New Year Resolutions – are you in?
Happy New Year!
I just love this time of year. It feels like anything is possible. New Year’s Eve in our house is often spent having dinner with friends, which, in my book, is the perfect end and start to every year. Plus I ended the last year on a really happy work note. This year I missed that ritual because of the stupid Christmas cold I caught, however, I still had a nice New Year’s Eve. Sat on the sofa, watched Bad Moms and went to bed at 10pm! But at least I have making my New Year Resolutions to look forward to.
New Year’s Day
I woke up on New Year’s Day as I always do; feeling fresh and ready to grab the new year by the horns. It’s always a great time to have a sit down and reflect on the previous year and figure out what went well, what happened that I was super grateful for and what I could do better. Then I sit down and make some New Year Resolutions.
So this year I have resolved to read 24 books. I’m already one and a half down! And have more pictures taken with my amazing family. It’s so important for me to help other Mums get in the frame and I’m not living by my own advice.
The (very bad) selfies…!
This is the iPhone snap that made me realise I need to do better with photos, haha! I need to make sure that Grayson has photos with me IN them, not just taking them. Many Mums feel self-conscious in photos and I don’t want to be that Mum. I can EASILY look at all the pictures in this post and criticise myself harshly, but why am I doing that when I then miss the love and happiness in them? There is a blog post coming up in the near future on this so stay tuned.
The Instagram backlash
On Instagram since New Year’s Eve, I’ve seen a lot of people bashing on New Year Resolutions. Apparently they are negative, you inevitably fail, they just make you feel bad about yourself and your life, and most recently they are anti-feminist. Well, I think that’s maybe because people are doing them wrong?!
New Year Resolutions – can there be anything more positive and happy-making that resolving to make your life happier, healthier and better. But maybe the language around them is wonky. She resolves to stop smoking forever (which will be hard)! He resolves to lose 5 stone and go to the gym everyday (which will be hard)! They both resolve to never eat sugar again (which will be really time consuming with reading every label out there…plus cake, you know)!
I thankfully don’t smoke, don’t need to lose 5 stone (although I did have one too many slabs of Christmas cheese!) and I enjoy sugar, but could probably do with a bit more moderation. However, none of these type resolutions are going to make me happy by doing them on a daily basis.
Will I succeed in 2019?
Last year I made two; read a book a month and try a new recipe every week. The former helps me get back into something I love but have woefully neglected since Grayson was born. The latter helps Dave and me get out of the worst kind of food rut where we just ate the same things over and over again.
Did I succeed? Well it depends on your measure of success. I read 11 books and tried probably 45 new recipes. So I guess you can tell me no. But, if you flip it round, I read 11 new books, every one of which I enjoyed (plus watched however much less naff TV!). And I ate a whole load of good food, and some really bad food too. So in my book, that’s a success. So I’m committing hard to my 2019 resolutions. I’m already a book and a half done. I’ve loved reading both and not missed whatever rubbish boxset I was half way through. And I’m going to end up with some fab pics of my little family. I look forward to sharing some of these photos with you over the year. Plus if anyone wants to recommend a book to me, I’m all ears!
What are your New Year Resolutions? Do you love them or hate them?
Simply click on any photo to see the website of that photographer. Thanks to Becky Harley Photography, St Albans Photography and Chapter One Photography for the awesome photos I have so far. And if you want to get in touch with me, to chat New Year Resolutions, photos or anything else then just drop me a line!
New Year Resolution
