Photo courtesy Flickr Commons

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s that time of year again. The time when all the segments on morning TV switch from Buy this gift, bake this delicious thing, eat all the food! to Lose weight! Declutter! Save your money! Quit <insert bad habit>! We’re a predictable bunch, aren’t we?

And generally, I have an against-the-grain nature and resist outside forces telling me what and how I should do something. But I have to confess, I am such a sucker for the New Year’s Resolution thing. I set goals throughout the year and make changes along the way. But there’s something so appealing about a new year and getting things back in line--a fresh start after the chaos of the holidays. So even though I know I’m giving in to the hype, I do it anyway. :-)

Here are my resolutions for this year:

Back to real food – During the year, I *generally* eat healthy as long as I’m cooking at home. But when deadlines get crunched (as they do) and life gets chaotic (as it does), I often fall back to what’s quick and easy for the family (fast food and convenient processed stuff.) And once that starts, it’s easy to fall into that pattern again. So I want to get back to focusing on real food and have it not be about dieting or weight. (And if I lose inspiration, I need to read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan again, lol.)
Realistic minimalism – So I love reading blogs about minimalism (living with only the things you need and the things that enrich your life.) However, I have no aspirations to go bare bones minimalist. I have a 7 year-old and a husband and I love my office full of books. I want my home to look like people live here. However, I do like the idea of not holding onto anything that isn’t useful, beautiful, or that makes me happy in some way (books!). Over the last year, we’ve redecorated our house to be a lot more calm/modern (no knick knacks, simpler furniture, etc.) and I’ve ditched probably half the things/clothes/stuff/junk we used to have. It’s a work in progress though, so I’ve been doing my New Year’s purge of closets over the last few days. And I want to continue paring down/buying less in 2015 as well.
Finding Zen – I have my dream job. I’m a writer and wouldn’t want to be anything else. But even dream jobs have stress. I write a lot, have a lot of deadlines, and I have a 7-yr old with some special needs. And I’m not exactly a Type B personality; so many times in the year I get to the hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing stage. But because of that, this past year, I got sick A LOT—colds, shingles, viruses, strep, etc. All that stress was taking its toll. So I’m vowing to be more Zen this year. Being stressed won’t help me get anything done any faster. This will probably be my hardest one to keep.

So that’s what I’m aiming for. How about you? Are you a resolution setter or do you resist the hype? What are some of your resolutions?

And don’t forget, Colby is going to be here in less than a week! NOTHING BETWEEN US is out Jan. 6^th in the U.S. (UK Readers, it’s out today!) Go pre-order your copy and I’ll <3 you forever. ;)