My New Year's Resolutions

1. Eliminate chaos from the house. (with a household of six that includes a five-year-old that will be tricky)
2. Bring more peace into my life. (see above)
3. Make my pennies scream even louder. (fulltime husband on 1/2 pay coming to a home near me soon)

What are your resolutions?

Getting Back in the Swim

Most Americans resolve to lose weight when New Year’s rolls around. I would like to, but that’s not one of my resolutions. Maybe next year. I would, however, like to be in better shape and to that end my daughter Amy and I returned to our water aerobics class at the Morgan Family YMCA in Tacoma after a six month hiatus. We got back into the swim of things.

My 86 year old mother suffered two life threatening infections that bookended home renovations and the whole of which was capped by bad weather and the holidays. So last night I pulled out my familiar bag which already contained my suit, my YMCA card, my towel and my shampoo. Amy was ready and waiting for me when I came back from walking the dog and off we went wondering who we'd see.

Morgan Family has undergone some renovations and now sports a beautiful new lobby, desk, and lounge area. It may be trying to keep up with its new sister in Gig Harbor, but we love the large therapy pool at Morgan which Gig Harbor does not have and we love our instructor and classmates. Orginally we'd intended to move over to Gig Harbor when it opened, but we just couldn't leave the folks we'd got used to seeing three evenings per week.

June was the last time we’d been. January 2nd and a Friday was a good day to go back. For the most part the Y classes were on break. The adult water aerobics classes go on as usual and it was nice to not have to dodge little wet bodies in the locker room and basically have the place to ourselves. Whereas the class had become too large making it difficult to exercise in June, this last weekday of the holiday break fielded a small class of familiar faces and one new one.

Well, three new faces. The lap pool was fairly quiet. Dean, retired Special Education teacher and our instructor looked over at the lap pool and waved to two young ladies watching our elderly group bob and bounce to the music Dean provides. “Why don’t you join us,” Dean called. The girls giggled and some of speculated how old we thought they were. Middle school, we decided. A little while later they appeared at the end of the instructional pool, whispering to each other and giggling. When we looked up one tentatively asked, “Can we join you?” They were received with warm welcome and enticed into staying for volley ball after the aerobics class. They were 9th graders at two different junior highs and this class, which is largely made up of educators of one variety or another, made them feel comfortable. Who knows if they will come back, but it was lovely to have two young ladies want to splash around with a bunch of old farts.

Going back to water aerobics wasn’t on my list of resolutions. It is something that we were already doing and got interrupted. Actually, going interrupted one of my resolutions which was organizing, but spending time with Amy is divine and (unfortunately) my stuff was still waiting for me when we got home.

Cleaning Up My Act

Spring cleaning is good, but New Year’s cleaning is even better. It plays into the theme of discarding the spiritual clutter in our lives by making resolutions when we discard the clutter of our physical lives. In the Spring the weather is likely to distract you from an inside mission and the garden will call you as well.

Recently I was able to avail myself of the enforced seclusion of the snow storm by sorting, dusting, vacuuming and general cleaning. I have plenty left to do and will pause long enough to head to the coast to tend to my mother, but I have a few days when I return before I go back to work and intend to take up where I’m leaving off. Not only do I want to be cleaner and more organized for the New Year, I hope to keep up with it this year.

Along with developing a new relationship with my things I hope to develop a new relationship with my money. This would be a good exercise even were we not in a recession, but takes on a new urgency when trying to make do in hard times.

I am setting up an accounting system of a sort to keep track of every penny I have as advised in Your Money or Your Life. I will keep track of what is food spending vs. nonfood spending. I am particularly interested in those amounts as I believe that food and discretionary spending is the only sector of spending that I have control over. I want to see where I’m putting my money, or as Dominguez and Robin say in Your Money or Your Life, where I’m putting my life energy.

It’s a revelation to me to think of a pay check in terms of life energy, but that’s what it is. I am giving my time and my life to receive that money which deserves conscious spending. Obviously keeping good accounts (especially when one has been as lax as I in knowing how much money I have) will cost me time, but getting a handle on where my money goes will make it time well spent.

Another aspect of spending my life energy is to give it to others thoughtfully. I am too often one to submit to someone else’s desires in order to please someone special. It is in my nature to nurture those I care for, but I am going to nurture myself more in 2009 and say “no thank you” without explanation more often. At nearly 58 and past middle age, my time is more valuable than ever.

All this de-cluttering and voluntary simplicity not only will benefit me, but the environment as well. By keeping unneeded items in the thrift circuit and making purchases wisely, I can impact landfills and the air while keeping my money in my purse. I may not be able to afford a farm or have the expertise to run one, but I can make a difference in my little corner of the universe.

And so my time during this break from work is being spent cleaning the spiritual, physical, and financial clutter out of my life. January 1st is a great time for new beginnings and recommitments to last year’s resolutions.

Next stop, planning a garden and building a chicken coop.

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