Hey y’all! Happy New Year! I hope you had an amazing holiday with your loved ones! We had a great December- it went by fast but we packed lots of things in and managed to do quite a bit of relaxing and enjoying this year too.
Now it is the new year which is my favorite time of year! Cleaning, organizing and Spring just around the corner.
This year I have so many resolutions- I know lots of people boycott resolutions and such but not me! I love them! What isn’t to love? Trying to become a better person, setting goals, making plans… Why not give it a go. 🙂
In the past I have set traditional resolutions, chosen one word to symbolize my goal for the year and so on… This year I decided to be a bit more unstructured about things and decided to focus on three areas:
FITNESS:
This is always a battle for me to make the time for fitness and to improve my diet and all the healthy habits that are so important (good nutrition, sleep and so on.) I am fairly good about this but we can always do better and this year I still want to keep this top of mind. I want to try new things too and focus on having an active family. I signed up for a Mud Run this Spring so please include me in your prayers 😉 I don’t like to be dirty but this just looks so fun! What the heck. I think it is good for my little girls to see Mommy being strong and being brave about new things so buckle up y’all!
Has anyone else done the Mud Run? Any tips for me?
EDUCATION:
I love online classes, podcasts and just learning new things. This year I want to take time to take classes on a few things- photography, cooking, editing and some fun creative pursuits. My first focus is on hand lettering- such a craze right now and I really want to try to improve my writing for craft projects, chalkboards, letters and such. I started following some different accounts on IG and periscope and I found a program called Skillshare where you can take classes to learn things– like this waterbrush lettering class. How gorgeous is that?
Do you have any fun and creative things you want to learn this year? I’d love to hear what you are interested in!
MEMORY KEEPING:
I mentioned this before but I take TONS of photos of my kids and our adventures. You know what happens to those pics? Nothing. They sit on a hard drive or flash drive and never see the light of day again. This year I am really working on editing, organizing and most importantly sharing the photos and memories. I don’t think I will jump into scrapbooking anytime soon but I did take hours in December and went through thousands of photos- deleting and editing. I started with Chatbooks (see the review here) to organize my social media photos into books. I also just started a really nice year end photobook with photos of special events and memories from 2015. My goal is to finish that by the end of January as sort of a year book for the family.
My little girl loves taking photos and we got her a little camera this year. I created a private IG account just for her to upload her photos, edit her photos and as a surprise I plan to put them all in a book at the end of the year. The world through her eyes 😉 See that pic at the very top? That would be her artistic eye 🙂
Does anyone have awesome suggestions for organizing photos? I would love any tips!
My other two goals for this year:
Stop the comparison game. Urg y’all! I totally do this! Do you? In fact I really stopped Facebook (personally not professionally) altogether last year for a bit. I see parties or events or trips and just feel bad. Why weren’t we invited to that event? My kid wasn’t included in that birthday party? That person has so much more money, fun, happiness, better friends, better house, better clothes… It is bad enough personally but you add the pressure of being a blogger on top of that and well I often feel doubley bad comparing myself. That person has such engaged readers! That person grew their social media account so fast and no one likes me! They have such great relationships! Look at how creative they are/ how gorgeous the photos/ how delicious that looks! I can’t help but compare, compare, compare and feel inadequate. This is something I am totally working on this year. Just stop it already! So still working on this 🙂
Make a Decision and Make it Right. Seriously this is going to be my mantra this year. I can be VERY indecisive. And worse I fall into the grass is greener trap and once I make the decision, I second guess myself 🙂 This year I really want to change perspective. I want to just make a decision already, stop procrastinating and once I do decide to focus on what is right about that choice and not what could be wrong. Case in point, we had a tough decision between two schools last year. We decided on one and all year I have been second guessing myself- was this the right choice? I wish I could go back in time and change schools now… and just really beating myself up that I made the wrong choice. I want to try and focus on what is good about my choices and once I do decide, just make it the right choice. period. It all comes down to attitude right?
So that is about it for me this month! I hope you are having a beautiful New Year and I’d LOVE to know what you are focusing on, loving, and thinking about these days as well.
Christina says
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and honesty. Love a lot of your ideas and goals.
Nice to know others have many of the same feelings about things and similar struggles to
work on.
I check your Blog every day and enjoy it so much:)
Charlene says
Yeah! Glad you can relate 🙂 We can work on things together this year.
LindaW says
I appreciate your honesty. I’ve felt the same way about Facebook and decided to step away from it for similar reasons as you. (And I’m normally a very positive person!) I enjoy your blog for 2 years now and have learned so much. Thank you for the gift of sharing your knowledge, deals, recipes, crafts, tips and some moments of your life. Blessings to you and your family in 2016.
Traci says
I agree that Facebook is tricky…I’m not even a member but every time I check on someone I end up jealous and have to remind myself that that’s someone’s best day, best party, most coordinated kids’ outfits, best picture, etc. I love your decision-making goal. I need to work on that too, and didn’t even realize it. The opportunities to agonize over and then question your decisions-especially when it comes to your kids-are never-ending! It’s hard to navigate, for all of us! Thanks for reminding me we’re not all that different : )
Carrie Vandlen says
I definitely agree with you! New Year’s resolutions get a bad rap, but I love setting goals and making plans and resolutions for each new year. I never achieve them all 100%, but I always make some headway and it’s fun looking back on each year and seeing the progress that has been made. Thank you so much for sharing your 2016 goals. I wish you all the best as you strive to achieve them!!
Mae says
I take a ton of pictures too. last year i would down load my pictures regularly and started making photo books quarterly. Any trips we took got their own book. I usually made them on shutterfly and when they had a sale I would order a book that way they were already done in advance. Also Costco has a good deal on their photo books and sometimes they offer a coupon. You get 30 pages in their books and with the coupon it equals out a better deal then other photo companies. Good luck! Once you get going it’s easy to stay motivated!
Abby says
You should read “Compared to Her” by Sophie de Witt. It really hit home and I found it so helpful! Love your blog!
Charlene says
Ok Abby I read a ton so I will put that on my list 🙂 I just finished The Status of all Things which was a fun book about social media obsession.
Charlene says
Yup special trips get a special book for us too. Thanks Mae- I have hope knowing others have their act together with this stuff 😉
Charlene says
Thanks Carrie! You too!
Charlene says
Totally Traci– highlight reels. 🙂
Charlene says
LOL Rachel I did blue for my husband’s Seahawks 😉 Poor guy has so much pink, gold and glitter in his life. I hope it is as pretty in person as the photo. That gold looks gorgeous.
Faith says
I love all your resolutions! I get the same feelings sometimes from Facebook. Sometimes it’s just nice to be ignorant about everybody’s business!! I frequently take breaks and it’s always refreshing!
I decided to try the one word focus this year and it’s been good. My word is “more” which is a bit broad but I figure it can cover a lot…move more, eat healthy more, be more forgiving, read more, etc…you get the idea. 🙂 So far, when I’ve been tempted to do less, I think “more” and it spurs me on. I guess we’ll see if that still works in June! 😉
I check your blog at least once a day and you’re the best! Thanks for all you do!
Charlene says
I like that idea Faith! If it doesn’t work in June just change the word and start again. LOL. No one will be the wiser 😀