CHEERS TO 2019!
Happy New Year friends!
So I’m late to the game with the New Year post but I wanted to savour what was left of my holidays before going back to work and school starting back up. We’re now done the first week back to school and settled into our regular routines again.
The holidays were just what I needed after THE most hectic and stressful last few months. We took the holidays between Christmas and New Year’s nice and slow which was an absolute dream! We relaxed and stayed in only venturing out to see “Aquaman” of course LOL.
Looking back at 2018, it was probably the busiest year for our family. Our family is totally and completely dedicated to sports (baseball and basketball in particular) so the majority of our year was spent either at a basketball court or at a baseball diamond. I love seeing the boys do what they love to do! This past year brought a lot of travel and new experiences for both of them. We had such awesome groups of kids, parents and coaches that I can’t wait for this upcoming year.
In between all the sports, I found out that I had to have my gallbladder removed. My surgery was in June so I was off work for a bit and then took some vacation time to recover. During the surgery, they also found out that I had a hernia behind my belly button. This made the recovery longer than expected but things are much, much better now! I had issues with my gallbladder for years so I’m happy that finally everything is OK.
On the work front, the last few months of 2018 were insanely busy, to the point that I wouldn’t sleep on Sunday nights and I would be working at home every night until 11:00pm in order to attempt to catch up. This really took a toll on my mood and I felt really stuck. I felt like I wasn’t being a great wife or a great mother….I felt like I wasn’t doing a good job at work. I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything – I just wanted to stay home. I felt like nobody understood. Plus, with the weather turning colder and darker, I think that affected my mood as well. I had never really felt quite this bad before but didn’t know how to make things better.
Fast forward to today and I think things are starting to get better but I still have my moments LOL. I’m still playing catch-up at work but it’s not as crazy busy and even though the weather is freezing, the days are longer and the sun has been shining!
It has also helped that I was determined to GET. STUFF. DONE. around the house before school started back up. We put the Christmas decorations away, sorted the boys’ closets, organized half of my closet, cleaned & organized the fridge, cleaned & organized the kitchen cupboards, sorted the front closet (coats, boots, shoes, hats, gloves), organized our computer area (or what I affectionately think of as our “dumping ground”), cleaned the kitchen floor, cleaned the bathtub walls, and fixed the kitchen faucet. And I hung an office gallery wall in our computer area that I’ve been meaning to do for the longest time. Feeling super accomplished lately!!
There are still a lot of things on my to-do list but we’re making progress. This organizing and purging has helped better my mood more than I would’ve imagined and I’m determined to work on some goals to help my mental state and our home stay happy:
- Taking care of my health. On top of no longer having a gallbladder, I also have eczema. There are some foods that I’ve learned that I can no longer eat or they happen to irritate the eczema. It’s a learning process but I’m working on becoming more knowledgeable and listening to my body.
- Practicing more self-care. Simple, easy things like painting my nails or putting on a face mask or taking the time to read a book. I feel like I haven’t been taking real care of myself for months so this is something that I’m really trying to focus on.
- Putting things away right away. Instead of leaving clothes, coats, shoes, books, etc. where we drop them as we come into the house, I’m trying to create a habit of putting things away in their proper place right away. This keeps the house cleaner and tidier and will hopefully save us time cleaning up in the long run (crossing my fingers!).
- Planning ahead. Specifically, planning work outfits for the week and meal planning. Mornings are THE worst and I feel that I could do a whole heck of a lot better in the lunch prepping/outfit prepping department. It would save a ton of time and not feel like such a rush to get out the door every day. Also, with our sports, there are days that we don’t have time to cook, so planning to make things ahead of time helps us avoid fast food and save a little bit of money.
These are just a few of my goals for the new year and I’m so excited to be putting them into action. I’m looking forward to seeing how they improve both mine and my family’s everyday life. I’m hoping to keep things simple and easy and in turn, achieve what I’ve set out with these goals.
So here’s to a 2019 full of health and happiness!
