Because I must...

Become a morning person...

Lose those last few pounds...

Build up that emergency fund a bit...

Let go of my anxiety and worry and tendency to binge on toast and butter and jelly when I'm stressed...

Get those loose ends tied up...

Keep the house cleaned up for more than 24 hours...

Be prepared for whatever lies ahead (because God knows, even if I don't have a clue)...

Get organized, once and for all, and teach my children how to be organized...

Get organized, so I'm not late, so my kids aren't perpetually unprepared for life...like this morning.

To back up a bit, 8:30 a.m. soccer games in late October are just cruel. At least in Indiana they are. We crunched through the first frost of the year on our way to the field, the kids were bundled up and could barely move. You couldn't tell who was on what team, because all you could see were the hats and gloves and puffy winter coats. Sure, there were a few freezing children who wore their team shirts tightly stretched over their hoodies, but the majority of the players were team-less, or at least appeared that way.

But even before that, there was the mayhem at home this morning at 7:45--when Henry couldn't find his team shirt (not that it ultimately mattered---we never did find it); he found his shin guards but one of the plastic guards were missing out of the sock part. His reply, "it must have fallen out". Now if you're a soccer mom at all, you know those plastic guards don't just "fall" out of the socks, you sort of have to work and stress just to remove those suckers to wash them--so I'm not quite sure what happened.

I did find it, finally, but not without a lot of frustration and lost time. And yes, Beatrice was wearing a two sizes too big Buzz Lightyear sweatshirt because I couldn't find a sweatshirt to fit her. And I wore my 11 year old's slightly snug gloves because I couldn't find my own.

But I digress...my point was, apparently, organization is not my strong suit.

But it has been, in the past, and I feel it could be again, with a little work.

So here's the deal: I can't go on like this. 

As life gets busier and busier, it gets more difficult to keep all the plates spinning at once. So in order to do that, I am committing to getting all my ducks in a row--then it's just a matter of maintenance. Maintenance is easy, right?  and I figure, instead of waiting til 2012 to make new resolutions that will probably not hold up--I want to put myself in a situation where by the end of 2011, I'm there. And I have sort of already started. And already I have made some progress.

(You just wouldn't know it to walk in my house right now. ;-) )

So this is where I am at the moment. I'm holding myself accountable--and will post back tomorrow night.

Because I must make a difference.

But in the process, I need to be okay with it all, even the imperfect. That's a big lesson that I'm sure will extend beyond the 11 week plan.