2009 has been a truly fabulous year for us as a family and as such I will farewell with it with fondness. It was an incredibly busy year (probably a little too busy) but one which exceeded my expectations in so many ways. This doesn’t mean that I achieved everything that I had planned and I will share my yearly review next week, but I did manage to achieve some key objectives that I would like to work on more in 2010.
In no particular order, here are my big ticket items for 2010:
1. Revamp the blog.
I have made a few changes through out this year to improve the readability and usability of the blog, but there is still much more I would like to do.
2. Learn the basics on new camera.
We purchased a new digital SLR camera when we were in Singapore in October. Even without knowing how to really use it the quality of photos that I am taking has improved significantly. If I can just learn some basics, then I can only imagine how good they could look!
3. Learn to say no.
I have a tendency to take on too much. This happens for a number of reasons – I like to be involved (or hate missing out!); I want to help people; and I genuinely find it hard to say no sometimes. In 2010 I want to be less busy than I was in 2009, so I am going to need to learn to politely say no to things, if I already have enough on.
When I step back and look at the situation, I know that people won’t mind or will understand if I cannot participate/attend/help and it is often me that sets unrealistic expectations about what I should be doing. It will require hard work for me to successfully master this.
4. Organise photos.
We have over a year of photos printed out and waiting to make their way into photo albums. We have another year to print out and then put them into photo albums as well! It is one of those tasks that I just continue to put off, but I know that when I do it, I will actually enjoy it.
5. Visit the National Art Gallery.
We have a family membership to NGV (thanks Steph and Steve!) and we have only been a couple of times. They have a new children’s space which we haven’t checked out, so I want to take some trips with all the kids and then some with just the younger two, where we attend the preschooler art programs.
6. Get the kids riding their bikes more.
Our kids are quite active when at home, trampolining, running around, cricket and footy etc, but we don’t do a lot of bike riding. I think part of the problem has been that neither I nor their dad has had a bike, but Mr I in recent months has really started getting into cycling, so now we need to get him riding with the kids.
7. See live music.
This is an unmet goal of 2009. It was probably a bit unrealistic in hindsight, to try and get out more at night in the year that I had a baby! I will try again this year to see a band once a quarter.
8. Fly to Sydney with the kids.
My very, very, very lovely older sister moved to Sydney earlier this month. The entire time I have lived in Melbourne she has been here too. I will miss her terribly and want to make sure that we get up to Sydney and see her in the first half of this year. I am going to be scanning cheap flights from now on in, so that I can actually fly with the kids, so that we don’t have to do the long drive.
9. Live in the moment more.
One thing I noticed towards the end of this year when I started to get crazily busy was that I had trouble just enjoying the moment. I would constantly be going through my to do list in my head, thinking about the best possible way to utilise my time and map ways to get everything that needed to be done, done in the allocated time. This is not how I want to operate. I want to be fully present and fully immersed in who I am with and what I am doing. This point is very directly linked to point No. 3.
10. Contact our grandparents more.
Mr I and myself are both lucky enough to have a grandparent alive. We both have a Nana and our children are so fortunate to have a great grandparent as part of their family. Mr I’s Nana is 97 and lives about 15 minutes from us. My Nana is 86 and lives in Mildura. We both need to make sure that we make time in our family life to visit / communicate with them on a regular basis.