New Year's Resolutions

I've been hesitant on posting this because I think New Year's resolutions are just something people say to make themselves feel better at the New Year, but no one really follows through on them. However, I only have a few New Year's resolutions I feel are important enough for me to post and commit to. (Since this has turned out longer than expected I included some butterly shots I took recently took to break it up a bit.)


Essentially since we've moved here my food purchases at the grocery store (because there aren't too many grocery store options) have become bad and dismal. I pledge to change that. I no longer want to feed my family nutrition-less food for dinner, nor do I want Aidan to constantly crave junk food like he's been. He's hardly eating fruits and vegetables because every time I push, he pushes back. No more, I've devised a plan (with a little help from Jessica Seinfeld) to sneak in more fruits and vegetables. I purchased Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook and even showed Aidan the pictures. He wanted to try most everything. (Granted I didn't let him know I would be pureeing vegetables and including them in the dishes. Unfortunately my food processor is packed away somewhere so I'll be using the blender for now.)


I also pledge to include a fruit at breakfast and lunch and always have a vegetable at dinner. (The vege at dinner has been easy, but getting the kids to eat them, not so easy.)


Now, don't get me wrong, it's not like I've been feeding them TV dinners and processed foods for the last 5 months, but I guess because of the lack of good grocery stores I've been on a cooking block and haven't been inspired to cook great meals.


I also pledge to cut down on everyone's TV time. During the week I limit the kid's TV time to about 1 1/2 hours. No more than that, but the TV has crept in here and there in the evening. I've noticed that even if it's on something like Discovery Channel with "Dirty Jobs" or "Planet Earth" the kids will start paying attention and then no one's engaging with each other. We're glued to the boob tube. No More! I say... now I just got to get Rick on board with this!



And last, but not least....keeping my family physically fit during the winter. I've realized it's a bit harder than I thought here in Colorado. Although it hasn't snowed too often this winter we've had some cold spells so it's hard to just go outside and kick the ball around. Besides, even though the roads clear of snow pretty quickly there are some icy spots so it makes it more difficult. Plus, we were spoiled in California with the good weather and the park right behind our house so we could always take the kids to the park, even for a short period of time. Any cold weather friends have any indoor activity suggestions? Thankfully for the most part keeping the kids active hasn't been too bad since they are soooo active. They have spent a lot of time wrestling and running from our kitchen to our front door. I'm just counting down the days until we move into our house and have more room for them to run, not to mention a backyard to play in.

What, one last thing, date night! Rick and I haven't had a date night since October when my mom and Jerry were visiting. Once we move to our house I want to have a real date night at least once a month.

Okay, so this post has turned out longer and probably more boring than I expected so I've included some pictures of our most recent excursions. To the Butterly Pavillion and to the Denver Zoo. Notice the tiger? He/she was out and loved staring at us. Made me wonder if the moat and gate was big and tall enough. Having taken the kids to the SF zoo many times I can really relate to what's happened there.