Me in 2014

In my last post I briefly mentioned my personal theme in 2014, "Being Present." You people do recognize this is not an easy task, but I am committed, which is why I am writing about it. Sharing my personal theme and goals with you is a way of holding myself accountable. Not that I expect you all to act as accountability partners; checking in on me and calling me out in moments of NOT "being present. " Unless you want to play that role, then I welcome you. I just ask that you go easy on me.

You would think "being present" would be easy, especially when it comes to my family. And it should be easy, but sometimes it's not. In this day of technology it's so easy to be distracted. And then there is everything else like laundry, cleaning, cooking, wanting to be selfish and do something for me, like paint my nails or work on a Pinterest project and so on, well I think you get where I am going here. Distractions can sometimes get the best of me. As much as I want to be selfish, there is more of me that wants to be present and on the floor with the boys, sleeves rolled up, playing with cars, trucks, planes and basically anything else that can be rolled or pushed. So here I am putting it out there and holding myself accountable to being more present in 2014.

As if my theme for the year is not a big enough undertaking, I have a few other goals for myself in 2014. The below list is in no particular order.

1. Drink more water and green smoothies.
While pregnant with Patrick I drank at least a gallon of water a day. Since he has been born, I am lucky if I have been drinking a glass of water a day (I am actually having some water as I write this post). The second part to this is green smoothies. In August, I bought a Nutribullet and fell in love. I was drinking 1-2 smoothies a day and loved it, but then the holidays came around and well the smoothies took a back seat to all of the cookies and other goodies. Time to get back on track.


2. Take more pictures with my camera.
Back to technology and convenience... my iPhone became my main source of picture taking. Mainly because it was always in my hand. As part of "being present" I am trying to get the phone out of my hand and am keeping my camera close by to capture our daily fun. Plus, I would like to buy a new, nice, big girl camera. Being that these big girl cameras come with a nice price tag, I am training myself to get back in the habit of using a camera before I make the financial investment.

3. Learn about the publishing/self publishing process.

4. Exploring Me.
Okay, I know what you're thinking... I am about to contradict myself. I just wrote about being present and giving more to my family. And yes, you're right, but part of being able to give and be the best mom and wife to them is also being good to myself. I can't completely neglect me. So back to exploring me... I have at least a year and a half before both boys are in school/preschool and I can go back to work. At this point, I am having too much fun and am in no rush to go back to work (at least most days). I use the term "work" loosely, because I am not sure what work will look like for me at that point. I loved working in events and fundraising, but I am not ready to go back to the grueling hours of the job that would keep me from my family. So this year, my plan is to explore and learn some new skills that could potentially lead to "work" or a revenue stream at the very least.

I am not quite ready to go into detail about #'s 3 & 4, but I am sure in time as I explore and research, I'll want to share.

So that's my plan for 2014. I always love giving myself a temperature check along the way to see where I am and how far I have strayed from or stuck to the plan. I'll keep you all posted along the way, after all, you are my accountability partners.