What’s next for me…

Gutting the contents of my home and purging. This is a biggie for me.  I have some sort of freakish fear of putting things in the trash.  I know that it is all heading for the landfill, and it bothers me very much.  Trust me, I recycle everything I can but I still feel horrible about getting rid of all the bulk and clutter in my house. Somehow it’s better to sit in my home and disrupt our lives than be processed at a landfill.  What I want for my birthday in May is a huge dumpster in my driveway, great weather, and two weeks of babysitting so I can completely gut my house and live a more simple life.

Making time for everyone – but only one at a time. I want to spend time 1:1 with each of my kids, my husband, my mom, and friends.  Not just huge holiday mob-scene frenzied time together, but quality time and focus with each person in my life that I love and that matters to me.  This includes me – as in take time to decompress so I don’t go flippin’ mad and take it out on everyone.

Earning my “magic number” in fees a month so I can properly feed my family. I work pretty damn hard, and I’m pretty damn good at what I do.  It is *very* hard for me to say that as I’m not the best at blowing my own horn.  With that said, my time and expertise is valuable.  I will work smarter in 2010.  I will consciously work to make the best professional decisions for my clients, my family, my team, and ME.

Rediscover a passion. Some time ago I was a scrapbooker. The tactile art of working paper and photos somehow balanced my analytical mind and made me happy.  I opened a store and took my hobby to a business – and while insanely fulfilling and comparatively successful, it sucked all the joy out of the sport for me.  I have a basement full of supplies from my old store, and it also causes me stress because of the clutter.  I really want to sell or give away all of the supplies, but eBay really isn’t cutting it for the amount that I need to get rid of.  I want my basement back, I want to (someday) get it finished, and I want to enjoy some sort of crafting space.  I recently got a Nikon D5000 SLR camera and would love to take tons of pictures and decorate the finished basement with prints of my family that I’ve taken.

Getting my paperwork in order. I’m nearing a decade change with my age and need to have certain things in place to make sure my kids and husband are (financially) okay if something should happen to me.  I don’t just mean a will or insurance.  I don’t want to leave a mess of things when I’m gone, so making sure that they have all the names and addresses for holiday cards, and know where all my daughter’s report cards are kept, and maybe work on a family tree for my kids.  The kind of things moms keep track of but no one else has a flippin’ clue about.

Get healthy. THIS IS A BIGGIE.  I will be the very first to admit I have been horribly neglectful on very important issues when it comes to my health.  Denial maybe.  Outside of life and death issues, I need to lose some weight.  Technically I think I need to lose 50 pounds.  How the hell am I FIFTY pounds overweight?  Oh, I like to eat.  Even more than me being a tubby right now, I am setting a very bad example for my 8 year old daughter.  Sitting around on my ass eating the Cookie Cake my husband insists on making and sitting on the computer is not really how I want her to see me, or think is okay to do.

Say NO. Yeah, but I like to help people, so that one really stinks.  I’m afraid to turn down clients, no matter how bad they are for me because I like to eat (see above paragraphs.)  I like to volunteer and help people learn things they didn’t know before – and then take that knowledge and become a better ‘whatever.’  This year I’ve decided that I’m pretty much going to stick with Podcamp Philly and Social Media Club Princeton NJ.  If I have an extra $5 from time to time I’ll hit the donate button for someone I think needs a cup of coffee or a little help with medical bills.  I have a plan of donating 25% of my ‘work’ without payment.  The trick with that is to get the first 75% up and paid before dishing out the rest.

What’s next for you?