New Year's Resolutions

Hello, friends! Sorry about my absence, but I'm back! (Although I won't be blogging as often as I was.) Today I'm here to share with you my New Year's Resolutions, mostly to put them down into words and make myself feel more accountable since they're public! 

This year, I've decided my One Little Word will be "home." Both in honor of the fact that we will be moving home back to Omaha soon, and because I want to be more present in my home. My resolutions are an extension of that theme. They are as follows:

1. Minimal-ize, and organize.

I spent New Year's day going through my email and unsubscribing from anything that was just taking up space in my inbox, and taking up time to just delete it, and it felt so good. 

I want to extend that to the rest of my home. This is a good time to do that, not only because of the motivation that comes with the new year, but also because we'll be moving in a couple months and I have to do it anyway. I want to go through my home and get rid of anything that I can. Anything that's just taking up room or wasting time to try and keep organized. I want my home to be streamlined, and easy to keep tidy, so that I'm not spending precious time simply trying to keep up. 

This also, of course, includes my wardrobe, but more on that in a second. I also want to organize my photos, and my computer in general, since I spend a lot of time on it and want to be able to find pictures easily.

2. Improve my body image.

Notice I didn't say anything like "lose x pounds." I don't want my end goal to be losing weight, because if I set a specific weight goal, I may be disappointed. What I want is to be healthier and feel good about my body, and set a good example for my daughter.

While I take my blog pictures from the most flattering angles, every time I see a candid picture of myself, I don't like how I look. I recently saw one picture that was a huge blow to my self-esteem. So I got back onto My Fitness Pal, and have been eating healthier and exercising the last few weeks. I already feel better, but I have a long way to go. This is the main reason I haven't blogged any outfit pics in awhile-- I no longer feel good in any of my clothes. I don't think my style has changed so much as I've adopted an attitude of "why bother?" due to not liking how I look. 

Once I start feeling better about my body image, I will re-visit my wardrobe to see if it's still my style, or needs some tweaking. For now, I'm not bothering with buying new clothes, except workout clothes, because obviously I need to have cute workout clothes in order to want to work out. ;) 

(Please note that I'm not saying anyone built like me, or anyone at all for that matter, should feel bad about the way they look. This is something personal that I'm going through, and trying to overcome the best way I know how. I think you all are absolutely beautiful the way you are.)

3. Read at least one book per month.

This is the only resolution I actually managed to keep last year. The books I read, if you're interested, are as follows:

1. Ghost in the Wires, by Kevin Mitnick
2. Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
3. Goodnight, Nebraska, by Tom McNeal
4. Reamde, by Neal Stephenson
5. Naked, by David Sedaris
6. The Zookeeper's Wife, by Diane Ackerman
7. 13 1/2, by Nevada Barr
8. The Recipe Box, by Sandra Lee
9. Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson
10. Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
11. Catching Fire
12. Mockingjay
13. The Dinner, by Herman Koch

I love reading, but usually when I'm just sitting around at home, I'm either on my computer or watching TV (or both). Sometimes I forget that reading is a viable and enjoyable option for my free time, so setting an easy goal like one book per month keeps me from forgetting to read altogether. 

That's all I've got for now. So what does this mean for the blog? I'm not sure. Since the bulk of what I post is outfit photos, and I'm taking a break from those and my wardrobe in general right now, and it'll probably be awhile before I start posting those again, I'll be posting a lot less frequently. I'll probably share recipes with you when I come across ones that are easy and healthy, but I don't want this to be a strictly healthy living blog. And I'll post occasionally about what's going on with my family, as usual. I have a couple of picture-heavy posts planned, but after that, who knows. I plan on just sitting back and seeing where 2014 takes me. 

Sorry for the long-winded post, but it was stuff that I needed to get out of my head and into written form, and in a public space to keep me accountable. Thank you all for sticking with me in 2013, and I hope you'll do the same in 2014! Happy New Year!

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