I started off this blog talking about the self-improvement kick I have been on lately in order to clear out the cobwebs and make room in my life and head-space for writing and other endeavors. So far so good. The 7 days of 2009 have been productive ones. I started my blog; Violet got dressed seven times without having an hour-long meltdown and standing in the snow barefoot; I applied to be a volunteer at Tribeca Film Festival* and I returned to the gym after weeks of gluttony and napping. Still, there is more to be done and what better way to hold myself accountable than telling the 12 of you reading this, my resolutions for 2009.
1) Write at least 3x a week. Today is my third time writing this week, so this is a manageable goal.
2) Send one pitch a month to some sort of magazine about something. This one is a little vague and could use some work.
3) Do 20 squats and 20 lunges everyday. I know it's not much, but the odds of me even doing this are slim, so starting small is good. I actually made this resolution 7 days ago and have done 0 squats and lunges everyday.
4) With Mark Bittman's new cookbook, Food Matters, serving as inspiration, and to be both frugal and healthy — I want to cook more vegetarian meals. This is counter to Adam's resolution at birth to eat meat with every meal, so we will see how it goes.
4a) Cook more.
4b) Plan the week's menu every Sunday and try to use what is in the freezer.
4c) Go an entire month without eating out or ordering in or buying any food other than groceries and Starbucks (I have to live!). I think April is the designated month. It should be an interesting failure experiment, to write about.
5) Learn HTML. Adam promises to teach me. This might be like when my dad tried to 'teach' my mom to drive.**
6) Do more crafty stuff and baking with the kids. Winter-behavior has already started (mine, no mine, mine, no mine, MINE, MIIIIIIIIIINE, MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE), and I want them to live to see spring.
That's it. I'm counting on the hounding of my 5s of readers to keep me on track.
Tomorrow: My first product review. Can you stand the wait?
* I was put on the wait list before I even filled out the application. Stupid me should have applied months ago. Next year, I will know better. I'm now looking around for other similar volunteer opportunities.
** My grandmother ended up teaching my mom to drive.
Sarah--Your determination not to eat out or order in for a month fills me with anxiety. I don't know what to wish for you on this one: if you succeed, you make possible something I prefer to consider impossible. Perhaps you should fail forthwith and in advance on this one for the sake of the rest of us. Think of it as culinary lunging and squatting and just. . . let it go.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading Debbie! And have no fear. I am about 99% sure that I will fail. I just figure it's an interesting thing to attempt (failure?). And I still have done zero lunges or squats ...
ReplyDeleteSarah, I got my Mark Bittman book in today. I didn't realize that you'd gotten to know me so well in such a short time! This book is my dream come true!! I can't wait to start putting it into practice. Some of those recipes sound delish...I might start with the Brown Rice pudding... :)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like our goals for the year are very, scarily similar...only you actually wrote yours down and started working on them! BRAVO! You are an inspiration. Now you are my funny friend, AND my inspirational friend.