My resolutions for 2009

Do your dishes as soon as you’re done with them.  That’s the resolution BF has for me.  I asked him the other day to come up with a couple resolutions he would like for me to consider implementing in the new year.  Doing my dishes pronto was tops on his list.  Here’s the deal.  I often eat my breakfast (a bowl of cereal or oatmeal almost 90% of the time) and then put my bowl in the sink, fill it with water, and deal with it at lunch time with my lunch dishes.  BF is self-employed, too– though he has an office away from the house– and he is in and out of the house all day long (hmm, perhaps my resolution for him should be not to come home every hour so I can actually write uninterrupted and so that Lola doesn’t lose her composure every time he leaves causing me to take ten minutes to put her back together again over and over), and he will come in at 10 am and very dramatically do my breakfast dishes (which means rinsing and putting them in the dishwasher).  So, his resolution for me is to immediately put my dishes in the dishwasher.  I am trying it.  So far, so good.  We’ll see if I can make it stick. 

My resolution for BF is to cut off the lights (and close the door behind him when he walks outside– even if he is only going outside for a few minutes).  I often walk behind him and cut off no less than 6 lights that he has left on as he moved through the house.  And we have a six room house.  The door?  If he’s outside, it is inevitably left open, and this house- with its 1926 insulation- is cold enough without the blast of winter air.  So, we’ll see if he can make either of those stick.   

Other than that, I have goals for 2009— most of which I came up with when I wrote my birthday list. 

In December, I scratched two things off the list:  throwing a giving party and remodeling the guest bathroom.  I am wild about the bathroom.  We painted it this great bluish purple color, put in this checked black and white floor, and lots of bead board.  We also had this nifty cabinet built in it that will work as a changing table one day and also has a build in laundry basket (that hinged top lifts to reveal a canvas, easy to pull out clothes hamper) and lots of drawers for storage.  We still have to put the finishing touches on it (the art for this room is unbelievable– we pick it up from the framing place in mid-January) but the construction is done and that’s a great feeling. 

In January, I think I’ll be able to scratch off a few more: update our will, take a personal retreat, strictly work from a budget, start teaching workshops again locally, develop and maintain a personal style separate from workout clothes girl. 

Other than that, I am also hoping to knock out the drafts of three books this year (and, hopefully, get a book contract for at least one of them).  I’d like to be able to run for a straight hour.  I have an income goal that I’d like to achieve.  And that’s plenty given that there are big changes in store at the little cottage under the oaks that will elicit all sorts of new goals for us soon enough.  Cheers to productivity and the joys of just being in 2009.