2023 New Year’s Resolutions and Goals

After the Christmas decorations come down and the post-holiday blues pass, I actually love the start of a new year. I welcome a reset and sense of calm after the holiday madness. This year has felt especially slow with all the recent rain keeping us indoors. It’s given me a chance to stop and look ahead, reassess goals and plans, and even make a few resolutions. Every year since 2016 I’ve begun the year pregnant, on the precipice of a career change, or in some weird Covid bubble. This is the first January in seven years that I’m starting the year with absolutely no major life events on the horizon. In a lot of ways 2023 feels like a blank canvas brimming with possibilities. It feels exciting and I feel a personal motivation I haven’t felt in a long time. Inspiration is at an all-time high.

I’m heading into the year with four overarching “goals”.

1. SLEEP: This is a big personal priority for me this year. The sleep deprivation in 2022 was real. I’ve never felt so shitty physically in my entire life. A newborn who was a terrible sleeper compounded by two older kids who made napping virtually impossible resulted in dizzy spells, brain fog, and cloudiness, among tons of other symptoms. Vivienne is sleeping better, but I realize now I have to retrain myself on how to sleep. Even if by some miracle all three kids sleep through the night, it is rare that I do. I’m looking to make some changes that I know help me such as prioritizing walking/pilates, not drinking for a while, and reading myself to sleep. 
2. QUALITY TIME: Time with friends was secondary to keeping my kids safe through Covid and welcoming a new baby. Now that we are in a groove as a family of five, I want to intentionally make more time for dates with Dave and time with friends that I’ve really missed these past few years. Also bucketed into this goal is prioritizing 1:1 time with each of my girls – easier said than done but it really fills all of us up.
3. RHYTHMS: I want to create rhythms that help me manage the household in less time. Having a clean and tidy house is important to me, and my mood is greatly affected by the state of my surroundings. Not to mention I’m more focused, inspired to create, and present with my kids when things are tidy so it’s worth figuring out a routine to keep everything buttoned up. 
4. CREATE: Create more than I consume. In 2021, my husband picked back up an old ceramics hobby. He really dove in headfirst last year, and I’m so proud that he’s made time to prioritize this passion, oftentimes going to the studio from 8:00-11:00 pm, while having a full-time job and family. It’s inspired me to really invest in my own hobbies this year – writing, crafting, reading and home decor – so I wrote up a wishlist of things I’d like to do:
   • Read 25 books
   • Journal more frequently about daily family life. Like funny things the kids say, or the mundane things that don’t make it into the girls’ annual journals.
   • Write the stories I want to tell, and share them!
   • Do one “unnecessary” creative project that’s just for fun – renovating the girls’ dollhouse.
   • Finish the kitchen! We renovated our kitchen in June 2019, but there are still some decor items and finishes that have been on my list for the past three and a half years – oops!
   • Visit a new National Park