Out with the Old, In with the New

Each year so many people make "New Year's Resolutions" and this year is no different.  From eating healthier and/or exercising more to quitting smoking or drinking, spending more time with family and friends (for some, that is a recipe for drinking, smoking or eating more!) to learning something new.  A New Year's Resolutions is a personal "commitment" a person makes to a project, goal or "reforming habit."

Some manage to accomplish that resolution and others such as myself are professionals at crashing head first.  As much as I want my home to look like those on HGTV, I am not Martha Stewart or Candice Olsen.  I would love to organize my home with a place for everything and everything in it's place, but I am pretty sure it won't happen.  #1.) I have a husband. #2.) I have a daughter (who's 10) and well neither one are trained well in putting things away.  And #3.) We live here!  I would really like to see those shows after about 6 months to a year and see how organized and spotless it is.  Instead of a resolution, I have made a To-Do List.  Each month I will have a mission and thanks to Pintrest and it's infinite wisdom, I already have a growing list of things I want "to-do".

So what are my challenges?

For the month of January, I am organizing my kitchen.  Our kitchen is used not only for cooking and eating but also for schooling and there just isn't enough room.  I have decided to go through my cabinets and donate any duplicate items, items I will never use or items I have never used (and probably never will!) Those items can take up residence in someone else's kitchen. 

Over Christmas break the hubs and I have encouraged our daughter to go through her toys and knick-knacks and donate.  I see my donations as encouragement for my child.  With her a lot of toys she is able to give to a co-worker's child or her cousins.  She made the comment the other day that if she gives them to her cousins the toys "will be handed down through the generations...." I informed her probably not, but then right now I don't care how she sees it just as long as she is getting the excess out of her room.

I know there are some things that I haven't used and probably will never use but they hold a special place in our home.  I have silverware that was my great grandmother's, you know that stuff you have to shine?  Or a crystal dish that I received as a wedding gift.  Neither of which will I probably ever use, but they are sentimental.  Either way, I am sure there will be some exceptions to the rule.  Maybe, just maybe, I will find that rolling pin that has gone missing.  I still think it is in storage, but for all I know I could have donated it!

I am also going to start knitting.  While perusing Pintrest I kept coming up with all these crafts that involved sewing or knitting.  I have had a sewing machine for years and have managed a blanket and a child's dress.  The rest of the time it has lived in the closet; except when my mother-in-law comes to visit.  Then it is well used!  Since we were traveling to MO to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving, a dear friend showed me her current knitting project.  I mentioned I was thinking about learning and received a crash course before I left.

And so the "learn to do something new" resolution happened.  I have begun to knit.  YouTube has some great how-to videos which were able to refresh my memory again and again.  So far I can long-tail cast on and do the knit stitch.  I decided to put it down for a couple of days to ensure that when I picked it back up again I didn't have to go back to YouTube for a refresher course (and also to give my poor fingertips a break).  I'm going to go a little further with the knit stitch and then bind off, start a new "project" and learn the purl stitch.  I really need to get me another set of knitting needles, but I want to make sure I am going to follow through.  Oh, heck.  I might just do that with some of my left over Christmas money.  Tomorrow I will take a picture of my current knit work.  It's nothing really except a square, but to my daughter it is a masterpiece! (Actually, I am quite proud of myself!)

I intend to post weekly of my accomplishments (and of my road blocks).  If for some reason I don't post, if you are following this send me a message!  

January - Organize the kitchen, continue knitting, read at least 3 books.