- 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
16 things I want to do in 2016
I try to avoid making resolutions at the start of a new year. They are doomed to fail. I stick to new school year ones. I set my new school year resolutions in September 2014 and revisited them in September last. I was doing okay but lots of room for improvement so I decided to stick with those basic goals of September 2014.
For me the new year starts tomorrow, as my youngest finally heads back to Montessori after Christmas break so I thought I would put together a list of 16 things I want to do in 2016. A high level to-do list if you will. Many will be directly helpful for achieving my September 2014 goals while others are just bigger milestone items happening in the year that I want to look back on and say they went well or that I enjoyed them.
So in no particular order……
- Go skiing
I had never put on a pair of skis on until I started going out with my now husband. His family is ski mad. After a few years together he eventually convinced me to take our first ski trip.
My husband and his siblings grew up having annual ski holidays, ski lessons in Kilternan and competing in various dry slope events. All of this eventually saw my brother-in-law compete at international level including at the Winter Olympics representing Ireland.
A few trips under my belt and I was relatively competent but then the baby making started. My husband managed to get his fix on snow by helping Team Ireland out at World Championships and Olympics while I always stayed home with the kids preferring my annual dose of sunshine in foreign lands.
It has been a goal of my husband’s to get our kids to hit the snow too but it is only now, as our youngest is now 4 years of age, that we feel ready to head off. We are booked to go in March.
Can’t wait!
2. Settle Zoe in at big school
My baby girl is due to start “big school” in September. Such a big milestone sending my final baby off to school. No doubt there will be tears (mine) but she is so ready and I just can’t wait to see her in her little uniform. There will be meetings and school visits over the next few months and no doubt some summer shopping trips to buy uniforms, lunch boxes and bags to ensure we have her all ready for her big day.
3. Turn 40 gracefully
Shortly after I send my baby off to school I will turn 40. Way to make me feel old. I am endeavouring to embrace it and am determined to enjoy my 40’s as much as I did my 30’s. Life begins at 40 and all that! Still deciding whether or not to have a big bash or keep it more low-key.
4. Get a health M.O.T
Given that I will be 40 this year I feel the need to get a once over and therefore I plan to check into my GP for a health check. The older I get the more anxious I seem to become about becoming ill and I think a health check is a sensible way to just stop and ensure I am operating as I should.
5. Eat more fruit via a daily smoothie
I am okay at getting enough vegetables but I fall short when it comes to fruit. My husband bought me a smoothie maker as part of my Christmas present and the first few attempts has seen my fruit intact sky-rocket. I want to keep that up and have positioned the smoothie maker on the counter, near the kettle so it will constantly remind me to have fruit (even if in liquified form!) every day.
6. Drink less alcohol
This one is always on the list! Just want to cut down but my willpower when it comes to a glass of wine or a vodka is weak. I’ll keep trying. My target is to have 4 completely alcohol free days per week.
7. Have a family day out every month
A proper one. Not just going for a walk or taking them to see grandparents. An exciting day out with a picnic or lunch somewhere. We are members of Tayto Park and when that is open it is great for a day out but I want to go further afield. The kids love to go to town on the train, to them that is an adventure, where we can take in a museum or the gallery for free and stop off in Merrion Square playground before getting a bite to eat and day out complete. More of those type of days. Trying some new and exciting locations will be on the cards in 2016.
8. Bring the kids swimming in Dublin
Swimming is a skill I think every child should learn in their early years but I feel I have slightly failed in this regard. We are great whenever we go away, either a hotel weekend break or our summer holiday abroad, and we swim as much as possible. I always swear once we get home to bring the kids swimming more as part of our weekly routine or even a couple of times a month but each time I get caught up back to old routines and never seem to bring them swimming while home in Dublin.
I’m not sure how many times I have threatened to join a local (about 20 minutes drive) swimming pool that is relatively good value and then it is just pay as you go. This year I am going to do it and make sure to bring the kids regularly. Come September I have three kids in school. I can go myself (as in on my own!) too. I used to swim competitively as a teenager. Such great exercise.
9. Schedule walks and other exercise into my weekly schedule
It is very easy to do a school run and come home to an empty house and get caught up in housework or online stuff. I want to set aside specific times each week where I go for a long, brisk walk. Living beside the sea there are such lovely opportunities to go for coastal walks and breath in the sea air. Healthy and great for the mind. No better sound in the world than the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach.
10. Blog every week
I really found not getting to blog as much in late 2015 very frustrating. It had been such a great outlet for me so I want to try to ensure that I get to the blog at least once a week. If I have more to say or write I’ll try to do more but just keeping it at a bare minimum to maintain those sanity levels is my target for 2016. Granted today is the 10th January but this one will be going forward!
11. Forward plan
Speaking of going forward, whenever I write out a list or plan a week ahead I am at my most productive. I want to do that more as it is a little hit and miss. Pick an evening (say Sunday) and just write down exactly what I need or want to achieve in the coming days. I think doing this will cause me to become so much more productive on a more regular basis.
12. Do a professional organisation course
I am a wanna-be highly organised person. Lots of people call me organised but there are many times if you looked at my house organised is the last thing you would call me. I feel like I am constantly striving to be organised but never quite get there. I am always watching professional organisers online, reading articles about home organising and I get such a warm fuzzy feeling when I walk into the home organisation section in IKEA. For me a job I think I would love would be to become a professional organiser. My plan for 2016 is to complete a professional organiser course and take it from there; less reading about it and more doing. Maybe I will just use my new skills to organise my own house or maybe it will be the start of a new and exciting career, or maybe I will just hate it. Whatever happens I want to give it a try.
13. Finish my online Writing course I am enrolled in
A few months after taking my career break I had notions that I would write a children’s book. I got an e-mail about a children’s writing course and it was on special offer so I signed up. I have only completed one module and I want to complete the remaining ones in 2016. I may never write a children’s book but it would be great to finish as no doubt any writing course is going to be helpful to blogging.
14. Go on a summer holiday
While we have the added bonus of a ski holiday this year I still want to try to get away to the sun this year. For the last three years we have taken the same holiday; two weeks in Tenerife in the Sol Sun beach apartments. There will have to be some serious family discussions about where we go this year. The kids, loving routine, want to go back to what they now know and love, hubby wants somewhere new and I am torn. Want to go somewhere new but afraid of not finding something as good as what we have enjoyed the for the last three. Let the research commence.
15. De-clutter every room in the house by scheduling a room a month
With my plan to do a professional organising course I intend to be my own first client and apply all my newly learnt skills to myself. My aim is that by the end of the year every single room in the house is de-cluttered and organised by ensuring at a minimum one room a month is sorted out.
16. Promote myself and my blogs more
I am often lazy about promoting my posts. I write them, publish them and often get a bit lazy from there. Every blogger knows that half the work is actually after the fact and I know I need (and want) to get better in this regard. I want to put myself out there more, be more proactive in promoting myself and my two blogs and set myself some blogging goals and targets to work towards.
So that’s it. The high level plans. A busy 2016 beckons. I hope you will follow me on the journey as, no doubt, many of the above items will result in blog fodder.
What do you plan to do in 2016? Anything exciting?
Whatever it is I hope it is exciting. Happy New Year!
Lucy x
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