I am notorious for posting my New Year's Resolutions and then promptly forgetting about them--aren't we all?--but this year, I'm going to put a link to them permanently, so I can access them easier.

Nothing on my resolution list for this year is impossible. I didn't make any sweeping goals like 'lose 20 lbs', and I thought very hard about what I did write. One of the resolutions is going to be on next year's list definitely, and probably a couple of other ones will migrate too, since they're ones that could be repeated forever.

So without further ado, my New Year's Resolutions for 2007:

1. Pay off all extraneous debts (which includes: credit cards, Dad, and Bekah, but doesn't include: House and car.) I have a financial plan for this, and I need to stick with it. Once my credit cards are pair off, cancel Capital One and maybe one other, and keep the other two for emergencies ONLY. I should be able to live within my means. (Or, alternately, give myself a monthly spending limit for the credit card, providing I can pay it off in a month or two.) I did get rid of one major credit card bill already, so there's really only one and a tiny half left.

2. After extraneous debts are paid off, start saving for my six-months living expenses/emergencies savings account, which can also be used for emergencies. I need about $10,000--and that's a very generous amount. (It should take me about 18 months to save $10,000 after the extraneous debts are paid off, so this will be part of 2008's resolutions as well, not counting ebay money or craft show money. My goal is to shave off a few months with craft show, extra money, and ebay money and save that amount in about a year. We'll see.) This is a bit of a derailment from my previous financial plan, but I do like the idea of having this emergency money in the bank first before I start paying off the house and the car in earnest.

3. Exercise. It's good for my health, after all, and well-being. I ordered a fitness kit from Sierra Trading Post, and I intend to use it. I also need to utilize my 15 minute programs more often. I am going to try to come up with a schedule for this. I also now have a new bike. Once it's repaired, and since the brakes work (!!! Important, don't you think?), I am planning to ride it.

4. Finish The Seventh Secret, revise Heart's Desire, finish So You Want to be a Vampire, rewrite Fire and Water. Write The Sixth Stone, late in the year. Maybe do another Karen Montgomery story too. And submit, where applicable. Obviously, I'm not going to get The Seventh Secret done this year. However, it's going well, and I'm really curious to see how it turns out. So I'm not going to rush it.

5. Make all Christmas gifts for 2007, but I'm going to allow myself the option of buying one handmade item per person (this would be like from Etsy or something similar; directly from the artist.) To do this correctly, I'm going to have to ask everyone what they want for Christmas that I can make. This might not be as difficult as it sounds. We'll see.

6. Keep selling dolls on ebay; post more on Etsy as well. All ebay/etsy money should go towards a. savings or b. paying off something more quickly. I enjoy making dolls, and I think the recipients enjoy receiving them.

7. Think twice before buying anything that I want but don't really need. I haven't been doing this, but I think it's a good idea. This means that even if something is on sale, or very cheap, if I don't really need it or won't be able to use it frequently, then I should think twice--or even three or four times--before I buy it. Case in point: While buying Christmas presents from Sierra Trading Post, I found a pair of chukka boots that were marked down to $14.95 from $60. Great deal, right? But did I really need another pair of boots? I like the pair I wear all the time in the wintertime, and I have three or four pair of snow boots already. Odds were that this pair would end up in the shoe container in my bedroom, because I can only wear one pair of shoes at a time. So I ended up not buying them, saving myself from charging another $15 to my credit card.

8. Start paring down my possessions. Do I really need five sewing machines? No. I need to go through things and sell them or give them away, depending. I don't want to fill up my entire house by my third anniversary of being here. This also applies to clothing. I really need to weed my clothes and get rid of the ones I haven't worn in years. And then, resupply with ones I will wear. If I keep a good list of what I need to buy, odds are I'll find what I need at Goodwill fairly simply. It's when I go without a mental idea of what I need that I get into trouble.

9. Instead of waiting until the last minute to get ready for the craft shows, make something for the craft shows every month. It doesn't have to be a lot of things, but if, for example, I want to make throws to sell, then I really need to make one a month. I can experiment if I have more time, after all. (I will also need space to store these items, so I need to find space to do that as well. Thus the paring down of #8.)

10. Create a cleaning schedule, and stick to it. My days of absolutely ignoring what I consider to be a messy house are over. I really just need to buckle down and do it, already. It's not so bad, especially after we spent a lot of time cleaning. But I seriously don't want to end up doing a yearly cleaning of my office, unless that yearly cleaning also helps me get rid of stuff.

11. Find extra money wherever I can. Submit mileage reports at work. In six months, I've gotten almost $500 extra, just for filling out a piece of paper. Bug publishers who haven't sent royalties out (only one, really, and that one I'm not really worried about yet.) Make sure the "think twice" rule works. Sell the things I've bought on a whim that I won't really use. If I buy something with a rebate, mail it in! Etc. This should be a pretty obvious one, but I'm really bad about doing things like this.

12. Work on making the garden more productive. As in, I'd like to have to buy less produce and canned or frozen stuff vs. growing what I want to eat. So before spring comes around, I need to map out the garden and figure out what it is I really want to grow and eat. There will be squash, I'm sure. And potatoes. ? But maybe not so many beans. Along with this is to continue to plant mostly edible stuff, but I'm seriously contemplating only doing one new bed a year from now on. 2007's new bed will be by the cistern, and will have more herbs, I think. (And garlic!) And I'm expanding Ethan's garden a bit as well, and the big garden too. But I think I will leave the expansion of the side flowerbed (in the front yard) until later, but we'll see.

13. Clean out the shed. I really shouldn't have to say anything more than that.

14. Put a new roof on the kitchen, the shed, and the side porch. This isn't difficult; we just have to do it. And we're doing it ourselves. Not a big, huge deal at all. We just have to make time to do it.

*15. Bake more. Cook more. I really enjoy doing both, and hey, it's healthier to cook and bake things myself anyway! I have lots of neat cookbooks with recipes that are just begging to be made. So I resolve to make them. (Especially bread!)

And there they are. Let's see how well I do this year. :)


* Oops! When I cut and pasted my resolutions, #15 wasn't there and I didn't notice until now.

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