The End of January...and how are YOUR resolutions going?

Aloha!

It has been a while, but the time has come for me to get back to writing. To begin, I will start with A Blog Creation (see what I did there ;) ). What's in store? Resolutions.

It's almost the end of the January. For those of you who made resolutions, how are they going? Have you stuck with them? Have you thrown them to the curbside along with the Lindor truffle wrappers like the ones currently in my garbage can? (They're just so good... ;) ) Are you starting (or restarting) next week? Next month? (Coincidently, next week IS next month...just saying ;) )

Many of us tend to have lofty and multiple resolutions all the time. Not just at the beginning of the year. And that's the tricky part: the goals are sometimes just too big, too many. Not that they aren't valuable or viable, but sometimes, oftentimes, we just can't sustain all the changes we want to make because we are trying to do too much.

This is something that has been coming up a lot recently, in my life. I've had to do a lot of refocusing, of shifting priorities and goals: lessening them or putting them on the backburner. There has been quite a bit of change in the last couple years for our family (hello, Little Miss!), most of which has been joyous and wonderful. But it's also made things challenging, tricky, time-consuming. We've adjusted--some things removed, others just temporarily put on hiatus, still others lessened.

The last couple years, I haven't done any New Year Resolutions as I mostly have just been in survival mode since the birth of our daughter. But now that she's a full-blown toddler, I feel like I can spare some time to work on myself again. That may seem very contradictory, I know. Why would you choose NOW? Now? Everyone knows toddlers go a mile a minute both physically and emotionally. But in reality, it's the BEST time. Because Little Miss has given me a gift: she's shown me that I can make small changes that have a BIG effect.

In years' past, when I've felt so inclined, I have written resolutions down, sealed them in an envelope, and had my husband open it at the end of the year to assess how well I did on my goals. It made me feel more accountable, and even if I didn't meet my resolutions completely, I still found myself attempting them more consistently.

I'm not doing that this year.

Instead, I'm going to choose something small each week (or every other week or every third week, depending on the space and time in my life this year) and I'm going to write about it here. Because that's one of my BIG goals. Not this blog, but writing in general. So instead of trying to jump into a huge writing project (or rewriting, which is really the project that's on the to-do list), I'm starting with something more accessible to the time-frame I have right now. Plus, in theory, writing it on here will keep me more accountable for all my goals, big and small.

I feel like this month has already gone fairly well. More family time is one of our combined goals this year. And we got that immediately out of the starting gate: a trip to Hawaii with my husband and daughter for my 30th birthday. Yes, that was BIG, but the time we spent together for that week reminded us that it's the small, everyday gestures and nuances that make this our life and make our life what we want it to be: watching our daughter have so much enjoyment in walks, playtime (at the beach), eating dinner together, reading books near each other.

When we came home, we continued family time: we made sure to sit down and eat dinner as a family every night that we could. Last week we managed to do that at least four times, maybe five. And this week, it'll probably only be two or three. BUT, those 30-45 minutes are so rewarding. No phones. Only the three of us (plus the hovering furry one looking eagerly for high chair scraps). And somehow, those precious minutes before and after dinner are spent more fulfilled. We aren't playing, "What do you want to eat?" as much because we know we have to have something figured out before the dinner hour arrives. And afterwards, it's just time to be a family.

I know that my husband and I will keep striving to continue this relatively small thing: dinner together as a family. It's reaping so many rewards already, and it's only been one week (officially) for the dinner-sized-portion of this goal ;)

So far, the theme is fundamentals. Last week:  food. This week: sleep. Next week: water. And so, onto the next blog post!

Cheers to happy, healthy, and fulfilled!