Welcome 2011

While I have a lot of great memories of 2010, I am looking forward to a fresh start. I am however, going to take everything I learned and lived through in 2010 to help make me a better wife, mother, daughter and friend in 2011.

2010 was a tough emotional year for me.  We lost some great souls in 2010, the losses will forever change the way I approach each and every day and for that I am thankful, I am just sad that it took losing them for me to get with the program. I watched some dear friends suffer a loss so great that it still shakes me to the core, I am hopeful that 2011 will be a year filled with hope and not loss.

So for 2011 I am going to focus on being better.

Being a better wife...making Brad feel special and loved everyday, even when he snores in my ear and I want to throttle him

Being a better mother...showing the girls every single day how they make my heart soar and world go round

Being a better daughter...just flat out being nicer and more patient with my parents.

Being a better friend...picking up the phone and actually hearing my friends voices instead of relying on modern technology to keep the friendship alive.

Being a better steward with our family money...knowing where our money goes and using that to inform a budget that will hopefully set up our savings for success.

Being a better role model for my girls...eating healthy and getting in shape. I want to be here for years to come and I want to feel good and getting healthy is where it starts.

Being better about work-life balance...I need to set boundaries for myself and stick to them, I need to be as productive as I can be while I am at work and be as present as I can be while I am at home. I need to separate the work from my life as much as possible.

I have talked to Brad a lot about us focusing 2011 on needs vs. wants.  It's going to be tough, that isn't how we have lived for the 8 years we have spent as a couple, so its going to take some getting used to, and its going to take us both being honest and real with each other. We are still going to have fun and do special things and even buy things that we don't really "need", but we are going to be more thoughtful in our decision making. I will forgo a $100 shopping trip to Target so that we can put that $100 towards new lighting in the morning room or our new couch that we have been yearning for.