Brand New Year

I can't believe it's 2013. I was making some delicious carrot-grapefruit-ginger juice this morning using my fancy new Breville juicer (a lovely Christmas present from my sweet in-laws) when it really hit me that the new year is here. It was a good Christmas; cozy, warm, and full of time with family. I go back to work on Monday, which has given me lots of post-Christmas time to do some shopping, do some organization projects around the house, plan for our new kitchen (hooray!), and pretty up my desk a little bit.

I'll be the first to say I hate the idea of new year's resolutions. I don't know why it rubs me the wrong way. I say if you want to resolve to do something, just DO it. Don't wait until January 1st. That being said, though, I always like the idea of a fresh start...365 days where anything can happen.

So despite the fact that I don't like calling them new year's resolutions, here's a little list of things that I'm going to try to do over the course of the next year!

Be More Thankful

I love a good Thank You note. I feel like we're such a society of texting and super-quick phone calls that I always feel so special whenever anyone takes a minute to hand-write a sweet thank you note. So yesterday while I was out running some errands, I stopped by the cute stationery section at Target and picked up some cute (and discounted!) thank you notes and blank notecards.  I can't wait to sit down at my nice clean desk a couple times a week to pen a little "thanks", or just a note to say hello. I also stocked up on a few of my Papermate Flair markers (I'm so picky about what I write with!)

Another thing I'm going to try to do is keep a little journal. Not the kind of journal or diary where every aspect of every day is recorded. Just a line or two a day about what I'm thankful for on that day. I've done it every day so far, and I think it'll be fun to look back at the end of the year and see how blessed we are.

Read More

I've been off the wagon with my reading. I'm a pretty fast reader, and I always love a good book when I make time to sit down and enjoy one instead of watching tv. So I've decided on at least 1 book per month (actual books, not the ones on my Kindle), and I even stacked them up on my desk and numbered them.

A few are titles I've read before, but love dearly. A few are books that have been on my mental checklist of books to read for a while: Grapes of Wrath, Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre. I'm excited to get into them! As soon as I finish reading the David McCollough bio of Theodore Roosevelt, I'll start on my first book on the list (Anna Karenina)

Stay Organized

I've done a lot of organizing projects over the holidays - I want the clean and tidy-ness to last as long as possible!

Take care of myself

Take my vitamins, drink more water. Be more careful about what I eat, and get the sleep I need.

Take time to enjoy little things....

Sip a cup of chai, enjoy a glass of fresh-made juice, cook an especially nice meal for dinner, give myself a facial, walk the dog at sunrise/sunset. There are so many things that I just miss out on because of how busy and hectic things get. The week flies by, and weekends go by so quickly. Time to slow down a little and enjoy the small stuff.

So what are your new year's resolutions? Anything special?