New Years Resolutions

As most people do, at the beginning of each new year, I make a resolution. Although, by definition, resolution isn't really the right word... I make more of a goal for myself for the next year. This year my goal is to pay more attention to Azalea, to pet her more and praise her more and play with her more. Because these past 2 years she has kinda just been... there. Elijah took precedence, as he should, but I still feel like I've been semi-neglecting her. So far this year... all 14 days of it... I've been doing better.

As it turns out, I wasn't the only one who made a resolution... Joe made one too. His, well our, resolution is to not eat out at all this year. That includes delivery and pickup. If it doesn't come from a grocery store, we don't eat it. Now there are exceptions to the rule. If we have a gift card, it doesn't count. If someone else pays, it doesn't count. And if it's a birthday or special event (ie our anniversary) it doesn't count. Before I tell you how wonderfully we are doing, I must say this is one of the hardest resolutions ever, for me. After working all day it's so easy to just pull up to McDonalds or order some Chinese to be delivered. No cooking and no dishes to clean, sounds like a dream... With a big price tag.

But anyway, even though it's hard things have been going well. Joe even made something new a week or so ago. He made his dad's chili... a double batch, so we could freeze it and it would be an easy dinner later on. And because I know how we are with "What's in the freezer? I don't know. Let's just order something", I made this list on the white board on our fridge:



So at a glance you can see everything that is available for cooking.

And last, but not least, it looks as though Elijah has made a resolution also. He has tried more new foods this month than he probably has, before, in his entire life. Ok, maybe not that many... but what is more amazing is that after he tries them, he eats the whole thing that was given to him. He has had fish, meatballs, triscuits and pretzel sticks to name a few. Last night he even ate pizza. Actually, there was -one- thing that he tried and ended up throwing on the floor, it was peas. I totally don't blame him for this, I hate peas also, so I think I'll give him a pass on that one. Hopefully he'll continue to try new things and make meal time a whole lot easier.

That's about it, a few resolutions and some progress on each. We shall see what the rest of the year brings and maybe at the end of the year I'll post an entry saying how they all went... If I remember.