Things to do in 2013

1. Overhaul my spice cupboard

I cook. A lot. Many of my spices moved with us from California, almost 2.5 years ago. Some of them moved between houses in California with us. That move took place in 2005. Um. I've definitely learned which spices I use on a regular basis and therefore warrant purchasing in larger quantities, and which ones I tend to either leave out of recipes or make substitutions for. I recently visited Penzey's Spices and was totally inspired by the atmosphere in there so I'll do my purchasing through them, I think.

2. Replace the awful tile in our entryway that I have hated every single day since we moved into our house in 2010.

It's been budgeted for, we're entirely agreed on the project, it's just a matter of getting the estimates in, picking tile and committing once and for all. Can't wait.

3. Hire someone to do at least a bi-annual deep clean of the house.

We've gotten better about being a shoes-off household, but I haven't yet figured out how to teach the dog to wipe his paws and, well, life is messy. I just about keep ahead of tidying and cleaning toilets but my GOD this place could use a really good clean.

4. Watch at least five documentaries.

I've gotten kind of lazy about seeking out opportunities to learn about things that interest me. I have absolutely accepted that I prefer to keep my reading of the leisure variety, so I'd like to give more documentaries a try.

5. Attend a photography workshop and learn how to better use my camera.

Needs no explanation. They are offered all the time on Groupon and similar for very reasonable prices, so I need to just bite the bullet and DO THIS.

6. Make a special effort to really celebrate my 10-year anniversary in April.

We have always talked about renewing our vows for our tenth anniversary. I don't know whether we'll actually do that, but I would like to attempt at least a short getaway together. Hey mom, what are you doing in April? Feel like a visit with your grandkids??

7. Sit down with Chris and write up a new Five-Year Plan

We did this several years ago and it was a seriously useful exercise. We had some personal goals in there, some financial goals, professional goals and family-related goals. Enough has changed since then that we need to do this again.

8. Write up wills and a guardianship plan.

Ugh. A morbid activity and one we have been avoiding for a long time, but feels important. We even have a legal benefit through C's employer that we have yet to take advantage of. Dooooooooo it.

9. Get a Target RedCard debit card.

I can't believe I'm even putting this on here, but I'm hoping it will shame me into actually getting it done. Sometime in the last year I asked for this very thing at Target. Unfortunately what the woman helping me actually applied for was the Target RedCard credit account. I don't prefer to use this (I like to avoid credit accounts for the most part), but that means each and every time I visit Target I pay 5% more than I need to. Over a year, this amounts to a horrifying amount of money to be giving away. The only thing I actually have to do is bring a check on one of my multiple weekly trips and it'll be taken care of.

10. Find a good balance for the use of my kid-free time each week.

It's not a lot of time - 2 - 2.5 hours several days a week - but if I don't plan how to use it it's way too easy to waste it. I think my original plan was to designate a day a week for home chores, one for errand-running and one for personal time/socializing. Needs some more thought.

11. Spend some time reading about organic vs conventional produce and adjust my purchasing habits (if necessary) based on my conclusions.

I encourage the kids to eat as much fruit as they want, especially since they aren't great about eating vegetables yet. Unfortunately, though, a lot of their (and my) favorites land on the Dirty Dozen side of the list. I feel like I need to do a little bit more research and decide what is a reasonable approach and seek out some good sources of the things I think are worth buying organic. My biggest beef has always been that the quality appears significantly compromised, but I suspect if I really do some looking around I can find some good options that aren't prohibitively expensive.