This is 2020
Happy New Year!
Today feels more like the start of the new year to me, as yesterday was the last day of an almost-two-week vacation for all of us, and we were soaking up our last opportunity to be slothful. There was much laying around, reading, eating, resting, and a quick visit with our little cousin.
After a somewhat busy (and wonderful) week traveling to my parents' new place in Delaware last week...
and set to work on enjoying all the fresh fruits and veggies we stocked up on at the grocery store.
I also signed our whole family up to participate in our local library's Winter Reading Challenge-- our town pledges to read a combined total of 5,000 minutes before the end of January. Because I know how relaxing it is for me to be regularly reading for pleasure, I thought this would be a good motivator. Plus if I have a hard-copy book going as well as a book on my phone's Kindle app, it keeps me from mindlessly checking social media every time I pick up my phone. You all probably know I've always had a love-hate relationship with social media, and although I'm not ready to ditch my accounts yet because there are so many benefits and connections to be had for the 2019 Mama in that sphere, I am ready to feel like I'm wasting less time on it. Having a book to read for pleasure on my phone will give me that little break, like a Facebook check but without any of the negative things that go with it. That's what I'm hoping, anyway. My Kindle app shows I logged over three hours of reading my book yesterday, so that feels good! My latest book is Year of Wonders and although it is sad (it's set in England during the bubonic plague outbreak of 1665) it is really riveting, well-written historical fiction! Highly recommend! If you all have any book recommendations for my pledge to increased reading in 2020, throw them my way! Miss J and I visited the library today to get some books to read together so that she can log her minutes as part of the challenge too. I can't wait to get in some snuggly reading time with my girls.
I have several really exciting musical adventures coming up in 2020-- I have been hired to sing the soprano arias for a Bach St. Matthew Passion in April (total dream come true!!) and after my Labyrinth Choir concert run in June, we will be touring Northern Spain... and M has been invited to come on tour and sing with us! The girls will stay in Delaware with Grandma and Grandpa (and possibly some aunts and uncles) while we're gone-- we couldn't be more excited. I spent some time today practicing my arias (Miss J watched a few Blippi videos while I practiced to drown out my "shaky voice"- ha!). It felt amazing to actually carve out time to practice-- I don't do it often enough! My goal is to get in a minimum of 15-20 minutes daily, just to get my voice in really good shape for the marathon that is the St. Matthew. Regular singing is something that I know will be good for my soul! A perfect resolution!
The rest of our day here included working on chores together with Miss J, and an American Girl hair party! Another goal of mine is to slow down every once in a while and really PLAY with J while she's still little enough to want me to do it. It's so hard to set aside the to-do list, but it's always a soul-soothing activity to spend time with her and watch her wheels turn (and the other girls too when they're around, of course!).
Writing is another goal for me in 2020... which is why I spent the last part of this reflective day on this journalish ramble of my thoughts. The face of this blog has obviously changed over the last few years, and I can't promise any kind of more regular updating, but I do know that it's so healthy for me to process by writing, so I hope to stop by here as often as I can.
Hoping you all had a very Merry Christmas, and that the start of your 2020 has been peaceful. May you look forward to the things that feed your soul, as I hope to do.
Today feels more like the start of the new year to me, as yesterday was the last day of an almost-two-week vacation for all of us, and we were soaking up our last opportunity to be slothful. There was much laying around, reading, eating, resting, and a quick visit with our little cousin.
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| Plenty of sitting around in our pjs playing with new Christmas gifts! |
After a somewhat busy (and wonderful) week traveling to my parents' new place in Delaware last week...
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| The fam all together, on Christmas Day! |
...I didn't really feel like facing the to-do list for the return to reality, and I certainly didn't feel in a resolution-y type mood either.
After a restful afternoon yesterday and a nice long night of sleep last night, however, the motivated feeling began to return a little bit today. The older three girls went back to school, M went back to work, and so it was just me and J home. While I drank my coffee in one of the lovely mugs I got for Christmas (always a practical gift for this coffee lover!) I was able to pause for a moment, wrap my head around the tasks I needed to do before returning to work next week, and think a little bit about my vision for 2020. (Our family has been enjoying this little hilarious mash-up throughout New Year's Eve and Day... you should definitely check it out ;)
Thankfully, fitness and (mostly) healthy eating went, I think, pretty well for me in 2019... so I don't have any huge resolutions in that area. I feel as if I have somewhat mastered thinking in a squiggly line sort of way about enjoying food... this has taken a couple of years, along with a realistic, sustainable, ever-being-tweaked adjustment of what my body actually needs, nutritionally speaking, with the help of the MyFitnessPal app (as well as taking time off from tracking my food intake on occasion, when I need the mental break or I feel I'm getting overly obsessive). That said, while I was able to remain pretty active while we were traveling (beautiful weather for running in Delaware!) I pretty much ate whatever I wanted. It was great. In the 2-3 days since we returned, I didn't exercise at all, because travel exhaustion made me feel like I just needed a total break. It was also great.
Today I eased back in to exercise with a less-intense-than-usual Fitness Blender workout (although it was plenty intense for my tired body!)
and set to work on enjoying all the fresh fruits and veggies we stocked up on at the grocery store.
I also signed our whole family up to participate in our local library's Winter Reading Challenge-- our town pledges to read a combined total of 5,000 minutes before the end of January. Because I know how relaxing it is for me to be regularly reading for pleasure, I thought this would be a good motivator. Plus if I have a hard-copy book going as well as a book on my phone's Kindle app, it keeps me from mindlessly checking social media every time I pick up my phone. You all probably know I've always had a love-hate relationship with social media, and although I'm not ready to ditch my accounts yet because there are so many benefits and connections to be had for the 2019 Mama in that sphere, I am ready to feel like I'm wasting less time on it. Having a book to read for pleasure on my phone will give me that little break, like a Facebook check but without any of the negative things that go with it. That's what I'm hoping, anyway. My Kindle app shows I logged over three hours of reading my book yesterday, so that feels good! My latest book is Year of Wonders and although it is sad (it's set in England during the bubonic plague outbreak of 1665) it is really riveting, well-written historical fiction! Highly recommend! If you all have any book recommendations for my pledge to increased reading in 2020, throw them my way! Miss J and I visited the library today to get some books to read together so that she can log her minutes as part of the challenge too. I can't wait to get in some snuggly reading time with my girls.
I have several really exciting musical adventures coming up in 2020-- I have been hired to sing the soprano arias for a Bach St. Matthew Passion in April (total dream come true!!) and after my Labyrinth Choir concert run in June, we will be touring Northern Spain... and M has been invited to come on tour and sing with us! The girls will stay in Delaware with Grandma and Grandpa (and possibly some aunts and uncles) while we're gone-- we couldn't be more excited. I spent some time today practicing my arias (Miss J watched a few Blippi videos while I practiced to drown out my "shaky voice"- ha!). It felt amazing to actually carve out time to practice-- I don't do it often enough! My goal is to get in a minimum of 15-20 minutes daily, just to get my voice in really good shape for the marathon that is the St. Matthew. Regular singing is something that I know will be good for my soul! A perfect resolution!
The rest of our day here included working on chores together with Miss J, and an American Girl hair party! Another goal of mine is to slow down every once in a while and really PLAY with J while she's still little enough to want me to do it. It's so hard to set aside the to-do list, but it's always a soul-soothing activity to spend time with her and watch her wheels turn (and the other girls too when they're around, of course!).
Writing is another goal for me in 2020... which is why I spent the last part of this reflective day on this journalish ramble of my thoughts. The face of this blog has obviously changed over the last few years, and I can't promise any kind of more regular updating, but I do know that it's so healthy for me to process by writing, so I hope to stop by here as often as I can.
Hoping you all had a very Merry Christmas, and that the start of your 2020 has been peaceful. May you look forward to the things that feed your soul, as I hope to do.
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