Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Who else is having a hard time believing it's already 2018?  It seems like such a futuristic date to me.  The holiday season came and went at super fast speed.  We took our Christmas decor down yesterday (which I was ready for) but it felt like we just put it up!  Over the past 2 weeks we've been so busy celebrating birthdays and Christmas.  My husbands birthday is Dec 17th and my moms is the 18th.  We didn't celebrate them in the usual way this year because of other holiday events and illnesses that took place.  For Christmas Eve, we have celebrated it at our house with my moms side of the family since we've been married.  We'll have dinner followed by drinks and dessert.  Christmas Day always involves visiting our family that we don't get to see on Christmas Day so there's a good bit of travel involved.  My favorite part of Christmas this year was seeing Mary-Grace get so excited about Christmas morning and also her understanding of the meaning of Christmas this year.  Our New Years Eve tradition is now going to bed before midnight!  Although, this year we were awake at midnight thanks to Benton who didn't get the memo that we wanted to sleep.  I think he heard the neighborhood fireworks and wanted to party with them.  I think the days of us getting dressed up and going out till 1am are long gone... at least for the near future which I'm completely O.K. with.

I've been thinking a lot about 2018 and my goals for the year.  2017 was a blessing for us in many ways.  Of course the biggest blessing was welcoming Benton to our family.  I can't believe he'll be one at the end of next month!  Even though 2017 brought such a wonderful blessing, in some ways I feel like I was just trying to get through the days and months.  Adjusting to 2 little ones wasn't easy at first and I've been sleep deprived the whole year (I really have!).  I think I made some things harder on myself than necessary.   Anyways, this all leads to my 2018 "goals" and what I feel will make life go more efficiently for us and also be better for us in many ways.

1. Live more healthily- this is something we are going to work on as a whole family.  I really do try to  make healthy meals but I'm going to kick it up a notch.  I meal plan for our week and do my grocery shopping usually on Sunday or Monday.  I may start actually prepping the meals on those days as well.  I think prepping snacks will also help with eating more healthily.  Also, this sounds very cliche but I want to start working out on regular basis.  I lost all of the extra pregnancy weight pretty fast after having Benton (something that took me forever after having Mary-Grace).  He has a milk protein allergy so I cut out all dairy which I think helped tremendously with losing the weight.  Even though I'm happy with the number on the scale, I lack energy and my body just feels weak and I'm not toned at all.  I think if I can start a good routine with working out, it'll help my energy levels, even when sleep deprived.  I'm thinking of either waking up an hour earlier to do this (and get ready before the kids wake up) or at night after they go to bed and having Josh join me.  If you workout, which time works best for you?

2. Be in the moment-  putting down my phone and computer more to cherish the time with my little ones because they are growing up so dang fast!  It's easy to get distracted by every thing going on in life.

3.  Stay organized-  I'm more of the type A personality anyways so this won't be hard for me.  Over the years I've tried not to be so neurotic about it and let some things "go as is" thinking it might be easier but I really do function better and feel more happy when I'm organized.  My closet is organized by type of clothing and by color, and that makes me happy.  Have y'all seen or started following The Home Edit?  I follow them on Instagram.  They have the BEST looking and organized pantries, closets, etc.  I really want my pantry to look like one of theirs.  Also, Emily Ley, who's photo of her Simplified Planner is shown below, has great tips.  I also want to become more organized with our finances and important documents.  I started this a couple of months ago but need to keep with it.  I may have mentioned this before, but at the end of my pregnancy with Benton I nested big time.  I cleaned and organized pretty much every little nook and cranny in our house... but as you know things get messy again over time.

4. Write it down- I can't remember everything (who can?) so I'm going to try to make more of an effort to write everything down that I need to remember- appointments, birthdays, random things I need to remember for the kids, random facts I want to remember, etc.  Also, I'd like to start making a daily routine/to-do list to follow which I think will help me in so many ways.  This all kind of goes along with #3 and staying organized.

5. Pay it forward- I want to teach my children what it means to give.  I'm still thinking of ways to do this but I'm thinking it could be something as small as buying someones coffee or giving a few minutes of time to someone in need.