New Year, New Resolutions...

Isn't this everyone's topic of choice right now? Well, I am happy to admit that hubby and I are right on track... new year, new resolutions. This year, we decided to make a long list of very attainable small resolutions instead of some biggies like "exercise X # of hours per week" which would otherwise guarantee failure. Our long list of littles is source of great excitement for us... everything on it is something we are truly excited about tackling. Interestingly... quite a few of them are food-centered... guess that's just what we love. So... here we go:

1. Homemade laundry detergent for everything except diapers and Greg's work clothes

2. Adopt a dog

3. Maintain our Sunday Sabbath Commitment

4. Daily family dinner served consistently before 6:30pm

5. Cook our way through Jill Prescott's Ecole de Cuisine... we are about 25% there

6. Use up brand cleaning products; replace with home made

7. Reduce our water usage by 8%

8. Reduce our engergy usage by 5%

9. Increase our retirement by 1%

10. Increase our charitable giving by 5%

11. Spend at least 2 hours per week playing against each other on the Wii

12. Cloth, cloth, cloth

13. Always have homemade cookies and bread in the freezer

14. Go camping in our backyard

15. No car payment in 2010

16. Family devotions at dinner - including the Christmas Card prayers

17. Buy a tiller

18. Put in a cutting garden next to the garage

19. Move the lilac tree to the cutting garden

20. Install grow light

21. Grow peppers and herbs from seed

22. Fix the riding lawn mower

23. Rake and Roll the lawns

24. Read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

25. Take Michael and Greta to the Field Museum

26. Take Michael and Greta to the Shed Aquarium

27. Volunteer at Marion House

28. Finish the Morrison Childhood Photo Books

29. Finish the WII Letters from Grandpa

30. Can soups for the winter

31. Get all of the home videos edited and transferred

32. Greg and Sara do morning devotions together over coffee

33. Convert to only Fair Trade coffee by starting with weekends and then expanding to the rest of the week.

34. From May 1 - Oct 1 walk every night with the kids (weather permitting)

35. Use all of Greg's vacation and do more fun family activities

So... that's it. A long list of things we care about and are committed to. Fingers crossed, prayer list started, we are off and running.