2015

I love this time of year! I love the looking back (New Year resolution posts 2011 2012 2013 2014) but mostly I love the looking forward -- January is a typically a blustery, cold, gray month but the opening weeks have so much ebullient optimism about them: A Fresh Start.

For last year's words belong to last year's language 

          And next year's words await another voice.
                             
                            from T.S. Eliot's "Little Gidding"

My 2015 has a theme -- QUALITY ---

Put good stuff in my brain

Read one novel a month

Scholastic Bootcamp: a Study Plan for Work Stuff

Meditate

Stop using my phone as a distraction

Put good stuff on the table

Continue meal planning and Sunday meal prep

Eat whole foods ('clean') except when at delicious local restaurants or treats I make myself. I don't want to live without dessert - I don't have an ascetic bone in my body - but the junk has to go. That's why I 'm making ice cream with $15 vanilla beans tonight and white chocolate raspberry scones on Sunday (so I can take them to work on Monday).

Keep the good stuff going

Nurture our marriage by doing the personal and interpersonal work to keep our relationship growing and deepening.

Do good stuff for myself and others

By eating well and keeping up with my new gym routine and adopting an active lifestyle for my daughters

Make a concerted effort to buy American made products 

at the gym Jan 1. lettering by Studio app

Tasks

Tomorrow is one of those rare days the daycare is open and I'm off. Tomorrow, the great wardrobe and bathroom closet purge is going to happen. You're sick of hearing about it, I'm sick of buying toothpaste when there's already toothpaste buried behind some towels I don't like - tomorrow I turn a merciless and minimalist eye to it all and cull cull cull.

Photo projects for 2015. Using my right thumb only I ordered 16 photo magnets using the Social Print Studio app and a poster is on its way (check that completed). My sister-in-law creates a family yearbook, an idea I'd like to adopt. I'm going to dig in to learning how to use The Real Camera we bought last year.

Looking forward to

Being caffeine free. So long, Diet Coke.

Wearing those jeans again

Four trips this winter and spring - one to each time zone!

Clem's second birthday party

This year, I seek quality - of time, both in quantity by streamlining household organization, and quality by minimizing distractions and increasing mindfulness; of food - wholesome nourishment and deserved rewards; of material goods - durability over disposability; of relationships - resist complacency!; in good books and long jogs.

Keep me accountable, friends! What is your 2015 manifesto?