Happy New Year…ish!

Hi guys! Happy New Year…ish? This blog is not dead! Yeah, so I kind of checked out around Halloween, not really, but looking at the blog it feels that way. I can’t believe I missed out on the funnest blogging season, the holidays! There are so many things/crafts/cookies to post about around the holidays!!! I started the crafts, I made the cookies, I TOOK THE PICTURES! I could barely even get that stuff up on social media, let alone get a full blog post out. Ugh. But tis the season and tis life.

Oh well, if I’ve learned anything over the past year it is that I need to do what works for me to keep my sanity. Before we moved, it was really my goal to get one post up each week. It rarely happened, but I was at least posting a few times a month, and as much fun as it was, it was really hard. I had a hard time keeping up with the writing and the photos and the editing and the technical end. It was also hard when I would catch myself getting super frustrated with my kids for waking up too early in the morning, or not napping long enough when I was trying to get “blog stuff” done. I felt like I was constantly shooing them out of my office (/laundry room), and as much as I STRONGLY believe that moms need to take time for themselves and do things just for them, it still made me feel pretty crappy.

SO since moving into our new house, I have definitely given myself a break. I have just been enjoying our new surroundings, working on getting the house set up, and posting when I could, which for the past three months hasn’t been at all…oops.

This blog however is not dead. It is a new year! It is time to set new goals and new resolutions, and enjoy this time at the beginning of the year when I am actually motivated enough to believe I will accomplish them! That is a terrible thing to say, but in my world it’s realistic, and you know what? I am kind of okay with that. The trick is to not let yourself get discouraged when you don’t hit your goals. Re-evaluate them. If it is something that is still really important to you, keep working towards it, if not let it go and set a new goal that’s more in line with where you want to go now.

Last year I set a few New Year’s resolutions (you can read that post here).

First, I wanted to get the blog on Instagram. Before January of last year, I had only ever posted two pictures on Instagram and that was only because I wanted to use their filters. In 2016 I posted 126 photos to Instagram and gathered close to 800 followers! So resolution success!!! I love that Instagram can be a combination of my personal life and the blogging side in one space rather than having them separate like my personal vs blog Facebook pages. I am often torn on Facebook as to what to post where without being repetitive, so I actually find myself being drawn to Instagram quite a bit, and it’s also chock-full of so much inspiration, which I am loving and becoming a bit obsessed with (my favorite account to stalk is JustAddSunshine).
You can find mine here and…

My second resolution last year was to make a conscious decision to enjoy the parties that I throw more, rather than being a frazzled mess when my guests arrive, and honestly I think I really really have. Not to say that I am not still frazzeled those first 15 mintutes of the party, but I have felt much less stressed out. I have done a much better job at planning ahead, toning down the DIY a bit (gasp!), and letting people help as much as they offer. This year I threw a housewarming party, our annual NYE party and a COMBO kids’ birthday party! Talk about toning it down, since my son’s birthday is right before the holidays and my daughter’s is right after, this year I threw one combo birthday party in the middle of the two, NOT AT MY HOUSE! It was INCREDIBLE, AND the kids had a blast!!! I then had just immediate family over on their actual birthdays for dinner and cake. Once again, figuring out what works for me/us and not losing my sanity in the process…there really is nothing better.

Now, my third resolution from last year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I really did want to run a 5K guys . . . I really really did! Ugh, so this resolution is a big fat fail, BUT, this is where I take my own motivation to not get discouraged and instead re-evaluate. I would still love to run a marathon. Do I think I’ll do it this year? Who knows, we have a lot going on in the upcoming year. It will remain to be a goal of mine and a pretty big bucket list item though. I am not giving up and I will continue to keep running. Since we have moved into our new house in May, I have logged about 75 miles on the trails behind our house and am currently doing about 4-10 mi/week on our treadmill, so I am still running. I just haven’t bit that bullet to devote myself to a Saturday and a cause yet.

Now for this year’s resolutions. I am keeping it pretty simple . . .

First, I want to keep the blog running in some capacity, hopefully posting here at least once a month, and on instagram and the Facebook page way more than that. It is a hobby that I enjoy and am proud of, so I don’t want to give it up, but I do have to acknowledge that since it is just a hobby, I should use it for the enjoyment that it brings me and not let it overwhelm me.

Second, I want to continue plugging away at the new house and share more of the updates here. My goal for 2017 is to have the entire main level of our house painted before 2018 (it’s a ranch with an unfinished basement, you can see the full tour here). In 2016, I painted one room…womp, womp, BUT I have already painted another room in 2017, so I am off to a good start. We have also just started a MAJOR kitchen renovation over here, so stay tuned for updates on that! Here is a teaser of a huge wall, that separates our kitchen from the “formal living room,” in the process of COMING DOWN!!!

My last resolution is to be more creative in the new year, which you may have seen me post a bit about on social media. Some people pick a word of the year instead of a resolution. I don’t usually do that, but if I were to choose one for this year, it would be CREATE. I have always loved art and arts and crafts. I am great at collecting the supplies, but not always great at the follow through and I want to do more follow through in the new year. I want to devote more time to creativity, making things for the house, crafting with the kids, or just coloring in front of the TV. I have been feeling a huge draw towards it and I have been working on it a little bit, but I also have two DIY projects for Christmas that I never finished, so I need to do better. It’s something that I really enjoy and something that I put off way too often. I will be sharing how I am working more creativity into my life through the hashtag #happilycreating2017 on Instagram and Facebook and hopefully I may even come up with some fun craft tutorials to blog about!

So those are my resolution successes, failures, and goals for the new year. How did you guys do on your 2016 goals and resolutions? Is anybody else starting out 2017 already two months behind like me??? Don’t get discouraged, keep going! Hope your New Year is off to a great start!
xo
c