Clean Slate

Hopefully your new year has gotten off to a wonderful start; I also hope you had a wonderful holiday season. We sure did...and I even got what I wished for; none of us were sick this year! Wahoo! Now it's time for "holiday detox" and finding routines and/or making new ones; finding places for new things and new homes for the old. It is time to re-arrange our lives. Why not in the middle of the freezing cold winter?! What else are we going to do! We could make some of these changes and "resolutions" any time of year but having this subjective clean slate is wonderful motivation and gives some of us that little extra push we needed to steer ourselves back in the direction we wanted to be in, or in a new direction all together. I don't have a whole lot of new goals for this year; I'm just keeping a lot of the same ones (either because they seem to be working well or because I never accomplished them last year. Since "TIME" is a substance I'm struggling to find, I doubt adding more to my plate would help or be realistic at this point; goals are supposed to be somewhat attainable, right?!). Goals and resolutions aside, one thing I LOVE and look forward to at the beginning of each year is my new calendar! (literally.) I love transferring over all the information regarding birthdays and events that will perpetuate into the future and looking ahead to the adventures that await us within the upcoming year. I also enjoy reflecting back on the year that is now the past. I love to read about all the things that kept us busy last year and smile as I think, "whew, glad we made it through that!" or "oh, that was so fun when we..." I see all the various appointments and outings listed there and get a brief recollection of the year. I also try to jot down little silly things the kids say or milestones (e.g. height/weight from check-ups, when they learned to do something new) throughout the year so I have record of them. Many of these things would not otherwise end up being recorded, good intentions or not. So my calendar really becomes, for me, a journal of the year and something I hold onto. Maybe one day when I take that retreat I fantasize about, being on a private island, all alone, with all the time in the world with all the treats and music I love, and all the materials for all the projects I've ever wanted to do, maybe then, I'll type up my "calendar journals" so they look more like what they are to me..."a book full of little glimpses into my life."