Retiring, Routines, and Resolutions

I love resolution-making. For me, it adds a freshness to the post-Christmas doldrums that tend to set in. There's so much optimism in the act of setting a goal. This year, as I look forward to a year of big life changes, that goal-setting seems even more important somehow. After 19 years of wedded bliss, based on my husband working outside the home and me working in it, he is retiring and coming to set up permanent residence in my space. Overall, I think it's going to be great. But the little voice in the back of my head has begun to point out areas of potential difficulty in our new arrangement. I have 6 months to prepare, so my goals this year are all aimed at increasing the efficiency of our household, tightening up our budget, and strengthening the personal relationships in our family. I realize I can't tackle all this in one massive January launch, so I'm spreading things out, hoping that injecting a little goal-setting into our lives each month will keep things energized.

For January, I'm not tackling anything so out of the ordinary for myself. Every January I create a new budget for the year and review our daily routines--specifically in the areas of homeschooling and household chores--for any tweaking that might need to be done. This year is no different. Budgeting is easy. I've been making a budget every year almost since the beginning of my married life. Since putting all our finances on the computer, it's been even easier. If you don't have some type of money managing software, I can't recommend it too highly. It's easy to learn and so very convenient.

Household chores are another beast, though. I have tried many cleaning schemes, schedules, and plans, combined with a wide variety of chore charts and allowance systems aimed at getting my children to be more involved in the process. I have had periods of improvement in this area, but I generally find myself sliding back into my old, unsuccessful patterns. This year, I am trying out yet another new scheme, made up of pieces of other approaches I have either tried or read about. I hope to have it up and running next week. We'll see how that goes.