New Year's Resolutions

It just came to my mind that I forgot to mention something in my last post which is part of the reason I wasn't successful in one of my resolutions (the blogging every week one) other than I was incredibly busy with school...my computer went kaput!  And by kaput...I mean it was too slow to do anything and I was on the verge of putting a bullet in it.  Anyway, luckily, thanks to my wonderful parents, I have a new laptop that is super fast!  Hopefully it will provide me a little more motivation to blog.

And back to the topic of this post: My new New Year's Resolutions.  Like my previous resolutions, I will make ten.  Also, I have added a couple of things that will make these a little bit more measurable and not so subjective like they were last year.  Here we go:

1.)  Start the Good Thoughts Jar.  Because of the past several months, I have found out that I have a difficult time realizing and remembering the good moments in life.  I actually read somewhere (how unscientific like of me not to remember the source) that said that people have to have four good things (thoughts or actions) happen to overcome the psychological affects of one bad thing (thought or action).  So, one day will scrolling on Pinterest, I came across a pin that inspired this resolution.  Christie told me that I need to get some pretty paper to write on.  Anyway, my goal is fairly large...to write at least one thing to put in my jar every day.  It may be a struggle, but I think I will be a better person because of it.  Next New Year's Eve, I'll open the jar and read all of the good thoughts/memories that I have had for the year and then start over.  Hopefully, I'll be able to keep this resolution and then pin the original pin to my "Success" board.

2.)  Read the entire Bible.  There's a long back story behind this that I won't go into (if you want to here it sometime, let's do lunch after church or something).  Anyway, I've never read the Bible in full.  In fact, I don't really know most of the Bible stories or their meanings.  Thanks to technology, there is an app, YouVersion, that has "reading plans" for various topics and even for the whole Bible.  I'm going to do the OneYear reading plan.  Wish me luck on this one.  We all know how much I love to read!

3.)  Lose weight...a lot of weight.  Yep...this is one of my resolutions along with thousands of others out there.  If you read my post entitled "Vunerability", you would know a little bit about the back story.  Anyway, I'm going to a doctor to get a little bit of advice, extra accountability, and hopefully the get weight off in a healthy way.  I'm really going to need some luck with this one considering most of the time I hang out with friends/Brothers food is involved.

4.)  Be more creative.  I've had this one before or something similar.  However, I'm going to put a goal on this one that is measurable.  I need to complete at least one creative project once a month.  Also, I need to host (or co-host, cough::with Justin::cough) a Pinterest party.  I already have a couple of projects in mind.

5.)  Cook one new recipe a month.  (Thanks, Christie for this one!)  I guess I should include that I must cook this new recipe.  As many of your know, I'm the baker and Ryan is typically the one who cooks at the house.  So, with this resolution, maybe I will learn how to cook better and I can try some new recipes out.  I recently started using this new app, Next Issue, so I have access to at least four food magazines.  I should be able to get some inspiration from that, huh?

6.)  Save some money.  This one may be a little bit difficult for me, simply because I need to trim some of my expenses in order to do this.  Recently, when I have reflected on a few things that I would like to do within the next five years, a lot of it depends on how much money I have saved in order to pay for those items (ex. buy a house, wedding expenses, etc.).  So, I will probably work on this throughout the year, first I will need to make a list of what I want to save for and then actually set goals for those things.  Maybe I'll update the blog with that list.  :)

7.)  Drink more water.  I know that this probably ties in with my number 3 resolution, but Mom has always told me that I need to drink more water and less coffee or soda.  I hate water, mainly because I always have to go pee when I drink enough water.  Again, I found another pin (just look at the picture) that may help me with this one.

8.)  Be more appreciative.  I think that many people have (or should have) this as a resolution.  I know that I'm not always the best at saying thank you or I appreciate what you do.  I know that I am particularly worst at this to the people that I'm closest to.  I will have to come up with some genuine ways to tell people that I'm appreciative of it.

9.)  Take more photos, and not just photos of my dog, Butch.  This is still one that I want to keep on my list from last year (and probably from the years before).  I've noticed that I don't have a lot of updated photos of myself or friends.  Like I said, most of the photos I have taken are of my dog.  :/  Maybe I should download Instagram and maybe that will give me a little bit of inspiration.  What do you think?  Any thoughts?  Also, I have maxed out my storage space on Picasa because of the mission trip a couple of years ago.  I've done Shutterfly in the past, but I don't like the interface as much any more, plus it takes a while to upload pictures.  Does anyone have any recommendations?

10.)  Blog once at least once a ...month.  Yea, I'm not going to commit myself to once a week again.  That was super difficult in that I was always trying to come up with new blog post topics!  Anyway, maybe with once a month, I'll have plenty to talk about regarding life.  :)  Also, within my blog posts, I want to have at least one link to something.  I'm on the Internet all of the time and I typically find lots of interesting stuff.  I might as well share them with my blog readers.  I have a few so far in this post, so don't forget to click the underlined links!

So now I make the same call as I do every year around this time...anyone out there going to start a blog as their resolution?  I would be happy to place you on my blogroll.  Just let me know.  If you need a little inspiration too, I would be happy to give you some ideas.  :)