New Year, Same Me.

It is the start of a new year...whoop whoop!

Well, technically, today is January 2, but everyone knows that the 'New Year' (aka those pesky resolutions and promises to eat healthier, not drink as much, go to the gym every day at 4am, etc.) don't actually start on January 1 when January 1 is on a Sunday. You wait for Monday for all that nonsense to start.

So, here we are, the start of the New Year. I don't know about y'all but this momma is exhausted from this past holiday season. I guess maybe the past two years of COVID living, or not living I should say, have messed with my stamina and endurance because I just could not hang.

We had our usual family fly out for Thanksgiving and Christmas, had some unexpected flight cancellations and changes in plans (thank you to Southwest for that F-ing fiasco), but all in all it was great. Just tiring.

But now? Now it is the new year. Christmas decorations have been packed away. Presents have all been put where they belong. Bags of donations are sitting by the door waiting to be taken to the thrift store (on the slate for tomorrow). And my house is CLEAN.

I mean clean, clean. I scrubbed this house top to bottom, washed floors Cinderella style (with this base housing grooved fake wood linoleum flooring, IYKYK), and wiped baseboards. My house looks and smells ahhhh-mazing.

In addition to starting out the new year on a clean note, I have set some goals for myself. Not your typical resolutions, because honestly, my life makes me happy. I'm not looking to 'change' myself or anything in it. My husband, my kids, my friends, my days are filled with love and laughter.

Instead of looking to change things, I'm looking to add things over this next year.

I'd like to add consistent blog posts twice a week (M/F is the goal) to help Pass the Sanity.

I'd like to add 'Self-Care Saturday' to my schedule. I've been pretty good about adding self-care to my weeks, but never really on a super consistent basis, just usually when I can fit it in. I want to make time for me where I have quiet (no kids), and something that makes me feel good. Nails, hair, face mask, yoga, whatever it is so that when I'm done, I feel just a little bit better because I'm worth the time.

I have a book I have been writing. Currently I have three chapters finished. I have the story mapped out in my head, but with 4 kiddos and a husband with a demanding work schedule, I've let it fall to the side of, 'one day.' Well, this year is going to be full of 'one days' because I'm adding to it little by little this year. It could be paragraphs, it could be pages, it could be chapters, it could be the whole shebang I don't know. But it will be added to this year.

The past two years have been hard. Hard, hard. Between the pandemic, Rylyn's health issues, hubby deploying twice, dealing with a moody, technology obsessed teenager (seriously, who invented those?), being on the opposite side of the country from all of our family and seeing most of our family only once or twice a year, if we're lucky, I mean, I've seen my twin sister once in a year and a half...that.is.the.hardest, I'm over the uphill battle.

To balance the hard and what the past two years seemed to take away, 2023 will be the year to add. Addition makes things bigger, and I'm ready for a bigger life filled with more memories, more 'I did that' comments, and just more to my life. Who else is with me?