Resolutions

            We are driving back from my family’s house in Upstate New York, and the combination of feeling very full from a week of eating and sitting for 15 hours in a car has me thinking about New Year’s Resolutions.  I am reading a book called “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin.  It was popular a few years ago I believe but borrowing it from my mother this week was a good idea.  It basically breaks up resolutions by month and I am going to try that, instead of making my whole year of resolutions today.  For the first month, I’m following Rubin’s suggestion of energizing.

January: Energize!

• ·      Sleep more: I usually stay up way too late, especially when I don’t have class the next morning.  However, this upcoming semester is going to be a lot busier then last so I need to make sure I get more sleep and make it a habit.  
• ·      Exercise:  This seems to make it on every goal/resolution list.  Before we left for New York, I went to the gym every day for a week, which sadly is a record, and took the beagle for a walk every day.  It was very enjoyable and I want to keep that up when I get home tomorrow.  I am also considering investing in a pedometer.
• ·      Organize: This is perfect for this month because I have the next two weeks free before the Spring Semester, my graduate assistantship and the first practicum starts.  So organization needs to happen.  My personal goal is to organize our basement and unpack a lot of the boxes I haven’t opened for almost two years…

I'll be keeping a daily chart on Excel of how long I sleep, how long I walk the beagle, and how long I work out each day.  I'll have my boyfriend help me with some formula to be able to track progress in a visual way because that will motivate me!

Old Blogs

I have so many unpublished posts on this blog, which I now find funny because it is really my own blog.  No reason not publish them!  I use to get more view from people on Pinterest but now for some reason my pictures can't get published because my source is marked as spam.  Oh well.

I kind of miss putting a lot energy into my first blog, agirlgoesgreen.  I would like to again but that blog had a purpose (...being "green") which I did for my year of not buying anything new, trying to eat as local as possible, and now, I don't really like talking about it.  I kind of find people who say what I did annoying.  Like last weekend, someone came over with our friends and noted that she hopes we never move because we have a lot of stuff.  I said that she should see our basement....which led to a why people buy things conversation.  I love my "stuff".  I love old things and like to buy them.  I don't like someone saying our house is cluttered or saying stuff I haven't looked at in a while should be thrown away.  I am not throwing away boxes of my grandmother's pots, but they are not coming upstairs either.  I am also not throwing away ugly Christmas decorations my roommate and I used in college.  But I am organizing (at least my plan is to) my stuff in the basement over break!  Only one week left of the first semester of grad school!

Advent!

I love advent.  As child, my mother would pretend there was a elf in the house hiding and he would write me little notes each day and once every few days surprise me with a gift.  I'm 24 and my dad still mails me an advent calendar every year (this one he even included one for my boyfriend).

When my sister and I were old, my mom use to do "Dollar Advent" with us and I decided to share the idea with Gregory.  Basically, you divide up the days of advent (we did 9 for each of us and 4 for the beagle), go to the Dollarstore and buy the silly, fun gifts, wrap them up and each day, pick a name to own a present.

We use to put our names into a big, mirrored advent box my mom had but I did not want to buy one.   So, I took 24 matchboxes, decorated them, and a put a name in each.  They are very cute and festive and even Gregory (who does not really like holiday things) likes them.  We started today and Gregory got the first present, tissues with the Peanuts characters on them!