Goodbye 2012!

We are getting ready to start our New Year off with some changes. We have started a new rule in the morning to hopefully make it easier to get out the door on the days I work. There is no TV until after the girls get dressed. I get their clothes out the night before, after they are in bed. When they get up in the morning they go potty and then get themselves dressed, as much as they can, without assistance. It has only been two days with this new rule and they seem to be doing pretty good. We have also printed off some papers that have the morning routine and evening routine attached with picture of each chore. I am printing them off today and laminating them to hang as reminders.

I have also been working on our budget for the New Year! My husband and I have really buckled down since July to pay off some of our credit card debt and are extremely happy that in only 5 months we have paid off $4,922 which is 56% of our total credit card debt. This year we plan to continue using our budget to pay off debt and hopefully completely pay off credit card debt by June. Then we will begin to focus on student loan debt for the remaining 6 months of 2013. I use a simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to keep track of our income and expenses and if anyone would like to see it as an example feel free to let me know and I can e-mail it to you as an attachment.

Finally, I have begun to set the plan for my post-partum fitness routine that I will begin in May. I only have 5 1/2 months before my sister's wedding, in which I am the Matron of Honor, so I need to have a solid plan so I see the best results. I also want to teach my kids that taking care of their body is important and their responsibility. I plan to include them in a lot of my workouts and to allow them to have dance/outside time for at least half an hour everyday in order to teach them about the importance of keeping active (an hopefully encourage them to get tired out and continue sleeping through the night).

I would love to hear about other's New Years resolutions and the plans you have to achieve your goals!!

Happy New Year to all of you and happy celebrations with your families!