12 things for '12

It has been a crazy, crazy few years.  I know everyone says that, but for serious....its been nuts.
Once Jordan was laid off at the beginning of 2009, my life went into overdrive, and I took every opportunity I could to keep the family afloat financially, continued to work on my schooling, etc. The year or two before that was no picnic either, but that's another story for another day.

Although the hours I work are less, and Jordan has been back to work for a year, life is still crazy. And there have been costs, to my personal life and contentment.

As an example, it has been four years since I had any kind of extended time off.  The most time off in a row I've had in a row has been four days (once).  And that included a Saturday and Sunday. I'm not complaining, just stating the facts.

Now, don't get me wrong.  Although the situation we were in was unfortunate, we were extremely lucky that the opportunities that came my way, did.  I have still tried to make time for me to do the things I wanted, specifically, running, but it does come at a cost.  I have no downtime, ever. I am definitely working towards burning out, and I plan to fix that.

So without further delay, these are the twelve things I plan to do this year, to help me reach the goal of less stress, and more me time.

1) Get our debt under control.  You can imagine with a two year lay-off of the family breadwinnner that our savings (thankfully we had what we did) diminished and our credit was heavily relied on.  Time to take steps to fix that.

2)Paint Corbett's room.  I promised him that I would do it almost two years ago.  Everytime I put him to bed, I am reminded that I still need to do it. Also, he keeps asking, so obviously its something he really wants.

3) Learn to knit. This will give me something productive to do when I am sitting for many hours at a karate dojo, waiting for the kids.  Also, it is an activity that requires focus (no multitaksing), and that is something I have to work on. I am not too good at taking time to sit still and do one thing.

4) Spend a day doing nothing.  NOTHING.

5) Run 5km in under 28 minutes.

6) Play with the kids more. More specifically, kicks their butts at XBox and/or Wii

7) Do the CN Tower Edge Walk, with my Mom.

8) Find someway to let the friends and family who have helped us in so many way just how much we appreciate them. This is probably impossible, but I am sure going to try.

9) Take a week off. A whole week. At once. 

10) Blog more

11) Find more opportunities to play flute

12) Go to Canada's Wonderland, without kids and ride every roller coaster. Scream and laugh for each one.

So that's it.  Sometimes it seems overwhelming. Sometimes it seems like it will be easy.  But mark my words....I WILL do it!