New Year, New Start

 

So many people have opinions it seems about making New Years resolutions. For me, I don't see why anyone wouldn't. Life is a journey, and we should take every moment and opportunity as a chance to grow and better ourselves. I love being able to reflect on 2012; all the past mistakes, opportunities lost, experiences that changed me and made me different today. 2013 is a chance to hit reset and change things for this year. I hope that when I am 70 I am still trying to better myself. So here it is, my goals for 2013.

My Husband
Honestly, I love this man more every day. He is my rock and without him my life would be so grey. My goal this year is to be more intentional with my relationship to him. I love being a wife, and I am blessed with a job that lets me be able to focus on taking care of my household as well. I feel there is a big difference in managing a house, and being intentional with every action. Serving my husband a plate of dinner after work is different than intentionally making a meal he enjoys, plating it well, serving a sit-down-not-in-front-of-the-tv dinner to him. Doing the laundry is different than intentionally cleaning folding, pressing, and putting his clothes away. Saying 'I love you" is different than intentionally saying the words and meaning it every time I say it. Going out to dinner for a date night is different than intentionally being present in that evening and putting all my stresses and anxieties away to spend quality silly time with the man I am so blessed to have in my life. I want to enjoy our lives together and flourish rather than just trying to just survive our days. I want to be silly with him. I want to make memories with him; not just on big days, but every day.

My Family
God has blessed me with amazing family and the opportunity to move closer to them. This year I want to work harder and building closer bounds and getting deep relationships with them. Its one thing to call someone a sister or a mother because they are blood; I want a long lasting relationship with my family that supersedes everything else. No more petty fighting and worthless energy spent over hurt feelings. At the end of the day, I want to focus on what is really important.

 

Friendships
2012 really opened my eyes to what friendship is, who my true friends are, and what a blessing a real friend is. No matter how many miles apart or time spent face to face, a real friend will stand by you through it all. I love all my friends and this year I want to make sure they all know it. Much like my husband, I want my actions with my friends to be intentional.

And Lastly...
Yes I want to work out more; I know it is cliche. But generally, I want to be healthier...both physically and mentally. I want to find workouts that I don't dread and that make me feel better. People say the best therapy can be found in the gym and I want to experience that feeling. I also want to become up close and personal about the demons I carry around me with..so to do that I think I might use this blog as a tool to express myself and try to overcome some of them.

So that is it. A long list of hopes and goals for the new year. I might fall a little, but I think the important thing is to say them out loud and allow myself some grace in finding out how to live life better every day.

Happily Ever After

My life feels like a dream sometimes. There are times I look around and feel like things are too good to be true and one day I will wake up and realize it all was. The times I feel like this the most is when I look at the amazing man that for some reason, fell in love with me.

My man is brilliant! He is the smartest and most driven man, which is one of the reasons I fell for him. At 16 when I met him, he was already building his resume by working for a state Senator as an intern. He graduated with honors from college and promptly got accepted and excelled in law school. His drive with his education and career never wavered and I find that so admirable. While many men his age were out partying or hanging with friends, he was spending hours locked in a room studying or wasting summers taking classes to get him ahead on his bar exam. For his hard work to take care of his family, I can never thank him enough.

He challenges me to try new things. I am a very cautious person, almost to the extend where I don't live because I am scared of bad things happening. He has got me out of that fear and exposed me to new places, people, and things I would never have done myself. A major example of this is our 3 week trip to Thailand and Cambodia where I backpacked and camped into a jungle, rode elephants, snuggled with tigers,  took a cooking class from a ladyboy,  rafted down a river in the middle of a jungle,etc. The point of this story is it was the most amazing adventure and I met the most wonderful people and had the best time of my life, and I wouldn't have wanted to have that adventure with anyone else!

The man can cook! And I mean, REALLY cook. He used to compete in culinary competitions and was offered a scholarship to culinary school but turned it down to go to law school as cooking is more a passion than a career for him. This passion has passed off on me and all my foodie inspirations are from him. I am a lucky girl that he creates these masterful meals for me to enjoy, and we found a hobby and passion we can share together.

I love that we are still so young and have so much ahead of us still. I know he will make a great dad. I am excited to see him teach his children and guide their lives. This is an exciting chapter we have yet to open, but when we do I know it will be wonderful!

I am so in love with this man and feel like I am living a fairy tale every day! Happy anniversary Steven...I love you more today than ever before!

xoxo