Last year I made the typical New Year’s Resolution; get in shape. I strived toward this by doing yoga and building up flexibility, stamina, and strength, and by walking. I did really well for awhile, but suffered some setbacks as I always seem to do by getting sick. Colds and sinus congestion prevented me for a couple months from doing any intense, inverted yoga poses. It’s hard to hold a pose with your head upside down when you can’t breathe.

Rather than give myself a guilt trip, I’m choosing to look at how successful I was at working toward this goal, and try to get back there again. I’m also aiming for some different resolutions this year, and have been pondering them the past few days. The first one that came to mind was a rather random one, but as soon as it rose to the surface, I knew it had to make my list. I stumbled upon a book by JRR Tolkien in my favorite bookstore this past week and it dawned on me that I have yet to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It’s been on my bookshelf for far too long. It’s the usual story. I bought them with the intention of reading them and just never got around to it. Well, enough stalling. As soon as I finish my current book(s) and as soon as I unearth them from whatever box they’re residing in (I think I even know which box), it’s time to start reading these classics. I know as soon as I do I’ll wonder what took me so long.

Another resolution is to snack more. This sounds counter-intuitive to most resolutions, I know. I have found that my body works and feels better if I eat several small snacks throughout the day. I usually don’t eat huge meals, and often find that I’m hungry again within a couple hours after eating. Keeping small snacks like nuts, hummus, or fruits on hand makes me feel better. In my continued quest of meal planning and couponing, I need to start planning for snacks too.

My last resolution is kind of several rolled into one, but they all fall under the same category. I’m resolving to spend more time doing things I enjoy and that refresh me. This includes: writing, scrapbooking, and photography. Throughout the last couple months, I’ve slacked on journaling and writing and I think my mental and emotional health have suffered. My brain processes emotions so much better when written down, and while my writing has been waning, my brain has been overloaded. Time to fix that. Hopefully that means more blogging too.

I love scrapbooking, and I’ve done so little of it in the past couple years. Every time I pull it out, I wonder why I’ve taken so long to do it. Part of it has been trying to find a place to put it all. I spread out when I scrapbook. Another part is actually going to get the pictures developed. I finally went this past week and developed lots of wedding photos, so I can finally start on my wedding album. When I mentioned to a sweet, well-intentioned, high schooler that I had not started my wedding album, she gave me a funny look and said, “Wasn’t that two years ago?” I love her, so I resisted the urge to slap her. All of you married, working women out there can relate. Life gets busy and gets in the way of getting those treasured wedding albums done. But I am getting it done this year. I don’t care if I have paper scattered across the living room floor (sorry honey).

In my last creative endeavor, I would like to take some sort of photography class this year. I’ve been wondering where to start; if I should do online classes or take them in a classroom, or perhaps just get a book and work through stuff on my own. Drew found an article in our paper this week, of a notable photographer who will be in the panhandle area of Florida to do some workshops on nature and landscape photography. Perfect! I’m still looking into details, but it look like a good place to start.

Happy New Year everyone.