Monday, January 20, 2014

New year, new direction

Over the past few years I have taken on projects that I admit have had varying degrees of success. My no-shopping project was challenging but I did it and walked out of it learning things I never thought I would.....my 30 while I'm 30 list was so much fun and I although I didn't complete all 30 I loved documenting life leading up to Alexis' birth and the first few months of our life as a family of 3. Last years project on the other hand was....well let's just be honest...a complete failure. Well at least from a blogging perspective. Looking back throughout the year, I realized that we actually did a lot of the things on my list.....just not necessarily in the order I laid out and I definitely didn't blog about any of them! So I started to think about what went wrong? What about that project didn't inspire me? Because if it inspired me I would have seen it through. The more I thought about it I realized that my intentions and focus for the year didn't really match the project. 
Embrace spontaneity. Manage expectations and be present. 
Yet every month I basically had a plan for....not exactly spontaneous. And with each month carried expectations that may or may not be met which just leads to disappointment when something doesn't go my way. 
Be grateful and focus on the positive. All you need is love. 
Very few of these monthly projects had anything to do with focussing on the positives or gratitude for love and all that surrounds me. 
 Let it go.
Well this one.....I embraced. Clearly I let go of what wasn't working for me and just lived my life. Just because I failed to complete a project doesn't necessarily mean that it was a failure. The way I see it, the project was misguided and my heart wasn't in it....so I let it go and I had an amazing year anyway. Maybe if I had forced myself to stick to it, I would have felt too boxed in to see what I was supposed to be doing. Who knows?!? Either way, all I know is that 2013 was pretty dang good!!!

We bought a condo, spent tons of time at the park, the beach and walking the seawalls of our beautiful city. We took Alexis to Science world, the aquarium and Lynn Canyon. We took mini vacations to Whistler, Edmonton and Tofino and spent as much time as possible with family and friends.  I planned a fabulous 1st birthday for Alexis with lots of DIY decor and a pretty fun 30th birthday for the hubby as well. Alexis went trick-or-treating for the first time and got her first taste of chocolate. My friend Jill and I even opened our etsy store finally....it may have been in December not February but hey...for two busy moms to start a business at all is a pretty big feat if you ask me and we are pretty proud of our new shop (shameless plug.....www.etsy.com/shop/agnesjune) Plus our December was filled with the 12 dates of Christmas again.... sadly minus the Christmas tree farm this year since the new place doesn't allow real trees :( but we had a very beautiful artificial tree that we got for 70% off AND we kept it up for waaaay longer because you don't have to worry about it dying. Look at me finding the positives!! I did learn something last year ;) 

The one thing I barely did in 2013 though was blog..... and I really did miss the writing and documenting moments throughout the year. Life is so busy and it's getting more difficult to find the time with a toddler around the house (especially one who only naps for an hour a day FYI), but realizing that I do miss writing gives me the motivation to commit to doing it more this year. I'll just have to get creative with timing and be more realistic with goals. So that being said, I still wanted to do a 2014 project but I wanted it to be less of a to-do list and I wanted it to inspire me enough to keep the momentum going throughout the year. I came across an intriguing book called Deliberate Motherhood....the 12 powers of peace, purpose, order and joy. Who doesn't want more of that in their life right?!?! With 12 powers and 12 months in the year this book is intended to be read throughout the year, thus being the perfect project for 2014!! This project encompasses basically everything I like about the previous projects (the challenge, something to focus on and learn something along the way)  but without the things I didn't like (stressed if I didn't accomplish something I intended, creates expectations I couldn't meet etc)....but ultimately the intention comes from my heart. I knew becoming a mother would change me but I hadn't thought about taking the power into my own hands and using the challenges of motherhood to become a better person and a better mother. I am excited to see what the new year brings and I am excited to be back to blogging. This year I hope to bring together my thoughts on motherhood while finding moments to document everyday life and mix in a little DIY here and there. New year.....new direction. Got my Kate Spade planner, a new project and lots of delicious teas.....I'm ready....bring on 2014. 

2 comments:

  1. I've missed your posts. Glad you're going to come back to writing regularly :)

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    1. Awww thanks!! I've missed writing them :) Hope life is good for you down under!

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