New Years Endeavors.

I am not one to usually make a resolution. Every year I make a mental note of things I want to work on but I rarely make an out loud statement promising to do something. I kind of feel like the big new years resolution idea is just a hype and typically sets up a person for failure. I do have goals but I want to call mine something different since I don't want to fall under the hype of it all. Then I found the word endeavor. Definition: to exert oneself to do or effect something; make an effort; strive. Exactly. That seems right. So we will call it my New Years Endeavor.

Well what is it, you ask?
My New Years Endeavor is to start recycling.
I am almost a little ashamed to admit that I haven't been. I had good intentions and actually several years back I did. But then I stopped when the items all started to pile up and I quit hauling it to the recycling center.
But now with having a future I need to protect for our little Jack and having tons of garbage (lots of it being recyclable) I have decided that its important to me. I have wanted to start for a while, but never made the move to make it happen. Today I did it. I schemed up a system that I hope will work for us. (I even made it cute and took pictures to show) :)

I first cleaned out under my sink and then found a box that would fit the space. A diaper box! Awesome. Not too hard to find with an infant in the house :)

Then I made it cute!

I simply wrapped them with wrapping paper and then made some clip art and font on the computer. Then I mod podged over the whole outside of the box so that in case something dripped on it, my hard work wouldn't be wasted ;) Then I stretched a force flex garbage bag to fit inside the box.

The finished product at work:

I am excited about the project and hopefully I can keep the enthusiasm. My plan now is to haul it to the recycling center. If that becomes a hassle I guess I will have to figure out curb pickup.

Now that the recycling project is up and running I can focus on some other minor 2012 endeavors of mine:

• Work on my fitness. Having a baby was hard on my body. Enough said.
• Develop a cleaning schedule for my house and stick to it for the most part. I need to work on this.
• Always keep re-organizing to be more efficient. Organizing makes me feel great and who doesn't love the feeling of being organized?!?
• Use my meal planning board more often and eat out less. It started out well....
• Organize and keep printing Jack's pictures so I keep on top of them. We have a million and I am not going to know the dates they were taken in a few months.
• Organize my recipe box. Or maybe find a way to file all the random torn out magazine recipe pages into my recipe box. 
• Enjoy my little guy Jack. He is growing up really fast suddenly and I don't want to miss a thing.

What about you? Do you make resolutions or do you make endeavors? :)