Happy New Year!

2016

Back to the grind today - how is everyone??

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Our trek to Upstate NY to visit Mumsy and Daddy was brief, but wonderful. The week off with the chirruns wasn't as chock-full of arguing as I'd expected. We played their games, and Shiloh watched The Santa Clause enough times that she can nearly recite it from beginning to end. I let them stay up past their bedtimes on New Year's Eve, and I even made it to after midnight! We watched Ray. Excellent movie! (Probably why it won a bunch of awards.) When it was over, 20 minutes remained until midnight. We watched whatever "party" they were showing on a local affiliate. As I beheld whoever it was singing, and all the hooting-and-hollering partiers, I realized I was old. And okay with that.

Because vacation week was largely pleasant, I was more happy for Isaac and Shiloh to be returning to school this morning (they were excited) than I was for me. But I'm definitely relishing the solitude. And I'm attending to what, for me, has historically been the saddest chore of the year - taking down Christmas decorations. I don't need a hanky this year, though. They've been up for a month. It's time to pack them away.

So, on a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being the worst, 10 being supercalifragilisticexpialiduperifous!) how would you rate 2015? I'll give it a 6. Maybe a 6.5. Considering that 2013 was a 2 and 2014 a 3, this is a significant jump in improvement. And I feel that the momentum will continue to carry me in the direction of 10. (Knock on wood.) In order to facilitate things, I'm implementing some organization into my daily routine. I tend to jump into things with the utmost exuberance - then it can fizzle, I'll allow life to distract me, or I'll actually forget. Case in point: 12 Days of Christmas Cookies. I only made it to day 6! With just a wee bit of planning and setting of a schedule, I could have finished. Alas, certain factors I didn't take into consideration derailed me. With the whole year in front of me - 12 Days of Christmas Cookies 2016 will indeed be 12 days!

And, of course, the usual diet and exercise reset is beginning today. The aforementioned organization implementation will ensure this success as well. I decided to forego the challenge group this month. After my half-hearted attempt at becoming a coach (I was immediately put off by having to hound people, and the practice of appearing to be interested in other people's lives, to foster a sense of caring in order to get someone to purchase a product) I'm taking a break. I wasn't enamored of the products either. Even though there were other programs that may have fit, the Cize program wasn't for me, and I'm not going to drink a shake every single day. That's just not going to happen. And even though Shakeology is a "health" shake, not a "protein" shake, there's no way I thought it was worth the price.

I am, however, still enamored of Ali Kamenova! Today, I just noticed on her website a weekly yoga challenge that started three weeks ago! I carved out only three days last week for exercise - but glad I got at least those three days in! With the schedule already up, what workout I'm going to do is one item I don't have to worry about. I introduced a friend to her, and she fell in love, too! She asked me this morning about joining the $9/month membership together as we'll get a 10% discount. Think I can swing this!

Bring it on, 2016!!