I was taking a look back at last year’s resolutions. Boy, did these get abandoned pretty quickly once we found out we were expecting. My writing this past year was not very much a focus of mine and I definitely have not been reading like I would like. I sat down with a cappuccino and a treat from Financier Patisserie to jot down this year’s goals.
I’m taking a bit of a different approach and I’m making three overarching themes my “resolutions” for the year. Most of what I really want to accomplish this year lines up with these three, so I’m hoping to draw some inspiration from them throughout these next 365 days.
Balance. My return to work is looming off in the distance, growing closer with each passing day. I’m not feeling ready to go back yet, but I’m coming to accept that it’s okay to not feel ready and things will be okay for me to return. I’ve been working during my leave to build balance in the different parts of my life – my relationships, my personal interests, and my physical well-being – without adding work into the mix. I’m resolving to continue to maintain that balance once I return to work. I know it will be challenging, but I also know that it’s important.
While I have not been able to return to focusing on writing the next novel I have floating around in my head, I have been able to push to continue to write in spurts as I have time here. I also plan to continue to do Will You Accept this Podcast with my sister – our fun passion project following along the shows of The Bachelor franchise. These have all given me a creative outlet while I continue to connect with both food bloggers and mom bloggers across a variety of social networks. I’m so grateful for that in 2016 and am excited for what 2016 holds.
Strength. It’s ironic that the thing I’ve done that requires the most strength left me feeling like I had a huge hole to dig out of to be as strong as I have always been. Chipping away at this over the past almost three months does make me feel strong in the process of regaining my strength, if that makes sense. Regaining my strength makes it physically easier to carry my son around the city as he gets bigger each day. I know some day he will be too big for us to hold him and rock in our arms but in the meantime, I want to be able to hold him as long as he will have it. My big goal is to get back up in the air for a trapeze class once I’m feeling stronger and ready for it!
Kindness. This might be the biggest of the three because I feel like it’s woven into each of the above. I wrote earlier about kindness, and that post only talked about a little of what I’m feeling about being kind to myself. There are so many unknowns in the year ahead. We’re looking to move out of the city and buy a house – both very big changes.
And then there is this parenting adventure overall. I know there is so much I frankly don’t know and we can only be so prepared for what’s in store in our adventures with Agent Q. There will be so many surprises along the way and there are going to be so many moments where I will feel disappointed in how I handled something. I want to struggle to be the best I can be, but also to kind to myself, my husband and Q in our journey together.
I don’t really talk about politics (and that’s by choice – and a huge part of why I knew living in DC was never long-term for me!) but I will say that I think our country needs this one to be a goal for 2017 as well.
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