Happy New Years to everyone!! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. With two small kids, I honestly didn’t even remember it was New Years Eve until I saw that everyone was closing early and I was like, what the heck? The only thing I was anticipating on Saturday was a very serious football game between Clemson and Ohio State. After the tigers ended up whooping some buckeye tail (hehe), I went to bed where my infant decided to wake and not let me lay him back down until 3 am. Any who, for whatever reason, I have really been thinking about 2017 and what I’d like to see change within myself, my family, and my business(es). I’m sure a lot of us are thinking about this so I figured what better than to write about some resolutions for the new year.

 

 

 

 

Resolution #1: My Health!!

I’m not unhealthy by any means, at least in terms of how I eat, but there are definitely some practices that I need to put in place to make my body and mind a little better. I get a little lazy/distracted/whatever you want to call it and I stop doing things that I know make me feel good. One example would be smoothies. I was buying green juices and I don’t mind doing that BUT with them costing like $6 a bottle, I could find a more cost effective solution to my need for a daily dose of greens. Interestingly enough, my friend Wendie from Pantry Doctor just wrote an ebook with 50 DIFFERENT KINDS OF SMOOTHIES!! She actually has a couple of books so you can just check out her page. I signed up for the little 5 day challenge she is having and by day 2, I was like, “oh i’m buying this book”. The smoothies are really good and they’re way different than anything I would ever do. The one I had today was:

Healthy Happy Skin

1 cup coconut water

1 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup pineapple

1/2 cup mango

2 cups spinach or kale

1 avocado

2 frozen bananas

1 tsp maca powder (optional)

*this is in her free smoothie ebook so just sign up and you get 5 recipes free. The book with 50 recipes is only $9.99 and I bought it because this one was so good

I also want to cut down on the amount of wheat and sugar I am eating. I’m not planning on doing an entire Whole30, but just limiting the wheat and sugar, hoping that my skin will clear up a bit. I’ve been having breakouts lately and I think it has to do with my sugar intake as well as not having the right skin care regimen. I already don’t eat dairy, not much soy (although I have been eating a little more simply because it’s too hard not to), and corn because of Alex’s intolerance. He’s slowly growing out of it but really, I feel so much better when I eat a little more paleo-esque (along with some healthy grains).

Lastly, some daily self care is top of my list. What does that look like? I’m not 100% sure. Things that I really need in my daily routine are:

1. prayer and meditation
2. makeup – I know that sounds vain but honestly, when I get to do my makeup, I feel better. I really enjoy doing it, I enjoy trying out trends and colors and all of that, so it’s just something I like to do
3. movement – I’m running a 10k at the end of March so I am going to start running on tuesday, thursdays, and saturdays. Running is not something I’ve always loved but since having kids, it’s such an amazing outlet because I get some time outside, I get those endorphins going, and I get a little bit of quiet. Even if I have them in the jogging stroller, they’re usually just chilling, eating their snacks and they’re quiet.

 

Resolution #2: My Photography Business

This isn’t really a resolution, but more a goal. I want to start my photography business. I’m working on my website now, but I have some business ends I need to finish. I also have some really awesome, fun learning things I’m doing as well as some photography personal projects that are really exciting. Maybe the resolution part of this is to get organized. I have a planner and sometimes, I’ll actually make my plans, but then I forget I wrote them down and ya know… So yeah, do that differently.

 

This is the planner I bought. I really like it already!!

Resolution #3: Get Real

This is going to be the hardest one. I’ve had three different blogs in the past decade with this one being the most “professional” looking. I started my first blog because I wanted to talk about fitness and health. I started my second blog to talk about motherhood and finally, I started this blog as a marketing tool for my styling business as well as a place to help people looking to up their style game in stages of their life where it’s a little harder than it was when we were young. My challenge is this; I am not in my twenties anymore. Sometimes, I like to think I’m younger than I am, but I am not. I take a look at the fashion/style/beauty bloggers that I follow and I’ll admit, I try to emulate them in some way. Maybe it’s because I like their blogs or maybe it’s because I feel like that’s what a blog is supposed to look like. I really don’t think it’s working though. I don’t feel like my blog is growing or serving it’s purpose and I feel a little stagnant in the content I’m writing. I think that’s why Im enjoying the photography aspect so much because it feels like so much more of an extension of me than this blog does. I thought about just quitting writing it, but I really do enjoy fashion and makeup and I enjoy blogging. The question remains, how do I find MY unique blogging voice? As a mother in her late (ahem) thirties, my voice is going to be different than it was when I was in my twenties. The truth is I have experience a lot in life. I’ve done a lot of spiritual development, a lot of therapy, am raising kids, and I have a lot more depth in my personality and character than I did when I was younger. BUT I also really love talking about fashion and makeup! How do I merge the two? I have no solution for that, but I just know that I want to be as authentic as possible with y’all. I want to let go of the desire to get page views and likes on my posts. I want to stop following the “blogging rules”. The challenge of writing is that it can be edited. You want your reader to be interested in what you are saying but that takes away the element of spontaneity that happens when interacting on a human level, right? So how does one be authentic in written form? Especially on a blog about shoes? You feel me?

 

This is my husband and he is obviously thrilled to be modeling for me

 

Resolution #4: Be More Calm

I just don’t want to yell at my kids as much anymore. I know there are better ways to handle them, but I am a short tempered person with a high sense of urgency and a low tolerance for pain. Those do not mix to make a calm mother. I am hoping that with resolution #1, maybe some calm will come. I’m just going to accept the fact that I am not going to be Mother Theresa BUT maybe, with some good self care, I don’t have to be mommy dearest. (I’m assuming y’all are all old enough to have seen that movie, right?).

 

I mean, with faces like those, how can one get mad, right? rrrriiiiiggghhhthtttttttttt

 

Anyway, thanks so much for reading y’all!! Let me know what your resolutions are below. I’d really really really love some feedback so please feel free to comment on this blog, my Facebook page, my instagram, or snapchat!! Thanks so much for reading.