New Year, New Do's

I despise New Year's resolutions. They never stick. Then you feel terrible. So, I've decided this year I am going to make a list of the things that I would like to do, and do differently. Shall we begin?

1. Change my 'retirement' account over to a 401K or other retirement account. This is number one on my list of things to do because my old 'retirement' account is from the State and I can't contribute to it since I don't work for the State anymore. And haven't for, oh, 4 years now. Yeeeaah. I'm totally on top of things. So I need to switch it to an account that I can contribute to. But lets face it, with 4 kids, I'm never retiring.

2. Get on a strict budget and pay some debt down or eliminate it. We have never really set a true 'budget' per say. I would really like to get better about this and really see where our money is going. (i.e. how much I really spend at Starbucks. Or not. I've gotten better since being on maternity leave. No really, I have.)

3. Get in a good workout routine and make it truly a part of my life. I always feel great after working out, but I often lack the motivation to actually do it on a regular basis. Sure I attend Zumba once or twice a week and occasionally do Pilates, but that's pretty much it. I want to see a size 8 again, or if I'm really ambitious, a size 6! I want to shed this leftover (x4!) baby weight once and for all.

4. I want to keep the house more organized and spend less time cleaning and more time with the kids. I feel like we always have mounds of laundry waiting to be folded or put away. Laundry for 6 people is no joke! It never stops and it will never be done. I really want to implement chore charts for the kids and let them have some responsibility around the house. Peytonn is really good at helping, but the others......not so much.

5. Save some money. We had a nice stash put away for when I went on maternity leave and sadly that tank has run dry. It was nice knowing that we had some backup in case we needed it. So I'd like to start building that stash again and be able to take a vacation or something in the next year or so.

These are my top five things that I'd like to make happen this year. Some will be easy to accomplish, and others will be more of a challenge. I plan to research and take steps to really make these things happen and not just "talk about it."

What are some of the things you'd like to change in the new year?