Hello, 2018

It’s that time of year again – January 1st. When everyone makes their New Years Resolutions and pledges to be a better / healthier / happier / whatever-er person. In a word, 2017 was meh. There were so many key parts of my life that were up in the air. In the Spring my husband found out he had to have back surgery and would be out of work for 4-6 weeks. He wanted to wait until his slow season at work, which is Nov-Dec, so that his recovery wouldn’t interfere with work too much. Unfortunately, he waited so long that the simple surgery turned into a very complicated one and he will now be out for 4 months, or longer. This changes a lot of our plans for the future.

Over the Summer we had decided to move out of state after my husband recovered from his surgery. California is getting too expensive for our family of five and we want our money to go further. We want to buy a house, go on vacation, and just not worry about money as much as we do. We had originally planned to move this month, but with my husband’s recovery time extened it looks like we won’t be moving for a several more months. I had plans to write blog posts about our move, decorating the new house, exploring new and exciting local attractions… but that’s all on hold. In fact, we moved into my mom’s house during our “in between time” while my husband recovers, before we move. So most of our belongings are in storage, with some of my craft supplies here so that I can still blog. Life on hold has turned into life at a screeching halt.

At first, having our life’s future just up in the air was a real bummer. I wasn’t getting excited about the new year and honestly, I didn’t really even want to blog. What did I even have to write about? But then I decided to leave my pity party and make the most of what I have to work with now.  In years past I had made ridiculously unobtainable goals for the year, only to get discouraged and failed by February. So, for the past two years I have made simple but thoughtful goals. This year I’m only making short-term goals until we have a more concrete idea of where and when we will be moving.

Here are a few of my goals for the beginning of the year.

• I am going to take advantage of the good weather we have here in California and make a resolution to go on walks/hikes at least twice a week. Health and wellness are always on my list to work on because there’s always room to improve your health!
• Every year I intend to send cards to my nieces and nephews, but I always forget. So I’m going to try and dwindle down my paper supply by crafting homemade cards for all of them. THe more paper I use, the less I’ll have to move!
• If one thing moving teaches you, it’s how much stuff you have that you intended to use but never did. I’m going to go through my crafting stash and host giveaways for all of the unused supplies I have.
• Lastly, I want to spend more time helping my kids with school work/learning. My kids don’t bring home a lot of homework, but I feel that there are lots of ways that I can help them at home with furthering their reading, writing, and more. Any worksheets I make for them I’ll share on the blog.

This list is relatively simple but very obtainable. These are things that I know I can do and will not only help me have a better year but those around me as well. Once we move, I’ll make a new goals list to add on what I want to get out of our new city. I’m excited about 2018 and what my family and I will be able to accomplish!

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