This year I’m taking a break from CSAs, wholesale clubs, and locavore menus. We’ve learned a lot from last year’s experiment, but I must admit that it was great relief that I picked up my last farm share and realized that I’m in control of the food that enters our house again! We’ll definitely be buying new favorites–parsnips, rhubarb, and turnips were the best new foods–at the farmer’s market this spring/summer, and I have a bunch of new dishes in my repertory. As for Costco, we will definitely join again later, when we have more kids and go through food faster! Our membership expires today, so yesterday I slipped in under the deadline and picked up one last 25-pound bag of bread flour, stocked up on cleaning supplies and string cheese, and ordered a treadmill (no, exercising daily is not a New Year’s resolution, but since the gym membership has been a fiasco with childcare, I realized that I simply have to exercise at home…and in Chicago winters, that means inside for 6 months of the year!) I feel that I’m definitely more conscious of junk in our food when I’m introducing a child to solids, so Elizabeth’s progress past pureed peas will probably promote healthier meals this spring.
But I have to have a few goals for this year!
First, I’m getting us back on a schedule. The kids misbehave and night sleep more poorly when naps aren’t predictable. My house doesn’t stay clean when I don’t have specific days outlined to do specific tasks. More on that in weeks to come…
Second, I’m getting back into homemade bread making. I’m starting up a sourdough starter today, so hopefully we’ll have sourdough bread starting in a week or two. The good thing about sourdough is that you have to bake every two or three days to keep your starter healthy. So no more storebought bread for us (until I let my starter die)!
Third, I’m going to try to do serious reading 15 minutes a day. I’ve kindof slacked on that lately because I read so many children’s books to Tommy, and I’m reading good, hard-core English literature every week to prepare for my class. But we have shelves full of classic theology and philosophy books that I could be reading as well, not to mention all the books I’ve started but haven’t finished. Right now I’m finishing up Charlotte Mason’s Home Education (which the Johnsons gave us when Elizabeth was born and I started excitedly, but which has been sitting on my nightstand unfinished!). Maybe I’ll combine that with treadmill time and have an inadvertent fourth resolution. =) Leann and I are going to ask each other how we’re doing on the reading front–anyone else want to be an accountability partner, too?
Here’s my list:
1. Get up promptly at 6:30am.
2. Do one small cleaning task every day so I don’t have to do hours of cleaning every weekend.
3. Go swimming at least 3 times per week.
4. Make supper the night before as much as possible (I have a new “Best Make-Ahead Recipes” cookbook to help with this), because my excuse for not swimming this past semester was that when I go and don’ t have supper prepped in advance, Derek has to wait until 8pm to eat.
5. Start blogging?
I want to start reading more too! i like just fifteen minutes a day- easily do-able. i need to post my new year’s goals as i am calling them!