Looking Ahead at 2013.

The corner of the living room does look a little bare right now.  The tree is down and the decorations are packed away for another year.   Another year, another Christmas gone by.  A new year brings hope of something better, excitement of things to come and knowing to enjoy it day by day.

We have some big changes coming us to this year.  It's hard for us to believe that Erica will be moving out to University in nine months. Wow! How can that be?  By the end of this year it will just be the three of us at home and I'm sure that will be a bit of an adjustment to us all.   As quantity of time inevitably diminishes as the girls get older we want to make sure we have quality time together.  We'll have to work at continuing as many family dinners as we can and just spending time together.

I have some things I'd like to work on professionally.  I want to be more proactive with planning, sales goals and effective marketing.  I think to take things to the next level I do need to consider the business side of things in conjunction with the creative side.   To continue to be profitable and competitive I can't just follow every pretty bead I see.  I think sometimes beads to me are like squirrels to our dog Mabel. Beads!! Squirrel! (if you know what I mean!)

I want to start painting the walls again.  A few years ago, and before I opened my etsy shop, I was painting rooms all the time.  Paint chips and swatches could be constantly found taped to our walls as I considered future colours.  It's definitely time to do this again and I'm ready.

To do this I need to find a better balance of my time with work and our home.  One of my biggest goals this year is to organize and clean the house.  This goal will involve other members of the house but we're all ready to get rid of all the stuff we've accumulated over the last several years.  We've been in this house for 15 years now and it shows.  My mind thinks big when it comes to organization (everything cleaned in the next 2 weeks!!) but I know this will be a long term process.  Drawer by drawer, cupboard by cupboard.  The time spent will be time saved later on when you don't have to go searching through mounds of stuff to find things.  Most importantly for me though is that less clutter just makes for a calmer feeling.

Some sorted inspiration!  (Style at Home)

We started our organization plans off right by sorting and purging all our Christmas boxes.  We had decorations that haven't seen the light of day for years.  We still have a lot of Christmas boxes but they are labelled and everything in them is something we use. We are still missing a box of decorations that we could not find this year but I'm sure it will show up over the year when we tackle the basement.










I'd like to grow about 3 inches taller but while I wait for that to happen we will continue to walk more and eat healthy.  For me, I need to make sure to take the time for myself to do these things.

A picture from a beautiful walk we took at my parent's cottage over the holidays.

Happy New Year everyone.  Any plans for your year ahead?

28 Days of Random Kindness - Act V

Being kind to myself

This morning was not a good morning for me. I woke up with a headache. I hate starting the day that way. It certainly takes the fun out of a Friday!

As I was searching for my Advil Liquid Gels for migraines in the cupboard I had to shuffle aside the regular strength Advil (that wasn't going to do) the Children's Advil (nope, not that either) , the kid's daily vitamins, Men's vitamins, Women's vitamins (oh, haven't had one of those recently) and the Vitamin D supplements (ouch, on that as well). It occurred to me that I had not been taking my vitamins and supplements regularly at all. It was far from a daily habit, or even weekly, let's try bi-weekly, or more like little spurts I'd remember 3 days in a row and then none for another week or two. Something so simple should be easy to do.

There have been alot of studies recently that show the health benefits of vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin). Some research has found it can guard against osteoporosis and may offer protection from breast and colon cancer, heart disease and dementia.

In Canada our northern latitude may be great for skiing but from October to March the sunlight is too feeble for Vitamin D production. During this time, our bodies draw down the stored Vitamin D built by summer sunshine, and whatever is acquired from supplements or diet.

So I'm going to fill my little weekly plastic pill container with my vitamins and supplements today and make a concerted effort to take them daily. Sometimes it's hard for me to take the time for myself, to think of myself. If I'm healthier, I'll be happier and I'll end up being a better mom, wife, friend and neighbour and at the least I'll make my doctor happy. It's ok to be kind to yourself and today I hope my little random act of kindness to myself brings a not so random effort to better my health.