Happy New Year!

Are you writing resolutions this year? If so, what are they? I love the feeling of a fresh start! I have been thinking/praying about mine and I have come up with quite a list! I wanted to share them with you all…partly to hopefully encourage/inspire others, and partly so I have it recorded for some accountability! Here goes…

1. To develop a morning ritual/routine. This will have to be before the kids get up (which is EARLY at our house!). This time will include my coffee (of course), reading my You Version Bible (on my phone or iPad for convenience – I love the Discipleship Journal Book-at-a-Time reading plan). I plan to read the daily Jesus Calling devotional because it is so inspiring, and to spend a bit of time journaling to get my thoughts together and to organize more of a prayer list.

2. Next, my goal is to finish one project before starting new projects! I have a huge problem with this – especially with house projects, I have frames on the floors, leaning against walls all over our house because I can never commit to hanging something! Such a funny problem for a photographer, right? 🙂 The goes completely against my nature, but hopefully the more I do it, the easier it becomes. And just to let you know, I am currently in the middle of re-decorating and move ALL of our kids’ bedrooms to make room for new baby. I have a LOT of finishing to do because I start anything else!

3. I plan to have social-media-free weekends and to be more scheduled/intentional with the time I do spend on social media. I do love Instagram, but it has turned into a bit of a compulsion for me! I don’t spend a ton of time on Facebook expect for my business page, but it is still such a waste of time, I know. I am going to schedule out my blog and Facebook posts each week or month. I am looking forward to being more intentional with this, I think the planning ahead will also yield more quality posts!

4. I also want to simplify/minimize/downsize our possessions. I have heard “whatever you own owns you,” and I can feel this pressure, especially after Christmas and getting tons of new toys, books, crafts, and stuff to store in our home. I have been going through closets, baskets, and cupboards already, looking to donate or sell things that we haven’t touched in a year (or two, or three).

5. To have monthly planning mornings where I look ahead and prepare for the upcoming month. I think this will save me a lot of time, I just did it this morning for the month of January and I realize that I have my daughter’s 6th birthday party to plan, our 11-year wedding anniversary, and an ever-approaching due date (January 31, 2015!), and a speaking engagement. Wow, and that’s all in January!

6. I have a list of 12 books to read in 2015, one a month. I plan to start January reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. A few others on my list? 7 by Jen Hatmaker; Parenting with Love and Logic; Change Before You Have To by Rob Ketterling (or pastor); Smart Money, Smart Kids by Dave Ramsey; Blue Like Jazz. I will add in more books for the last half of the year as 2015 goes on.

7. I want to “decide to decide.” I realized a lot of the stress I feel is from not being able to make a decision quickly and it hangs over my head. Like, any decision — what to order at a restaurant, what color to paint the walls in my home, what to do on a Saturday afternoon, etc. Hopefully the more decisions I make quickly, the more naturally this will come. Another one that won’t come easy for me.

8. I want to invest in more Christ-centered media, books, and movies for the kids. I feel like we have had Disney overload this past year. I definitely don’t think that Disney is bad and am not in the “all or nothing” camp, but I do realize the amount of hours my kids spend watching, reading, and playing with Disney items is a LOT. I want them to be becoming better little people in their spare time, not better little princesses. 🙂

9. And last, once this baby is born I would like to go back to eating 80% Paleo. Like I said, I am definitely NOT in the all-or-nothing camp, but when I ate mostly Paleo in the past two years, I did feel pretty great (I pretty much stopped once I got pregnant and started feeling morning sickness, which was really all-day sickness). Bacon and eggs, steak and vegetables, here I come…

Okay that is a lot…wish me luck, ha! Feel free to follow me on my progress on Instagram (just not on the weekends, right?!). 😉

What are you New Years Resolutions for 2015? I would love to hear from you!