New Year's resolutions

New Year's resolutions are a funny thing. I think most people have them even the ones who do not want to admit they have them. Last year I did not have any New Year's resolutions. I think the New Year came on me so fast that I felt like I could not even breath. As a result I think I lacked any self improvement for the year. I feel like I floundered most of the year.

This year I do have a couple of resolutions. I think of my resolutions more as person improvement goals to my life or situation. I want Anna to know that change can be a good thing and implementing change within your personal situation is a positive thing. I am really a very positive people and try my best to look for the solution to the problem rather then just sitting waiting for someone else to make the situation better.

I think my biggest one is to reduce my debt. I know that this is something that most people in the United States want to do but often they do not know how to do it.

In the past I have had a ton of debt as well as no debt. I can tell you the point in my life where I had no debt felt much better. I hate to say this but the cost of adoption puts many behind the 8 ball so to speak. I was not immune to this situation. When Anna came home I wanted to spend as much time off as possible. I am lucky because with my job if we are not busy then we have the option of being called off or put on call. Well last year I averaged between 60 and 68 hours of work every 2weeks.

This made it easy for me to spend time with Anna and travel for my Mother's care but as a result I fell into the debt trap again. Much of the time I took off was without pay. As a nurse I am very fortunate because I get close to 8 weeks of vacation every year. I do value my time off and because of I work 3-12 hour shifts I am able to use a small amount of time and have close to a week off.

Well I have put in my vacations for 2011 and I have managed to group my days in a way that will give me a week off pretty much every month this year but I will still have extra vacation time that I can take when I must be called off or put on call. By taking my call offs with pay I will make close to 12,000 thousand dollars more this year. I plan on putting this extra money toward my debt.

My goal is to pay down my debt by at least 25% this year. This makes resolution number 1.

My next resolution is actually a little harder to complete in my opinion. Our goal is to spend more time as a couple, just Gerard and I. Thinking back to our problems of 2010 one of the things that we isolated was I had very little time with just him. Gerard and I have been in our relationship for over 20 years now so falling to second on the list of importance is reasonable when you have a 3 year old child but we cut out almost all of our alone time.

We have also had more people in and out of our home in the past year then we have had in a number of years. This makes having personal conversations with just him more difficult.

Resolution # 2 is to have one date a month. Sounds easy but really it will be a challenge because of our schedules. I know feel more comfortable leaving Anna with my Mother for a couple of hours then I did this time last year. I think this will help us to grow as a couple and be better parents.

I know my third resolution will sound very crazy to those who work during the day and have a more normal schedule. My third and final resolution is to cook dinner at least once a week. Imagine trying to eat dinner in the morning that is what it is like for me. I have broken out the cook books. Yes I have a collection of cook books and I actually love cook books.

Resolution #3 cook more dinners at home and try new recipes along the way.

My final resolution will be a hard one at least for me. For the last 2 Christmas holidays I have gotten my feelings hurt. Yup, as much as I wanted this past holiday season to be better then the one before and it was, I still got my feelings hurt by a gift I was given. I was given a manual of how to become a happy person. What amazes me is this was given to me by someone who spent less then 15 hours with me this past year.

When I give a gift I have always done my best to look for something that the receiver will enjoy. I probably over think many of the gifts that I give but I figure if I am going to take the time and make the effort to give a gift then that is how it should be. This manual hurt my feelings. Gerard has promised to talk to the one who gave it to me but I already feel like this will not help the situation.

So resolution #4 is to not let others hurt me so much. Here is my question how does one protect their feelings?
I do have a few other things I would like to accomplish this year. I am working on a list that I can hang up to remind and inspire me.