Monday, January 2, 2012

A Fresh Start

Wow, it's twenty twelve. Crazy. We're in the process of de-Christmas-ing the house. Every year I enjoy December with the house decorated for Christmas. I love the lights. I love the decor. I love to eat sweets from morning to night. I love to admire real candles flickering so nicely. Then, I love to take it all down, put it away in a box, and have my house back.

I went to a New Year's Eve Party, and our lovely hostess wanted to go around the table and talk about our resolutions for the new year. And you know what, I hadn't really thought about a 'resolution' up until that point. I haven't really done resolutions for the past couple of years. In my opinion, making a bunch of resolutions, is setting yourself up for failure on or the night before the very the 1st day of the year. If you fail to keep your resolutions [which I typically do] It kinda just hangs out there... It's certainly not what I would consider a builder upper. The last few years, I've focused more on my word, than a resolution. And it's worked well for me.

Now, despite what I just said, I did indeed have a 'resolution' for the crowd, because believe me, I didn't want to be pigeon holed into a resolution they thought I should have... [Sorry about that Nola...] So I said that one of my resolutions this year was to Simplify... Which I do wish to do, but it's hardly a resolution. It's more a way of life. [Wish me luck, I live with Barry]

Last night, Barry and I got to talking, I told him about my resolution quandary. How I'd said what I said [simplify] to appease the crowd, but how I thought it was important this year that he and I make it a priority, or a resolution to spend more quality time together. In Oct/Nov, I had originally thought I would try to plan a date per month for 2012 and give him all the pre-planned dates as a gift for Christmas. [I read about the date ideas here] One night, when I sat down to work on it, I realized exactly how much work it was. A ton of preparation, and some things are just to hard to plan that far in advance.

I didn't end up doing it. We agreed last night, that we do need to spend more adult time together, and planning dates for each other is, something we'll focus on this year. Taking turns. The bonus is, he thought it was a great idea. So I get to plan January's date. [I mean it makes sense that he plans February, what with Valentine's Day and all]. And we'll plan dates for each other, every other month. How cool is that? I'm excited about it for sure.

To me, the new year means a new start. A fresh beginning. A do-over. A look forward, not backwards. To be successful and be positive. Some of the things I'd like to see this upcoming year are:

- a healthier diet, for sure. Serious commitment to meal planning. [Usually I do well in this aspect, but December was atrocious] And I would bust something right now, for a nice green salad.

- exercise [teeheehee] But I have to put it in there, don't I?

- setting up a schedule to clean a bit each day [like Nicole, but with way more flexibility ;-)]

-to spend more quality time with my kids [notice a bit of a trend?]

- use my new iphone, to do 365 days of instagrams. Seriously, I'm SO excited about this one. I've been imagining it for a few years now...

- to be a slug on the couch a LOT LESS frequently.

- to sort out our basement, so I don't die a little bit inside if an adult [that's not Barry or I] goes down there. Seriously. It's bad... I mean, it's not hoarder bad, but it is bad.

- de-clutter.

-spend more quality time with girlfriends... Seriously, the 2 times we've met for coffee since our kids all started school in September is kind of ridiculous... I want to see them more...

-get my December Daily book finished and sent to the printers before I lose interest. [Because I KNOW I'll be so grateful I took the time to finish it, next December.]

All this kind of brings me to this year's word I've selected: Renew...

There are a lot of things I thought I would do, with 2 kids in school full time. But it didn't happen in September [or Oct/Nov/Dec] I have the opportunity to make it happen now. I'm going to renew. I'm excited about this. I'm looking foward to this new year. Welcome twenty twelve!

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