I just love January! Life feels so full of potential with all the chatter about fresh starts, goals, and positive life changes. I know most people drop their resolutions within a few weeks, but that doesn’t stop me from hoping my path for the year might be different.
One thing I don’t like about January – particularly this one – is how cold it STILL IS. It’s not like I’m a huge outdoorsman, but it’s driving me a little bit insane to feel so trapped in the house, never quite warm enough. I just want to take Annie for a twenty minute walk every day without feeling like we’re both about to fall over from frostbite. The good news is that it’s supposedly going to warm up next week. I’ll believe it when I see it!
Overall, it’s been a pretty great week. I love getting back on track after the chaos, excitement, and exhaustion of Christmas break. Seeing everyone head off to work and school and then coming back to a quiet house with just my pets? It’s the BEST. I had some lofty ambitions of really jumping into everything I’ve been slacking on the last few weeks, but I didn’t make much progress. But… I’m okay with it. I’m really trying to live by taking care of myself first. And this week I needed more life giving genuine down time than working myself ragged productivity.
On Monday morning – New Year’s – we went to Greg’s parents’ for a game day. My parents came too. I was so tired from actually staying up until midnight, so I declined any actual game playing. But it was nice to just have a chance to sit and read without needing to really do anything for a big chunk of the day. The food was delicious too.
This is the bottle of that $20 ice wine I got at Costco for New Year’s Eve, just fyi. 🙂 It was so good! Quite the splurge, but maybe worth making if it comes around every year. It has mango flavors in it, so I got the bottle to myself (Greg is allergic). And a bottle is about less than two glasses, so I was glad not to share!
On Tuesday I was more than ready to run some errands and stock up on groceries. Christmas clearance was 90% off at Target and I was pretty excited to find some good stuff. I always want these scent things for my artificial trees, but it seems crazy to pay $7 on them full price. 70 cents I can handle! I also really wanted some white lights to hang inside our bay window next year so it looks like we did some house decorating from the outside – hopefully. We don’t have any outdoor outlets, so we can’t put lights up outside and our house looks so sad and un-festive. I put the tiny white lights around our bedroom and when they’re on it makes me ridiculously happy.
Target also had Lego Brickheadz 50% off. I’ve been eyeing up these Belle and Beast figures for quite awhile and finally had an excuse to buy them. I made the boys build them for me and now they’re on one of my bookshelves.
Wednesday was a teensy bit warmer in the morning and we were able to venture out to the dog park for half an hour. Visits have been pretty sparse these last few weeks! Walks have basically been nonexistent. It needs to warm up.
Both Wednesday and Thursday were supposed to be big work days, but I was still so busy doing things around the house I couldn’t afford much sewing time. Wednesday was actually the one really, really low day for me. I was giving myself too much to do, stressed out, upset about some friendship related things, and just not in a good place. So I devoted Thursday back to self care and taking time to read and relax and get my head back into a positive space. It worked.
Friday was a bummer day because I had to have two cavities filled. I’ve only had one cavity before and it was so tiny they didn’t even do any anesthetics. It was on the top of my tooth too and I didn’t realize how little of a deal that was compared to bigger cavities that form between teeth! Anyway, it was just a sucky hour and a half at the dentist, but I survived. I was more just annoyed about how long it took with the dentist constantly going in and out of the room to attend multiple people at once. Just get it over with! I rewarded myself with a Chipotle bowl to take home and have for lunch. It tasted like the best thing ever. Total Chipotle game changer for this devote taco eater too. Bowls are now my future. Especially when they travel so well to eat at home!
This week has birthed a few new obsessions for me. One – cold brew coffee. In blue mason jars. With homemade creamer. Which is also stored in pretty blue mason jars in my fridge. I haven’t brewed any of my own yet, but I did get a bottle of Stok Not Too Sweet cold brew at the store and it’s delicious! And it actually wakes me up enough to not need a nap. I’m still loving my Keurig (the boys REALLY love it), but cold brew is probably going to be my new daily lunch beverage of choice.
This week I am also completely in love with my bullet journal. I seriously recommend that book Dot Journaling if you’re at all intrigued by the idea of bullet journaling, but are too overwhelmed by how complex the internet makes it out to be. It took me a few hours to set it all up, but I think I created a system where I’ll really get the most out of using it. I love it for daily to do lists and as many other lists as I want. But I also really like the habit tracking and actually using it as a real journal at the end of every day. And the creative options once you start! I’ve already ordered more stickers and washi tape because it’s just so fun to make it colorful and full of happy beauty. I think it’ll be a really great little outlet AND productivity tool this year.
I’m not sure I can call it an obsession yet, but another thing I started this week is a daily yoga practice. I’m following the free 30 day program for January by Yoga with Adriene. Early every morning I get an email with a few inspirational messages and a link to the day’s video. I leave it unopened until I’m ready to do it because unopened emails drive me insane. There’s no way I can forget or ignore the video. The first four days I did it first thing in the morning, which was great. Yesterday and today I had to put it off awhile and it made me a little stir crazy. I think that maybe, after only six days, I’m liking yoga! I really like Adriene. I feel like this is something I can maybe actually stick with. Not necessarily as a way to lose weight, but as a way to connect more with my body, stretch, and just overall feel better. I’ll keep you updated on how I feel after every additional week. I’m determined not to miss a day.
Anyway, despite the bit of depression I was struggling with on Wednesday, it was a pretty good week! Now today we’re working on finishing all the post-Christmas cleanup. Trees are down and I’ve been working on all the clutter. The boys are currently mini-golfing with the grandparents. Greg is crawling around hand scrubbing all the floors. And I’m hoping to spend the afternoon sewing. Not because I feel like I NEED to. But because that’s genuinely how I want to spend a chunk of my day. I miss it.
I hope you had a great week too!
