A Good Year: The Year of Enjoyment

When the new year comes each year I find myself gravitating towards the traditional type goals like get/be/stay healthy, live in the moment, get organized, simplify, save money, be positive, avoid negativity, etc.  All are great goals that are important to me and they are also goals I think about all the time.  I am constantly working towards each of these goals all year and every year. Some of these goals I am good at working towards and others not so much.  But they are goals that are always with me whether it is a new year or not.  I suppose they are goals for a lifetime rather than just a year?  

This year I am going to take a new approach to the goals I want to focus on.  In addition to the ongoing work of the traditional type goals I mentioned above I want to make more time for the things I enjoy.  My overall goal is to do things I enjoy more regularly.  I often get caught up in the daily grind of working & having a family and I forget to make time to do things I love.  For me, 2013 will be about focusing on the things I (and my family as a whole) enjoy.

Documenting life & taking more photos.  I've always enjoyed documenting life.  Don't we all to some extent?  I have an insatiable thirst to document memories so I can look back at them and remember were I've been and who I was with.  During my college years John and I would tape record parties we went to with a mini tape recorder.  We would interview people during the party about what was going on in their life or any outrageous things that happened during the night.  I recently found some of those tapes and played them back.  It was so neat to listen to what was going on during that time in our life. There was even tape of a couple people who are no longer with us and it was a gift to hear their voices.  We also have heaps of videos and photos as well.  Sylas is only two and John and I are always looking back at footage of him and reminiscing about how tiny he once was.  I want to capture so much of his life so we can always look back on it.  While I don't think I'll be tape recording any time soon I certainly want to continue to document our lives.  My primary method of choice will be through photos.  I always use the camera on my phone but I also want to use the manual setting on my Canon more regularly.  This year I will be participating in a couple of photography projects.  I might even come up with a photo project of my own.  I tried to do this last year but didn't follow through. The photography projects I'll be participating in are Che and Fidel's 52 Portrait Project and for this month I'll be doing the Stickygram Photo-a-Day over on instagram.  I would also love to print some of my photos for our home.

Road Trips.  We usually take a few small trips around New England each year.  We'll continue those types of trips but we've been planning for a larger road trip.  John and I have both traveled across the country by car.  I went down the Eastern coastline and John traveled from the East to West coast.  We both have very strong and fond memories of these trips so we'd like to do a road trip like this together.  Now that we have a child we want to show Sylas the world - especially the country we live in. We are planning for an April trip but that could change depending on some things that John and I have going on professionally.  Our travel dates will depend on how those things pan out.  We have a rough idea of what our trip will look like.  John has family all along the Eastern coast and one sibling in Memphis.  We are thinking of visiting them all and making some other stops along the way.  I'll wait to share more until we have more details on the amount of time we'll have to travel etc.  Also on the agenda: camping.  If you've been a long time reader than you know that we love camping.  The last few summers we've had major life events occur that did not allow us to camp so this year we're getting back in saddle.  For real.

Bake more often.  It is true that John is the chef in our family.  But I like to bake.  I used to bake all the time before I started my business.  I haven't really focused on baking all too much since then but will occasionally make John some sort of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie concoction.   I have amazing baking books that I've made some really great things from but I haven't tapped into nearly enough of those recipes.  My first goal is to bake the recipe I find the most interesting from each book and then a couple from this pinterest board .

Sundays for regrouping.  John and I have always made Sunday our time to relax and regroup together.  We never made it intentional it just sort of worked into our life (probably because during Fall/Winter John watches football on Sundays and I like to read, crochet, browse the web, etc.).  We look forward to Sundays each week knowing it is day our down time together.  I work M-Th and have Fridays off with Sylas.  I then work on Saturday while John cares for Sy.  Depending on each week's volume of orders I may have to do some work on Sunday to ensure timely delivery.  I do have control over my schedule so during the busier times of the year if we strategize a bit ahead of time we can preserve our Sunday time together.

I am hoping that at this time next year I'll have shared some of my novice photography, baking experiences and travels here. At least now it is in writing which makes me want to follow through. What do you have planned for 2013?



Image:  Rebecca Tollefsen