Weeks after vacations are always so long. We’ve been home since Saturday night, but we spent all day Sunday running around restocking our kitchen, unpacking, and taking care of errands.

A week and a half of travel including almost 40 hours of driving left me drained and exhausted. I’m looking forward to taking it easy this weekend.

Lots of New Year’s resolutions floating around the blogosphere this week. I hope you’re all sticking to your resolutions so far! I’m still committed to getting in better shape in 2009 – physically and financially. It’s only been a week, though. I hope this motivation lasts!

Here are my favorite posts from around the blogosphere this week:

• Small Notebook shares some thoughts on finding the motivation to make a change. So true. In the end, the best tool for change is your own determination.
• Wise Bread offers six painless ways to cut calories. Definitely useful for anyone trying to drop a few extra pounds in the new year!
• Also at Wise Bread: six frugal hacks from the Great Depression. Great tips from some of the hardest times.
• Northern Cheapskate offers some helpful tips for damage control after the holiday spending spree. The most important thing after a spending spree is to get back on track and learn from it! In my experience, debt always breeds more debt until you break the cycle.
• Common Sense with Money shares the results after tracking baby expenses in the first year of her son’s life. She managed to spend a fraction of one article’s estimates on food and diaper costs. Yay for frugal baby-raising!
• Speaking of babies, happy belated birthday to Jonathan Michael. Kacie at Sense to Save and her husband welcomed him into the world on December 20. Congratulations to the happy family!

Happy Friday everyone!