A New Year and a New Plan

I’m about a week late on sharing my New Year’s resolution thingy. Well, I’m actually not doing a resolution at all. Instead, I’m adopting the focus-word-of-the-year trend I’ve seen. That’s much more realistic since I can adjust my plan as life happens, because as anyone who is familiar with me knows, my life really, really happens.

Take the year 2018, for example:
I started the year with a surprise pregnancy and was morning sick for 4 months.
We moved in May.
I was laid-off from my full-time job at a big tech company in June.
I immediately got 2 part-time design jobs.
I had a baby in August.
I ended the year accepting a full-time position as Director of Manufacture Training for a new soft-goods manufacturing facility for one of the companies I work for.
And my husband and I kept our 3 kids alive and mostly healthy the whole time.

The year did not end at all as it started. No new year’s resolution would have stuck last year. And the first 9 days of this year have been insane, complete with a road trip that put us home at 5am for my oldest to go back to school at 8am the same day, ER visits for a weird virus (but we don’t even know that it actually was a virus), acquiring a bunch of furniture and stuff that we probably don’t need (and don’t really have space for), starting swim lessons for the younger 2 kids, my husband and oldest starting an after-school robotics club at his charter school (literally starting it from scratch because there wasn’t one before), that same oldest kid getting suspended from school for giving another kid a bloody nose, and of course me putting out fires and not falling behind at both of my jobs. I’m exhausted just from this recap.

So, what word am I adopting for the year?

Balance.

After last year (and this last week), I desperately need balance.

Balance between work and play.
Balance with my spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual needs.
Balanced discipline that I give my kids that is equal to the behavior in need of correcting.
Balance in giving and taking service to/from others.
Balance in the time I spend with my kids, my husband, and my own self-care.
Balance in the food I eat.
Balance between the time I’m awake and asleep.
Balance in my health.
Balance in our finances.
Balance in my feelings, between happiness, sadness, depression, motivation, anger, gratitude, and everything in between.
My goal is to seek for balance in all areas of my life and in everything I do.

I’ve already started it, and I’m enjoying the results so far:

• I’ve been going to bed earlier and waking up earlier so that at some point, I’ll be able to get up before my kids, exercise, shower, and be ready for the day when they get up. I’ll be composed and able to focus on and help them through the daily morning rush.

• I’m exercising to start getting into shape so I can play better with my kids in every season (and by play, I mean hike, camp, bike, run, jump, catch, climb, etc). Also so that I can wear my favorite clothes again (that I only fit into for a month last year after losing weight and accidentally getting pregnant). And also to get my good posture back because for some reason having babies ruined my core muscles.

• I’m eating a more balanced diet, because if the holidays taught me anything, it’s that I sure know how to eat garbage. I’m cutting down on the amount of sugar I ingest. I’m on the hunt for nutritional supplements to help fill in the gaps my diet inevitably has (I’ve narrowed it down to 2 that I’m deciding between). I’m trying out MUD\WTR in the mornings to see if it gives me what I need to get going so early (and for some reason I like the idea of a hot cup of coffee but coffee is terrible for so many reasons).

• Bob and I are slowly reading and adopting the KonMari method. We actually started it last year (and now it’s all hyped up, thanks Netflix). We still have too much stuff (and we keep somehow acquiring more stuff) and we just want life to be simpler, because we’re busy enough as it is with our actual responsibilities. We don’t want our belongings adding unnecessary work to our days.

I want to feel more in control of the things I have control over, and able to let go of the things I don’t have control over and just let them happen. I want to be able to be spontaneous when the timing is right, and plan ahead when the situation needs it. I want to be present with my children and enjoy their tiny faces, hands, and hugs while they’re still tiny. I want to stop feeling like I need to be somewhere else doing something else all the time. I want to stop being stressed out because of the state of my home office. I want to like how I look in the clothes that I have and stop buying more clothes so I’ll feel better about myself. I want to stop running late everywhere. I want to stop getting angry when I am running late, because like I said before, life happens.

I want more balance everywhere in my life.

Balance.

Balance.

Balance.

(I hope you enjoy our family portraits as much I do. Taken by the wonderful Lindsi Michelle.)