- Our Whistle-stop Tour of New York City with Kids Part Two: Where We Stayed and Ate
- Our Whistle-stop Tour of New York City With Kids Part One: Getting There
- Our Family Trip to Berlin
- Packing Essentials for a Family Ski Holiday
- The Big (and Not So Big) Move
- The day Shawn Mendes taught my daughter an amazing life lesson
- 10 Things for kids to do in Costa Adeje, Tenerife
- The Croke Park Stadium Tour
- Tips for making the most of a day out at Tayto Park
- 10 Kids TV characters you will love to hate as a parent
5 resolutions for the New (school) Year
We all hear about people’s New Year’s resolutions. Great plans that usually fail after a few weeks.
While the New Year does make me think and contemplate life, another time of year that does that is back to school time. Maybe it’s the end of summer. Maybe it’s the resumption of routine. Whatever it is, it certainly causes a reboot of life. It’s a great time to evaluate how you got on with annual goals or earlier resolutions. If they fell on their face, now is the time to pick them up to make sure you close the year having achieved what you wanted.
As outlined in last year’s reflections on my holiday, time spent away from home is a great time for contemplation. This year, just after getting home, fellow blogger Sinead from Bumbles of Rice shared a post about nine things she needed to do. The post resonated with me mostly because many of the things she needs to do, I do too!
So here are my new (school) year resolutions:
1. Less screen time
I spend quite a bit of time online. Facebook, E-Mail, this blog, searching the internet for anything and everything. I think it is time to cut back a little. Ration my time. No idle surfing but focused posting and searching. One thing I want to do is cut all screen time between 3pm and 6pm when the kids are home from school, doing homework and having playtime. It’s just 3 hours of the day to put the phone/iPad or laptop away and give my kids 100% attention. It has been too easy to sit helping with homework with phone in hand checking in every 15 minutes. That is going to stop.
2. Less alcohol
One of my weakness in life is a nice glass (or bottle) of wine or a vodka and coke. They are the only two alcoholic drinks I drink on a regular basis but it is about watching the volumes. It is very easy after a hard day or long week to reach for the wine. I have no intention to cut out alcohol altogether (I’m not completely crazy!) but I would like to decrease the units consumed by a third.
3. More me time
I’m sure I am not the only mother in the world who puts their kids first. It’s a natural thing to do but I would like to start taking a bit more care of myself. From going for walks, allocating some time to do my nails, have a bubble bath, do a face mask, get my hair done more than twice a year – mammy time is important to ensure mental stability. I intend to schedule this time into my busy life.
4. Lose weight
Like a lot of mothers having been through three pregnancies there are a few lingering pounds to shed. When I was working, stress seemed to be a good controller of my weight (albeit not the best one) but now on my career break I seem to have added a few pounds over the last year (could be the ease of reach to the treat box too, or the wine and vodkas and coke!). I would like to ditch 7-10lbs by Christmas by eating more healthy food, ditching the sugary treats and fitting in a bit more exercise – even a quick walk when the kids are in school.
5. Project completion
If you asked my husband what is one of the most annoying things about me he would probably say it’s how I start a project but never finish it. Things like sorting out the baby clothes. I’d pull them all out, spread them all over the spare room and then run out of time and they are still sitting there weeks (months) later. I want to focus on a couple of key projects both house and blog related and make them happen.
So how am I going to stay focused and achieve all this? Well, a professional organiser I have been watching on Youtube and following on Facebook and Twitter is Alejandra Costello. She is amazing. Granted she doesn’t have three kids to tear apart any semblance of an organised space but she has great ideas and concepts around getting organised. She has a Power Productivity Programme which I was very interested in. A (not so subtle) hint to my husband resulted in him buying the programme for me for our recent ten-year wedding anniversary.
Here’s hoping this will help turn me into a highly organised mum who is achieving exactly what I want each week and month. Stay tuned!
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