New (School) Year's Resolution

• You know how I love bulleted lists. 

Another way Hand Hubby has molded my crazy into something Office Max-organized.  Summer is over, no matter when the autumnal equinox decides to occur.
So again, it's list-making time.  There's a "Pride in Our Great Public Schools" notepad on my desk and it's half-full of lists: 
Questions to ask the other Band director. 
Questions for my new school principals. 
Things to do at each school I'll be traveling to this year.
B. E. (before Elliebean,) Bob's mom gave me the idea of using pretty blank journals as my date book/daily to-do list. 

I think the last one I had got soaked by a leaky bottle. 

After that, like most mommies, I gave up on anything real getting done on a regular basis. So good-bye pretty journal lists.
Hubby has resorted to a marble composition book for the same purpose this year.  Just as organized, without the girly flowers and cherubs playing harps on the front cover.

So while we're in To-Do list mode... Here's some stuff I want to make sure actually happens this year:

New (School) Year's Resolutions:

• Keep my appointments with the damn elliptical. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 5:30 AM.  Till Bob's Band rehearsals start. Then we have the 5:00 AM slot. Don't be late, you hulking hamster wheel of torture...
• Either enlist the help of a cleaning service, or stop letting the mess bother me. The level of angst about the crumbs in the kitchen and grime in the bathroom is just high enough to raise my anxiety level, but not quite high enough that I'll do much about it till it becomes DYFS-worthy. Do something about it, or let go and let it be what it'll be.
• Miss M is almost 5. Make her do her part in the family clean-up.  There will be a basket in the living room.  Another in her bedroom. Either she or we will throw all the toys in the basket every evening. That is all she need do then, because we value her time with us more than clean floors. HOWEVER: the next day, after preschool, her job will be to Put. The. Damn. Toys. Away. Just the ones in the baskets. Bins will be properly labeled for her sorting pleasure.

Lest we forget.

Yes, play is definitely a child's work.

And this is what a good time looks like.

But try walking through it in bare feet in the middle of the night.

• Read. Thank you, MOMS club Book Club. Peer pressure and the desire to have the excuse to hang with some awesome ladies will keep me in line here. 
• Speaking of, maintain some lovely newly cultivated friendships, rather than letting them fall by the wayside during the busy, busy school year.  More than "keeping in touch", remember the value of a social life, a bestie to talk with, and the vast benefits of my children having non-school friends to play with.
• Explore the new Band Method by Heather Dziczek that I'm very excited about. Similarly, have no fear about doing Something Different than the rest of my department.
• Keep on keepin' on with the Weight Watchers.  Evil points. Incidentally, Handsome Hubby got a stern lecture from WW this morning when he entered his weight. He'd lost too much.  Oh, the horror.

And he ate like 4 pieces of cake yesterday, too.

• Schedule practice time into my days for my "other" instruments.  After a summer of growling expletives at the giant awkwardness that is the trombone, I'd like to continue to not suck at it. Ditto for saxophone. That sucker is deceptively heavy.
• Play horn more. Take it to school and play on lunch if necessary. After all, it's relatively cheap therapy.
• Write. Speaking of inexpensive therapeutic practices! Treat it like a to-do and not a "maybe do everything else first and then if I have time" thing.  Hello, me time.
• Date night. With the hubby.  Without the kids. Once a month? Ok, maybe after marching band season is over. But I'm finding this item especially important after reading a recent post on the blog Committed: The Ties the Bond,. We will get a babysitter and actually use her, darn it.  Because my hubby is and always has been a great dater.

Why do I bother posting goals on the blog? 

• Because I'd been making a mental list in my head for days and wanted to try out the new Blogger user interface.
• Because this way people know about them and may actually hold me accountable.
• Because, again, I love bulleted lists.

This is really our New Year's.  Come January, we're in the thick of it already.  It's resolution time.
Wondering if anybody else treats September as January. 
Speak up if you create your own (mental?) list of goals for the New Year.