Welcoming in a new year

2014 is here! We started the New Year here in NH with lots and lots of snow.
Luckily for us, we had just signed on with a snow removal company since we have not purchased a snow blower and Geoff has been clearing of our driveway with a shovel... yikes! This time, he had a lot less work to do.

Needless to say, we have been enjoying a few snowed-in days here at our house. It's been nice to relax, play with Logan and have a few cups of hot chocolate. There is something about a snow day that makes time seem to pause for a moment. I've taken some time to reflect on how great this past year has been and how blessed I am feeling with my life. Along with the good, I have also been thinking about the things I would like to work on and try to change with the new year.

I love the feeling of opportunity that the New Year brings. I know that self changes can and do happen at anytime during the year but now is a time when self reflection and excitement for the future are encouraged all around. It's nice to take sometime to stop hurrying through life and slow down enough to figure out what all this hurrying is for.

So, here are a few of my resolutions

-Stay in the moment.
I think that this is a big issue for most people now days. I take a lot of photos (mainly of Logan) and I'm on a lot of social media sites, this means that I have to constantly take stock of how much time I am sitting with my phone in my hand. (too much) I am trying to be more mindful of staying present. Last year I thought I was going to have less screen time and I ended up feeling guilty when I was on my iphone. I want to change my mindset and see if that helps give me the outcome I want. I want to remember these days in my memories, not only through my photos.

-Grow in my photography.
I want to keep learning and challenging myself. I've been blessed with friends who allowed me to take their fall photos this year and getting back into photographing more than just my son felt so so good. I took two online refresher courses last year and have plans to take a few more this year. It's nice to learn new skills while working on old skills. This year I want to take more risks, challenge myself more and hopefully book a few more sessions.

-Organize
Now that we are in our forever home, I really want to get this place (and my life) organized. I'm a list maker by nature so I'm getting a planner (I tried online last year and it wasn't my style), making some lists and going to tackle our house month by month.
I'm starting with January in the kitchen/pantry. Cleaning out what we don't need, deep cleaning everything and organizing our space.
February I'm moving to closets...

This goes for my photos as well. This is an overwhelming task but I'm going to eventually have everything labeled, backed up and make a photo book for this past year. My goal is month for month. This Jan I will deal with Jan 2012.

-Do more Yoga
Since giving birth, I have been slowly loosing my passion for running. I just feel like doing other things right now, like weight lifting with Geoff and classes at my gym. I know I feel better when I am consistent with my yoga practice, even if it is only one class a week.

I have other goals for my overall fitness and health but I wont get into that just yet. I'm trying to take it slow and implement things one at a time. I've learned this year that I need to be more patient with my body and how I lose weight/tone up. I feel like this will always be something that I am working on and that's ok.

-Slow down
I always feel like I'm in a rush to pack as many things as I can into our days. Be productive, work out, eat well, make healthy meals from scratch, have a clean and organized home, diy everything... it's exhausting trying to keep up so this year I want to calm my head, calm our schedule and slow down. I want to pick what's important and what's fun for us to concentrate on and push the rest away.

-Go to church more
This one is hard. I found a church I like however, it's big and I don't know anyone there yet. I've had a hard time leaving Logan with people I don't know and Geoff works most weekends so I sit by myself. All of these excuses keep me away most Sundays. I either need to just go more often or look for a smaller church that I can feel more apart of right away. Either way, I need to make a change.

-Keep blogging and improve my writing.
I've gone through ups and downs with this blogs. A few times I lost my voice, once I felt lost on my direction and another I felt pressured for it to be something it wasn't. At times I've also felt self pressure to get more followers or have more comments which is not what really matters. This blog is just my space to write what I'm thinking and to share my little life. I hope I never lose sight of that again and I hope that anyone who reads here enjoys it and can relate. I would like to get to know more of you that read here though. :)



That's pretty much it to start off our year... thanks for reading through all of that!
Now, it's your turn- feel free to let me know if you also like making new years resolutions.
(If you blog post a link in the comments, I would love to read them!)