I know, it’s a tad late to be nailing down my 2019 resolutions, but I’m behind on the blogging front because I’ve in fact been keeping one of my New Year’s goals, which is to carve out more time in the evenings for quiet, screen-free reading/meditating/journaling (all things introspective, really), so I get a pass on my lack of punctuality. Spending a couple of evenings a week in front of the fireplace sans phone or laptop has been so, so good for my soul.
Additionally, a few intentions for the year ahead:
Drink more water. The threshold for “more” is actually quite low since prior to this resolution I passed most days without drinking any water, but I’m going big and targeting 64 ounces a day. I’ve been at this for a few weeks now and am feeling the effects with fewer stomach aches (I’m nausea-prone) and less fatigue. And the resulting requisite hourly bathroom breaks are increasing my daily step count! Double health bonus.
Use less paper products; cut back on the paper cups and paper towels. Juliette is joining me on this one and we’ve made a habit of bringing our matching travel mugs to the coffee shop and giving our hands a good drip-dry shake after we’ve washed up at a restroom. Jules has proven to be an irritatingly excellent accountability partner and loves to give me a friendly tsk-tsk when I absent-mindedly grab a paper towel or leave my mug at home. She also loves to wipe her wet hands on my dry pants. We’re really in this together.
Host more. A pastor at our church gave a sermon a few weeks ago about “making room at the table” and that message has been rattling around in my head ever since. I’m still figuring out what exactly this means for us, but I think it looks like more shared meals around our dining room table; more invitations for the neighborhood kids to come over and play; more reaching out and checking in. And, less concern over presenting a spotless home or a perfectly prepared dinner. No stress. More connection.
Shane and Juliette set their own goals and we all tucked our lists into our stockings, to be uncovered at the end of the year for a check-in – we did this last year and had fun revisiting our mixed-results 2018 resolutions as a family. With that, back to the business of analog introspecting! My pen beckons.
