Reflections on New Year Resolutions

At the end of December, I posted http://amberschmitt.blogspot.com/2006/12/looking-forward-to-2007.html that entry. New Years Resolutions. Just for fun, here they are again, but with updates on how I'm doing on them.

Declutter
This I'm doing pretty good on. I've gotten rid of a bunch of scrapbooking stuff, and other non-necessary stuff from the house. Less is more. I love that. The house feels so much more open, I love how it feels.

Work towards being completely debt free.
We are making huge progress on this, and we are still working on this. It will be a while before we are completely there, but we are making huge strides. I'm proud of us. :)

Keep the money that we put in savings in there.
We are doing good here too. We opened up an ING Direct account and put a very nice chunk of change in there. We also have a nice chunk of change in our regular savings account.

Start a retirement plan.
This I haven't done yet. A good reminder to do so.

Aim towards working part time.
This might be a reality here soon. I keep getting good vibes from my manager, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. If it's in God's plan for me, it will happen. :)

Be more thankful for what I have rather than looking at what I don't have. (Essentially be more positive)
This is hard to justify, maybe I should ask Jason his opinion on this one, lol. I think that I am doing better on this. I really do believe that I am more thankful for what we have, and I'm not looking so much as what we don't have. I think part of it does go back to the decluttering, and not wanting more stuff, it seems like the less stuff the more freeing it feels...simple is better.

Be more creative and scrapbook more.
This one I'm not doing so good at, lol. I haven't really scrapbooked that much yet this year, but when I do seem to, I sit down and do multiple pages, so that's a good thing. Being more creative, does writing in my blog count? lol, I have written in my blog more times already this year than last year total. :)

Continue my weight loss journey
I'm working on this. I have my moments. I need to get back to this full force and do better. I know I can get down where I want to be. I just need to resist temptation.

Make more from scratch. Or should I say attempt to make foods from scratch? LOL. Bread is number one on my list. :)
This I'm doing great at! I'm now making all of our bread, and also our hamburger and hot dog buns from scratch. I've also tried out new recipes, which are healthy ones, so I'm working at this. I do enjoy trying out new recipes and cooking, I just need to do it more often.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now last year I also chose 4 thinks that I wanted to learn how to do in my home that I haven't done yet.

1. Declutter, simplify, organize. At work people tell me that I am so organized. And there I am. At home, I am to a certain extent, but I know I can do much better. This year I am going to do that. :)
Simplifying and decluttering is going great. With decluttering and simplifying things, it seems like the organizing piece comes easier since there is less "stuff." Of course, this is something that I can always continue to improve on. :)

2. Cook from scratch. Now, Jason and I have been doing this, and I have certain foods that I can make from scratch, and since starting my weight loss journey we have done this more, but I need to learn how to cook healthy meals. I think my first task will be to make bread and rolls. There have been some wonderful recipes posted on Scrappy Chic, so I'm going to try those. I am going to make good use out of that bread machine that Jason and I got for a wedding gift. :)
Like I was saying above, I'm now making all of our bread, buns, and hot dog and hamburger buns. Delish! I'm also working on trying new healthy recipes. I love trying new recipes, and Jason has been doing great in trying new foods that are healthy for him. :)

3. Work towards being debt free. Jason and I started on this, and did great, but now we need to continue to do it and stick with it. That means limiting eating out (more expensive now since we don't do fast food) and meal planning.
We are doing pretty good on this. We have built up two different savings accounts and are planning on keeping money in there and adding more money to them. We haven't really limited the eating out there, which we do need to do. We still don't do fast food or pop, which is WONDERFUL!!! I was on the meal planning kick for a while, but kinda fell off the wagon. I need to get back on the wagon, because it was easy knowing what we were making for supper and we ate out less then. So need to get back to it.

Now I'm going to to a fourth one as well :P

4. Be a more Godly woman. Let's just say that I have never really followed the His word, and have realized that I need Him in my life. I want to be a wife that Jason will be proud of, increase my homemaking skills and I know that I can't do it on my own, I need Him in my life and to follow His word. Doing so will only make me a better person. :)
I'm going to be completely honest here and say that I forgot that this was one of my New Year's Resolutions. Who knew the amazing journey that He would be leading me on. I can't tell you how much just meeting with the missionaries, reading and studying the Book of Mormon and the Bible have helped me. It truly is life changing. I knew that it would impact me, but it has impacted me so much, I can't believe how much happier I am now. In addition to reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon, I'm working my way through the book "Created to be His Help Meet" by Debi Pearl. Basically on how to be a Godly wife to Jason.

I can't believe that I ran across these today and I couldn't give up the chance to give a mid-year update, although yes, I do realize mid-year was in June and it's now July, but hey, it works for me, lol. :) So now I challenge you to give an update on your New Year's Resolutions.