New Year, New Ideas

Have you ever been sick and tired of being sick and tired?  I'm labeling this year my 3/4 life crisis.  Since 2008, life has been somewhat of a challenge.  I have still been blessed beyond measure.  But being unemployed for almost 3 years and working to complete a master's degree has left me a little out of sorts.  In order to cope and compensate for daily stresses I eat too much, I eat the wrong food.  I am too tired to exercise.  I watch TV as a numbing device and have gotten all around lazy beyond the things that must be done.  Frankly, I don't really like who I am.

One problem I have with myself is that I am miserable at doing things incrementally.  I'm not good at easing into things.  I remember swimming in Minnesota in the Summer.  Summer in Hackensack only lasts for about a week, so the lake water is frigid in June.  Some people would slowly wade into the water acclimating their bodies.  I found that whenever I did that, right about the time it go to my balls, I would say forget it and get back out.  But if I dove in, I was exhilarated and ready to go.  Its the same way for me with change.  I can't decide to ease into an exercise regimen by walking one day a week for a month, then two, then three and so on.  I have to have a plan with specific goals and get to it.

So this year, I have decided to do some major house cleaning.  well, that started as a metaphor but keeping the house clean is actually on the list so let me clarify.  I sat down and identified 52 things to improve this year.  So with as much shock and awe as I can muster, I would like to jump into one new habit every week.  Some of these things are kind of redundant and many are almost trite.  But as I took stock of the things that keep me from being at peace and creative and joyful, good or bad, this is the list I came up with.

1.  Break the sugar addiction- I know my pancreas is begging for a break and I am going to provide it.  I eat way too much sugar.  The part that aggravates me is that I know that the bacteria that crave sugar and starch are secreting chemicals that cause me to crave them.  So I am going to wipe those little suckers out by starving them into submission.  You will likely be reading some tear stained posts as I suffer the withdrawal symptoms.  
2. reach a goal weight of 155-  all the BMI charts and my doctor figures I should be anywhere from 140-155.  So I am going to shoot for the top of that range.  I haven't weighed 155 since high school.  But I haven't gotten any taller since high school either.  the first ten pounds will be effortless.  The last ten will be hell.
3. have a consistent quiet time- It's funny that I know how important this is but don't do it regularly.  
4. have endurance-  One marathon is on my bucket list.  Right now, I get winded walking upstairs to bed.  So I hope t meet somewhere in the middle.  I'm not sure I have the knees left for the marathon.  But I would like to have enough mitochondria built up that I can exert some effort without falling apart.
5. be prepared for Sunday school.  there are two levels of Sunday School readiness.  The first is to have the lesson prepared which I do.  the second is to have prepared an amazing lesson.  I would like to do the latter more often to honor God and the role he has trusted me with.
6. drink more water-  To all you hydraters out there, there really is something to this.  I don't go along with the two three gallon a day deal.  But I am on board with 12 glasses which is 11 to 12 more glasses than I am getting right now.  
7. tell my wife I love her everyday-  After 20 years of marriage, we are pretty comfortable.  But I think we are too comfortable.  I have taken it for granted that she is my princess and she deserves to know it.  I once heard Bill McCartney lament that his wife's countenance reflected how much or little he had treated her like the love of his life.  He said when he looked at her one day he realized he had dropped the ball.  I have dropped the ball.
8. call my wife for no reason- Another relationship habit.  Other than calling to go over logistics, we never call each other just because.  I miss that.
9. create a budget- we have been in survival mode for so long, fear has prevented me from looking under the hood.  We have go to turn this monetary thing around.
10. pray- sounds simple.  There can never be enough
11. give up TV- I have read numerous blogs on this and not one regretted giving up TV.  I will post another right after this with my justification for this endeavor.  
12. go on a mission trip- my greatest spiritual growth has always come from the mission field.  School has interrupted that.  It is time to get back.
13. buy a real tree- we switched to artificial to save money.  But there are only a few yeares left to make memories.
14. Listen-  I suck at this.  maybe I will take a class.  Seriously, this is the hardest change to make.  I zone out when people bore me.  
15. pay bills on time- duh
16. clean up my credit- remember the thing about being unemployed for 3 years.  I forgot to mention a couple trips to the ER and the collections that followed.  Gotta get that under control.
17. be strong- physically.  I have always been much stronger than I look.  At 5'6", I am unimposing.  But I used to be able to lift a refrigerator.  Now I just lift the milk jug.  I need to get some strength back.  there have been a few lifting, pulling, pushing occasions where I have been extremely dissapointed and afraid of injury.
18. prepare my own food- A lot of these next ones are about diet.  I believe America is screwed If you don't believe that our diet is being jacked with check this power point from the CDC out link.  Not only do I need to cut the food budget.  But I need to know what the heck I am eating.
19. no processed food- too many chemicals
20. no bread- unless I make it- too many empty calories.  Plus I subscribe tho the ill health effects of eating so much bio engineered wheat.  
21. save- we need to rebuild the emergency and retirement fund.
22. go deer hunting- rather, go deer hunting with my daughters.  Its a right of passage thing.
23. go pheasant hunting this is for me and me alone.  There is nothing like the startling sound of a pheasant taking off and then knocking it out of the sky.  Eating it that night for dinner is pretty awesome too.  Sorry PETA folks.  I'm not real thrilled with cramming a million chickens into one barn to wallow in their own feces their whole dusty lives.  But you'll never get me to shed a tear over hunting for food.  Let's agree to disagree.  
24. go camping- with the fam.  We haven't done this for a couple years.
25. call the parents and Susan 1 each week- I suh at calling people.  I am hoping without the distraction of studies and TV, I will be able to rejoin society.
26. hunter safety course- another right of passage with my kids.
27. concealed carry course- so I don't have to worry about carrying the gun back and forth to the range.  Don't worry.  I have no desire to walk around with a gun in my shoe.
28. plan a big birthday for my wife- I hate parties.  She loves parties See #7
29. celebrate our anniversary- see #7
30. keep my bathroom clean- Sorry to say it, we all suck at house cleaning.  There is just something about getting ready in a pristine bathroom that makes you feel like a millionaire.  What a great way to start your day.  
31. keep my bedroom clean- again with the self-esteem, millionaire thing.  
32. be flexible- physically.  50 years has made me quite rigid.  I would like to get out of a chair without grunting.  Besides, I love yoga.  
33. help my children with their homework- we're not talking every day.  But now that I am not immersed in my own homework, I need to coach them to better grades.
34. contact someone every week- OK for the rest of society, this may sound stupid.  But I am a homebody and an introvert.  So basically, I am lonesome proof.  But life is a social experiment and I need to own up to it by reaching out to others instead of always waiting for them to reach out to me.
35. keep the laundry done- another self esteem thing I owe myself.
36. Keep the kitchen clean- This is perhaps the hardest thing on my list.  Guys.  Guess what.  Women are pigs.  where we freely admit we are pigs.  Women are pigs when no one is looking and they complain about the mess as soon as they get around other people.  It is rather confusing.  But the point is I live with five women who would rather have a root canal than do dishes.  So since I am cooking my own food and since I can't stand cooking in a dirty kitchen, my expectation must be that almost all of the kitchen cleaning will be mine.
37. plan and begin saving for a vacation- I mean a real one with hotels and things to do.  Not visiting relatives.  We have never had one of those other than camping which is pretty much working double shifts for dad.
38. process mail the day it arrives-  this is another one of those things that only makes sense to me.  I have been afraid of what is in the mailbox for so long what with being broke and all that I haven't really had a set plan for mail.  the kids would get it and leave it wherever.  That publishers Clearing house check could be anywhere.  So I am going to make a point of getting the mail, chucking the junk and putting the ones with the little windows in a place where they can get paid.
39. send a thank you note- this may cause a few heart attacks since today's folk don't even know who dear Abby is.  But I would like to reinvoke this custom on some good Crane paper just as a social experiment.
40. prepare things for the missions auction early.  We have a silent auction each year at church to raise money for missions.  And we always run around the week before trying to come up with things to sell to raise money.  well this year i sat back and sized up my customer.  I made a list of like fifteen things that should actually generate some money.  Most of these I can make relatively inexpensively.  
41. run a marathon- just finish  Its on the bucket list.  
42. garden every day in the spring summer and fall.  I have always been so busy.  This year, I would like to put in about fifteen minutes of mental health vacation each day in the yard making it more beautiful
43. clean out the attic-  we've got shit in there from when we moved in 14 years ago.
44. clean out the closet- again, the millionaire thing.  I love going into an organized closet.
45. clean out the vanity- I can knock this out in fifteen minutes.  This hardly qualifies as a resolution.
46. clean out the office.  I need to transition it from a homework room to a man cave.  Arrrgh!
47. clean out the garage- this has to happen bi annually
48. clean out the loft- this definateley needs to happen in the spring.  We need to weed out some of the stuff in this house one stash at a time.
49. clean out the crawlspace- more junk
50. sell things on E bay frequently- we have a lot of things that can generate income that are just gathering dust.  So I would like to get good at selling and maybe parlay that knowledge into a second revenue source.
51. learn names better- this goes right along with the listening thing.  I suck at it.l
52. shoot more often- whether it be guns or bows, there is just something zen about target shooting.

  That's it.  No nobel peace prize.  But if I could accomplish this in one year, I might just take up French and the guitar next year.  Wish me luck