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I love making New Year’s resolutions.  I believe that when you clearly map out your intentions and goals, it is so much more likely you will achieve them.  Plus, there’s something to be said about the accountability factor!

2014 was a great year for me.  I would say, it was a year of progress.  My blog took some different twists and turns that I couldn’t be happier with.  My hubs and I have been in counseling for most of 2014 and have made huge strides to the marriage we want and the family we want our girls to have.  We are about to complete a 4 year old dream of adding on to our home, and I no longer feel like something is wrong with me.

Let me explain that last one….  After marrying in 2006, having our first daughter in 2008 and our 2nd daughter in 2011, I was feeling tired, too busy, disinterested in my marriage and experiencing just an overall feeling of blah.  For a long time I was hard on myself, feeling like a had a hormone issue or maybe even a chemical issue.  I started feeling like a bad wife and a disconnected mother.  Something shifted in 2014 though.  It donned on me that getting married and having kids can be a huge adjustment.  Especially having kids.  Lost sleep, screaming babies, and being responsible for a life can take it’s toll.   Sometimes a part of you has to die in order to move forward in a new and growing family.  Sometimes that can take a toll and there can be a period of listless confusion.  In 2014 I let go of thinking something was wrong with me and embraced the beautiful fact that I am part of a family that didn’t exist 6 years ago.  I’ve accepted myself and let go of being perfect and happy everyday, all day.  The fact is, kids come and a control freak like myself loses control.  You can’t plan your day down to a T with kiddos.  But you know what?  That’s Ok.  Everyone has highs and lows and I realized that as long as I am happy with who I am and am working towards or accomplishing happy, well adjusted kids and a husband who feels loved, then life is good.

I don’t know why I just shared that but I’m going to leave it, instead of cutting my ramblings that inevitably happen in every post!  I hope it makes sense to some of you and you can relate.  I really hope if you’re feeling like I was, this will encourage you to marvel over the wonder of having kids and realize it will rock your world and that’s Ok.  The season of feeling lost does pass.

Anyway, on a lighter note I thought I would share a few of my fun resolutions!  These are light hearted and fun and hopefully encourage you to make room for loving on yourself in 2015!

This Year’s Resolutions:

1. Drink more tea.  I spent some time in London growing up and let me tell you, the English are serious about their tea!  I loved the ritual of tea time.  In fact, I even had an electric tea pot in my room and a tea set in order to make myself tea while doing my homework!  My mother would scout the local antique fairs for tea sets and unusual tea pots-Ahhhh, those were the days.  Plus, after 1 cup of coffee I tend to get so jittery but I still feel like sipping on something hot.  I’m going to bring back the magic of drinking tea for myself and plan to discover new and healthy teas as well.  Who knows, I might even collect a few pretty tea pots!

2. Put outfits together in advance.  I started this practice about 6 mos. ago and it has helped me on so many levels.  As I mentioned in THIS post, after having kids I lost my sense of style completely.  I’m talking leggings and a stained sweatshirt 4 out of 7 days a week.  Oh and with newborns, spit up was just another accessory.  Now that my youngest is just barely out of diapers, can feed herself and sleeps through the night, I feel more like me.  I am tired of ducking through the aisles at Target, hoping and praying I don’t run into anyone I know and then inevitably running into everyone I know.  I’m better then this on the inside so my outside needs to reflect that.  Organizing outfits down to the shoes and accessories in advance will allow me to grab and go.  As a mother of young kids, sometimes you just need to be able to get out of the house without using much brain power!

3. Tighten my gut.  Ugh.  So after my 2nd daughter was born my stomach muscles seemed to have hit the point of no return.  You know with the first pregnancy it usually takes a long time to show.  I remember feeling like I looked like I had a beer belly for 5 mos.  With the 2nd, I popped at month 3.  Honestly that was kind of nice but it just recently donned on me that that happens with the 2nd kiddo because your stomach muscles were probably still loose and compromised from the first pregnancy.  So now, thanks to getting on the mother of all elliptical machines 3x a week, I have toned legs and a decent backside but my gut enters a room about a minute before the rest of me does.  You can literally see my loose muscles.  I can’t even suck in because I don’t have control of those muscles!   So, one thing I really want to accomplish is tightening up those tummy muscles again.  I’m not too sure how I’m going to do it so if you have any suggestions, SPILL!

4. Enhance my skin care routine.  I’m such a “less is more” kind of person which works well in a lot of areas but when it comes to my skin, there could be a little more.  That might be hard to believe since I’m pretty much writing a beauty blog these days!  What my routine lacks is a weekly mask, more steaming, more exfoliation and a nightly skin treatment or serum.  When I was oil cleansing, I really enjoyed that ritual.  I felt like I was nurturing myself.  Plus my skin felt great afterwards.  I’ve moved on from that cleansing method for now but I would like to really get grounded into a beneficial routine for my skin on a nightly basis.

5. Take advantage of the beauty of Instagram.  Yeah, you heard me right.  I think Instagram is genius when used the right way.  Lots of selfie obsessed people have taken it over but the theory behind Instagram is so right on.  It’s point is to encourage people to live in the moment.  AH, so hard for me.  Finding beauty in everyday life and capturing it on film is so helpful to really appreciating your world while living in the moment.  I get this right about 2% of the time.  As you can see from above, I share outfits and use instagram to tell people of a new post but I would like to start sharing my “instant” moments of happy more consistently in 2015!  Check out THIS series of posts for my attempt at more living in life’s beautiful moments.

I would love to know some of your goals for 2015 if you’d like to share!

I appreciate all of you who follow my blog so much.  It’s truly such a blessing and honor to have a voice and I never want to take that for granted!  I hope you all are blessed in 2015 and can’t wait to dig in!

xx, Jenni

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