New Year’s Resolutions for 2011, An Overview

Dude. Have I EVER labored and toiled over these resolutions. Blood, sweat and tears, people. Mostly tears. For realz. Mentally, I am exhausted, simply from making a final decision on which resolutions to pursue. I know for most people, deciding to lose weight and be more organized does not come with such inner turmoil. But, alas, I am not “most people.”

Each of these resolutions support an over-all God-directed theme, which I will tell you all about next time. Suffice it to say, determining this “theme” is what caused this process to be such an exercise in emotional and spiritual gymnastics. Turns out, I have some deep-seated issues. The least of which is obsessing too long over New Year’s Resolutions.  As if you didn’t already know this about me.

Anyhoo, here we go, stated as briefly as possible without writing a ridiculously long post,


Sandy Cooper’s 2011 New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Spiritual Goals:

A.I am going to stop talking so ugly to myself. (See? Issues!) Every single thing I say to myself about myself will no longer be degrading and belittling. If I was my own friend, I would have broken up with me a long time ago. From hence forth, every word spoken to me about me will be aligned with the Word of God and what He thinks of me. You will absolutely hear more about this in a future post. To help me achieve this goal, the following two resolutions are necessary…

B. My kids attend a Christian school and memorize a weekly Bible verse as part of their curriculum. This year, I’m going to learn those verses with them. Note: the fact that I chose to implement this resolution AFTER my son memorized the entire second chapter (!) of Luke last month is purely coincidental. As is the fact that this week’s verse is John 3:16. My son was so impressed that I was able to quote it on my very first try.

C. I am about 2 months into a one-year Bible reading plan. I’m going to continue reading the Bible all the way through from beginning to end.

2. Relational Goals:

A. I have a body language problem (issues!). What I’m thinking and what it LOOKS like I’m thinking are not always in alignment. When my kids walk into the room, what I’m usually thinking is, “I’m glad you are here…I love you.” What my body language usually says is, “Go away, child, you are interrupting me.” This is the exact opposite of the mother I want to be. So, one of my goals this year is to physically “light up” when my children enter the room. Every time. Unless, of course, they’ve just made a stinky in the toilet and, rather than calling me to come help wipe, they slide off the toilet, smear stinky on both the lid and their hands, drop stinky throughout the house, and then suddenly appear next to me in the kitchen while I’ve got my hands plunged into some sort of food. Sure, I may “light up,” but it won’t be pretty.

B. I am going to be more intentional about teaching my children (especially the older ones) life skills that will serve them well in their adult years. Things like cooking, cleaning, laundry, handling money and serving others. I’m intentional about a lot of things, but I want to do better with this. I am especially intentional about little stinky bottoms staying ON THE TOILET until I can come and assist in the wiping. But there’s more to life than learning to wipe your own bottom, right?

C. As a family, once a month, we will invite at least one family over for dinner. We had decided to do this a few months ago after my pastor’s challenging message on building community. We didn’t exactly follow through with it. But we will now.

3. Health and Fitness Goals:

A. I would love to say “I will get back to my pre-Lexapro weight in 2011.” However, I learned in 2010, I can control what I eat and how much I exercise, but I cannot control how my body responds to it. So….I just started Week 5 of the 12-Week P90X program. I am going to finish that, see where I am, and figure out what’s next at that time. In the interim, I will NOT talk ugly to myself about my body.

B. I am going to try one new healthy recipe a week. This isn’t a “do-or-die” goal. Just something I’d like to try. Ideally, I would like to include this little journey into new recipes on my blog. Speaking of my blog…

4. Blog/Writing Goals. This is another subject I will post about in the near future, because it was one of my areas of greatest concern. While it’s tempting to start telling you all the reasons why it was so concerning, I’ll control this impulse and simply state the goals. More to come on these, with the complete back-story. I promise.

A. Set aside some writing time each day, even if it’s just an hour.

B. Pray daily for the ministry of this blog and for the people who read and comment.

C. Learn to use my cool new camera so I can take amazing pictures and add them to my posts.  Because, every day God speaks to me in some visual way, and I’ve always wanted to capture those moments for my blog.
D. And, for what it’s worth, I’m not quite sure what I’m doing with my fitness blog (The Amazing Adventures of Fitness Friday Girl) this year. I love writing about fitness and nutrition, but the time element is a problem. “Being uncertain” is not technically a resolution, though, is it.

5. Financial Goals:

The good news is, my parents grew up during The Great Depression and taught me to live frugally since childhood. Thanks to them, I sort of come by it naturally. The other good news is, despite the down economy, my husband’s job continues to be stable, allowing us to save money and still be able give a lot away. The really good news is,this year, we will most likely have our house paid off, allowing us to be completely debt-free and able to give like never before.

The bad news is, despite all that good news, we aren’t very intentional about our finances—we don’t even do a written budget. (I’m praying right now that Dave Ramsey does NOT read my blog, and if he does, he is NOT reading this post.) The other bad news is, with all my other resolutions, I lack the mental capacity to create and maintain a written budget.

Seriously, dude (I used “dude” twice in this post). I just don’t think I have it in me. My husband, on the other hand, (the non-planner, non-resolution-maker) would like to have a written budget this year. And so, while this is officially not one of MY resolutions, I am supporting HIS resolution to have a written budget. Provided he creates it, makes it user-friendly and sets it in front of me daily, so I can work on it while I’m writing on my blog, trying out new recipes,memorizing scripture and taking amazing pictures of it all with my cool new camera.

Those are mine! What are yours? You can leave me a comment or link up to a post on your blog. Some rules before you do:

1. Link to your specific post, not your blog’s general URL. If you need help with this, e-mail me (see link at top of blog).

2. Link back to me, so more people can join in the fun.