I’m one of those people who loves making resolutions for the new year. I don’t always keep them, but a new year holds such promise that I can’t help myself.

Aslan looks out the window and ponders the new year

All this week I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to focus on for 2013 and what goals I’d like to accomplish. There are always the obvious things like “being a great mom” or “keeping up with the laundry,” but I want to go beyond things like that. So here are six resolutions I have for 2013 –

• Be less anti-social – I’m a homebody by nature. I really enjoy just hanging out in my space. It’s really easy for me to come up with 100 excuses to not do something and I’d like to change that. I don’t really want to go crazy and be out all the time, but I would like to try to go out and do a few more things each month, maybe even some of those sans baby 😉
• Convert our diaper stash over entirely to cloth – We do a mixture of disposable and cloth right now and I’d like to have changed over entirely to cloth by Ezra’s first birthday. It’s a big investment up front but I know it will more than pay for itself over the years. Especially if we have any other children.
• Grow my knitting business – I’d love to see my Etsy shop grow and expand. In October/November, I did 15 custom orders and in December I doubled that. On top of that, I’ve had a few opportunities to sell on consignment at local boutiques but have yet to take advantage of those offers. My mom, sister and I are also talking about resurrecting Seasons Change Boutique and merging it into Charmingly Modern’s knits. If that happens, then the workforce will triple over night – haha! – and I can definitely see growth happening quickly.
• Move – I’m so over our current living situation. Our house is a cute, nice house but it gets more and more cramped as the months go on, especially with a little baby around. I really hope 2013 will be the year we can get out of here and into a new place with plenty of room to grow.
• Be more generous – We budget and penny-pinch so much that I find it extremely difficult to be generous with our money. There are certain things that I have no problem giving money out for but, for the most part, I am extremely reserved on giving. We don’t even tithe as much as we should because I’m always thinking “what if there isn’t enough!!!” I really want to change that behavior, because I see examples time and time again – mostly with my parents – that when you give you get back so much more.
• Revamp my wardrobe – I’ve come to the realization recently that my wardrobe stinks. I used to have a great wardrobe… I have no idea what happened. It wasn’t the “becoming a mom” thing because it went downhill before that. I think it was actually getting married, as weird as that sounds. I quit my job and have worked from home since being married and that doesn’t require any dressing up. So, I basically have all lounge clothes and like 3 nice shirts. It’s ridiculous. I don’t want to go crazy with tons of clothes, but I would like to at least look in my closet and not despair about what I’ll wear to church or a family dinner.

Do you have any resolutions for 2013?