This year, I resolute to

***DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY!**********

When I was little, I always got excited when it was time to start a new assignment, because that meant I got a blank page to work with. I loved the clean and crisp sheet of paper that sat in front of me. It was stark white, crisp, with perfect edges, not a flaw on it.

Fresh starts and do overs have always excited me. You get a clean slate, a chance to erase all the mistakes and try again.

Given that I have never had the patience to be a perfectionist, it never stayed perfect for long. My handwriting is messy at best and I could never stay inside the lines when coloring, so the perfect paper became perfectly messy rather quickly.

But here we are again. I have a shiny new year to do everything over again. I get a start over, I get my redo.

This year, here is what I aim to do.

Health
1.PR in the 5K. With all my foot problems in 2013, this was not something that I was able to do last year, so this year, I am going for it.

2.PR in the 1/2. I have been increasing my mileage, and feeling good, so I think this is in my wheel house.

3.Be more focused, and delve deeper into my Pure Barre practice. Pure Barre is a mix of Pilates, ballet, and yoga. I started taking it earlier this year, and I have found that when I go to the studio and really focus for those 55 minutes, I tune into my body, and I feel myself getting even stronger.

4. Do the splits. As of right now, I can hardly reach my shins. I am so tight all the time, and not flexible at all. This year, I want to do the splits.

Financial
1.Continue to pay extra on our mortgage monthly. P sauce and I have been really good about this, and we want to continue to put extra each month. Even at 50.00 extra a month, it pays off in the long run, because the more we pay now, the less we pay in interest.

2.Continue to systematically invest in our retirement. This is another area where P and I have been  very disciplined this past year. Even on the months when it was hard to save, we continued to make this a priority. P and I have even discussed increasing our retirement contributions this year.

3. Diversify. I have been thinking and playing with the idea of doing something to earn income on the side, and I have done nothing. I want to find a little "side hustle" so that I can contribute more to our financial house.

4. Save 2,000 with coupons. The past 2 years I have saved right around $1,600, but I know with just a bit more focus, I can increase the amount we save.

5. Complete 2 home improvement projects to force appreciation. We have a few projects on the radar this past year, but we never pulled the trigger. This year, we really want to do a few things that not only make our home look nicer, but force appreciation and increase the value of our home.

Personal
1. No TV 2 nights a week. I have been so bad about coming home, turning on the t.v. and zoning out for a few hours. This is neither helpful nor is it productive.
2.Walk one evening a week. P and I did a great job of walking in the evenings earlier this year, but we stopped a few months ago. I really loved our time together. We took the dogs out around dusk, and just enjoyed the quite. Sometimes we talked about our dreams, other times we joked and laughed, and still others we just walked around the neighborhood in a comfortable silence, just content to be together.
3. Read 35 books. I had this goal last year, and didn't reach it. When we first signed onto Netflix early in 2013, I pretty much gave up the written word and watched all the episodes of The Office, The West Wing, and Dawsons Creek.

In 2013, I managed to step outside of my comfort zone on a few occasions, and the results surprised me. I found that I have made friendships and have had some great experiences. I need to continue to get outside myself and stretch a bit.

Happy New Year's my friends. Here's too the next 359 days--I have a feeling they are going to be great!