New Year's Resolutions 2014

First and foremost, I would like to say how deeply sorry I am to myself and my loyal followers (if you haven't given up on me) that I can't seem to get into a good habit of regular blog posts. I am a mother of five children now and that has thrown everything out of balance. Now that baby boy is nearly one things should settle down a bit and I am hoping to get back into the swing of things. Which brings me to my goals for this year:

• Get back onto a regular cleaning schedule for the house. I created an awesome schedule for myself a couple of years back and I am resolved to get back on the schedule with a few modifications. For example: I no longer have to vacuum the main floor of my house because our pet Roomba does that. :) I also have two less bathrooms to clean and less dusting to do because my two big girls are old enough to do those things now. I instituted "10 Minute Pick Up" for my kids where we take the last ten minutes before it's time to leave for school and pick up as many things as we can. It works great. Finally, I cut down on the amount of cleaning I do. I opted to do a deep clean of the kitchen every other week as well as the bathrooms. Why? Because I can and I refuse to let all my free time be filled up with cleaning. The kitchen will still be dirty in another week as well as the bathrooms. :)

• The other goal I have for myself is to try one new meal a month and one new dessert. I have a recipe keeper where I like to clip out recipes and save them for later. One problem: later never seems to come. So this year I want to finally get around to trying all the recipes I've clipped so I can stop storing them if they are gross or keep on using them if they are a hit with the kids.

Finally, this has nothing to do with my own goals but just something I want to say. If your goal is to be more organized this year then I hope you can find ways to do it! Refer to this blog for some tips and I promise I will try to update it more regularly. :) So many people look at me and my house and say" Wow. She really has it all together." The only reason I know this is because people tell me that. I promise you I have many days where I don't but I have learned that having a place for everything, teaching my children how to pick up after themselves (and then holding them to it), and managing my time wisely have made my days run so much more smoothly. 

With my new goals I hope to be an even happier homemaker. I hope you reach your goals too. :)