I hope I can be as much of a side-kick to my mom that she might want or need for all of the lists, plans, parties, showers, letters, and meetings that she will be juggling for this wedding.  In essence, I hope that I can be a nest of support for my mom as she goes to work in the planning department, and I hope that I can be the Matron of Honor that my sister needs me to be, in order to create the nest that her heart is moving towards this October... even if she does decide on hideous bridesmaid dresses!

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I want to make Vespa's nest more fun, active, entertaining, unexpected, and exciting.  Sure, she's just outta-this-world happy that we get home from work every day.  But there is no anticipation for a neighborhood walk, and I have been feeling this longing from her lately to have more fun.  I want to break out the squeaky toys, chewy toys, and the chasing games.  I want to expand Vespa's nest this year: install a fence in our backyard!  That's been on our list since before we moved in a few months ago, and it is definitely a part of the whole nesting list this year.  She LOVED the fenced-in back yard we had in Arizona, and I miss letting her in and out the back door.  Come warm weather and cool breezes, I want Vespa to enjoy them in her very own yard.

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I want to take better care of my body.  Clean the make-up off of my face every night.  Use less chemical products on my face, on my skin, in the laundry, and all over the house.  I want to go out for a pedicure and manicure every now-and-then.  I want to find a daily multivitamin that won't make me throw up 20 minutes later (so far, in almost 4 years, no success and I don't take any vitamin at all for fear of throwing up every morning).  I want to wear better shoes at work that don't hurt my feet, toes, knees, and back by the end of the day.  I want to start a daily yoga/fitness routine and maintain a standard for exercise each day.  Sweat means no gain... no weight gain, that is.  And, since the "B MOH MOB MoFG Diet" has started as of January 1, 2010, I have no option but to meet my goal, maintain my goal, flaunt my goal, love my goal, and live my goal.  And the goal deadline is October 2nd.  "I'll meet you then, Goal."

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I want to knit more.  Learn more knitting techniques (and the right way to do them left-handed).  Support the nearest Local Yarn Shops (MACON!!!!!!) instead of zipping to Valdosta for a quick-ish HobLob acrylic yarn fix.  Knit something for our becoming-a-nest-of-a-house like a wall-hanging to display over the sofa or bed, a Christmas tree skirt, a throw for the sofa, or heck, an area rug! 

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In 2010, I want to nest.

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