2011 Goals

We may be half way through January already, but I've been taking my time thinking about goals for the upcoming year. I'm not big on resolutions usually, but this year will pose some new challenges and I feel like it will be good to go into it with new things to work towards and look forward to.

So here they are:

Throw out less food - I am constantly throwing out leftovers and food I buy that we don't end up eating. Most recipes are made for at least 4 people and make a huge amount. I'm lazy and usually don't want to have to figure out what half of all the measurements are. But, this year I'm going to make a much bigger effort to make sure we eat the food we pay for.

Travel to at least 1 new country - last year I got to travel a bunch around Japan, to Korea twice and Australia. This year I hopehopehope we can get over to China.

Visit family - We're almost at our 1 year mark of living in Japan and I haven't been back home yet. This year I plan on getting home at least once, maybe even twice if I'm lucky.

Ride Makoto at a solid 2nd level in dressage - I feel like this is a very attainable goal for how he's been schooling lately, on his good days. I am super excited to see how he progresses. Progress will be slower since he's a school horse and I'm often having to go back and re-train, but I think we can do it. At least it gives me something to work hard at and push for.

And just since I know I should I'm going to add:

Make a better effort to learn Japanese - There is really no excuse.

And, become more involved with the finances. I seriously have zero interest. Brad does a fantastic job of managing the money and even checking the accounts every day. But, I know it's important and I need to at least have a small clue how to deposit a check online ... or even sign in online that is. I didn't even know the pin number for my ATM card for the entire first year of our marriage. Yeah, I hardly ever needed cash, but come on, that's really bad. This year we will be starting a new retirement fund and getting better prepared for the future and I know I need to be involved and informed about options and at least know what's going on.

Sure, I'm still going to make sure I exercises and eat right, but since that's always been ongoing I'm going to leave it off the list. I hope that the list is short enough that I'll actually do the things on it!

I'm off to the barn this morning for lessons and what I hope will be a productive ride even though it is crazy windy out there. Stay tuned for winter riding pictures soon!