Happy New Year..

.. and welcome to 2011!

I love the start of a New Year. I love the optimism, the chance to clear out the old and start again. I love reflecting on where we've been and planning for where we want to go. Whilst packing away from Christmas (and having a jolly good clear out at the same time) I've been pondering on what life has in store for our family and what our intentions should be for the new year.

2010 was fairly uneventful for us (not necessarily a bad thing) and we saw lots of 'firsts' in Emmas first year as well as my return to work. We finished off lots of jobs in our house as well as taking our first foreign holiday as a family of 4. At the end of the year we purchased some family bikes to help us in our efforts to spend more quality time together.

2011 will (hopefully) be a year of change for us, both large and small. The biggest intention we have is to move house. We've been talking about this for a while now as we think about the fact that Jack will be starting school in 2012. We love our current home but the neighbourhood isn't really where we want our children to live as they get older. The area we'd like to move to is the same area as I work so it would make life easier in several ways as well as being closer to lots more of our friends. We've been looking at properties there for months so I'm just praying hard that 2011 is our year to move and that we're making the right decision. We've done all we can do to make our house saleable so I just hope and pray that it sells fast at a suitable price to allow us to move. Likewise, I hope that suitable properties appear in our desired area. I sense that 2011 could be quite stressful. lol.

Linked to moving house, I'd like to make sure we're able to do this without stressing ourselves out too much financially so I'm aiming to try and tighten our financial belts a bit this year. I'm thinking about reviewing our food bills, planning meals more and trying to reduce food waste. All good for our waistlines, the environment and the bank balance!

My final intention for the year is linked to the above and that is to be more organised. As most mums of 2 young children will know, life is extremely busy! Trying to juggle both Jack and Emma (who can be very demanding!), work and running a home whilst K commutes to London is really difficult and I found that by the end of last year, things like meals etc were really erratic . However, I'm thinking a bit of planning and fore thought might help me here, even if it means making the next days meals the night before whilst the children are asleep or getting my slow cooker out more. All easy changes that can be made but will hopefully have a big impact on our family.

Unrealistically, I'd like to return to running again and challenge myself to run 50miles in Jan (as well as loisng that Christmas weight gain!) but knowing how busy my life is, I can't really see that happening. Aw well, I can always dream!

What resolutions have you made this year? I'd love to know.