Friday, January 6, 2012

Happy Friday, Lovelies!! I hope you have been enjoying this week full of 'Fresh New Year' posts, because I sure have! A HUGE thank you to all five of these ladies for taking over my little slice of the internet while B and I have been on vacation with my family in Florida. I have gotten to know each of these ladies even better this week, and am so happy to have had the opportunity to do so!
 
Well, last but certainly not least this week, is the lovely Lena from over at LeeLee and B! Lena and I met recently via Twitter, and I am so happy to have found another friend via the internet! Please show her some love! I am also lucky enough to be hosting her very first guest post - woot! Thanks, Lena!
 
Hi, friends!  A big thank you to Our Love Nest for letting me guest post today!  This is my first guest posting, so I hope you’ll show me lots of love, as I definitely have nervous jitters!
 
 
Now, for introductions…My name is Lena, or LeeLee, as I’m known on my blog, Life with LeeLee and B (www.leeleeandb.blogspot.com).  I’m happily married to my sweetheart, B, and we live just south of Music City in Tennessee.  We have an almost 16 month old daughter named Annie Louise, who definitely keeps our lives busy!  I started blogging in 2007 and was religious about it for a year or so, and I made lots of “blog friends”.  Then life got crazy, and I would occasionally blog every once in a while.  Not anymore!  I’ve made it my goal to write more regularly and connect with more bloggers (especially women)! So, I hope you’ll pop over to my humble little blog and join in the fun!

Today, I’m writing about New Year’s Resolutions.  

Christmas has come and gone…the decorations are down, or are coming down, and we are all trying to get our homes back in order!  I love giving our house a good cleaning once all the decorations are put away – it’s so nice to start the year with a CLEAN slate, or house!

I am not crazy about “resolutions” – I like to make a list of PROJECTS.  Resolutions don’t sit well with me, and I always feel so defeated when another year closes, and that resolution is still staring me down. I’m an avid list-maker, so I come up with a list of projects – some simple, some not-so-simple.  Then, I do what I can to cross things off.

So, without further adieu, my 2012 PROJECTS

1, The theme for 2012 for our family is ORGANIZE.  Since I started working full-time in August, I have noticed that I crave organization.  My time is limited at home, and I do not want to spend it looking for something.  I spent a good 2 weeks prior to starting my new job getting most of my house organized.  However, my “everyday spots” (i.e. my closet, bathroom, car) have gotten out.of.control.  So, I have 3 days off at the beginning of this New Year, and I plan on using those days to go through all of my junk, streamline and get everything in order.  I think this is important for everyone – take those top 3 places where you spend a majority of your time and make them as close to perfect as possible.
   
                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                           image courtesy of Real Simple

2. Create a home organization binder.  I have seen these all over pinterest and etsy, and my organizing heart has been lusting after one for quite some time.  My hope is that we will have a go-to binder with all of our important stuff in it.  I am always looking for so-and-so’s address, trying to find a manual for a certain appliance and don’t even get me started on our bill/mail situation.   If done well, our binder will house all of these things in a pleasing manner…if you have one of these binders, please leave me your tips for the “must haves”!  

 

3. Cook more often and plan out our meals.  Now that we have another mouth to feed in our house, I have been making more of an effort to cook nice, healthy meals at home.  This is quite the task when you work 8 hours a day and travel nearly an hour each way to work!   Thus, the need for meal planning!  I find that when I plan out our meals for the week and have a plan, I am more likely to actually cook at home.  If I have no plan, or no groceries, then we are more likely to eat out…which isn’t good for our waistline or our budget!  I hope to use the handy-dandy home binder mentioned above to help me with meal planning, too!  Look at that…multi-tasking!

4. Take a photography/learn-your-camera class.  My hubby bought us the Canon Rebel digital camera this fall, and I was so excited to have such a nice camera.  But y’all, I have no clue how to use this thing.  I took a couple of photography classes in high school, but we used film.  I actually learned how to develop my own film and print from negatives.  Very cool process.  But I have no idea how to use my fancy-schmancy digital camera.  I know a lot of you will probably cringe at this thought, but I leave it on the automatic setting for all of my pictures.  I know that it’s capable of taking beautiful pictures; I just simply don’t know what to do.  So, I’m hoping to find a teach-me-to-use-my-camera class and get busy!  After all, I have a precious little subject that is just dying for me to take one more picture of her!

5. Take time for ME!  Yes, I’m going to be selfish this year.  Not really, I just want to try and time a little more time for myself.  Before our sweet Annie Louise came along, I had all sorts of hobbies.  I sewed adorable little outfits.  I read tons of books.  I watched all the new release movies.  Now, I don’t even have time to sew outfits for our own daughter.  I have all sorts of books collecting dust, just waiting to be read.  And some nights, I don’t even turn on our television.  Not that I’m complaining at all, I love being a mama and wife – I’m abundantly blessed.  It would be nice to make time to do things that I used to enjoy doing every once in a while!

So, there you have it…my projects for 2012!  What’s on your list this year?  I would love to hear your advice, tips, feedback, too!  And I hope you will stop by and keep up with our daily happenings (and make sure I’m staying on task) at Life with LeeLee and B!

2 comments:

Lindsey said...

Oh this is such a great post!!! I can't wait to make one of these binders myself!! I love to be organized but I do find it challenging amongst our little family of four! Great tips thank you Lena!

Meagan said...

I love the idea of a "project list" instead of "resolutions" :-) Your first guest post was fabulous! Now, for your photography class - you need to take the class at Made In Murfreesboro (google it). It is PERFECT, the instructor is WONDERFUL, and they have a groupon coupon right now for 60% off I think! ;-)