Resolutions & Goals For 2017

These days it seems like everyone says “I don’t make resolutions.“– but its one of my favorite things to do and I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. More recently, in addition to my smaller resolutions I also try to set goals for the year ahead and I thought I’d share them today…. and give an update at the end of the year to hold myself accountable! I got a little carried away this year…. and this just shows how much I’m craving some serious life changes and balance.

BE PRESENT AT HOME

This is big change I want to make — since I work from our house the division between work and home really no longer exists. I have a huge basement office (that happens to be in shambles due to an upcoming renovation) that I rarely use and I try to fit in emails in every spare moment throughout the day. I’ve had similar goals before — but I’d like to keep my laptop in my office and only work upstairs when totally necessary. I want to plug my phone in when our nanny leaves and spend the next three hours playing with Piper and not caring about the internet, work or how many likes an Instagram got. I would love to have a studio space by the end of next year, that’s outside my home! Ideally a space with my business partner, Julie!

GET HEALTHY & DRINK LESS WINE

I’ve gone WAY off the wagon when it comes to my health and exercise. I haven’t REALLY, consistently exercised since before our wedding in 2014. I came back from our honeymoon, found out I was pregnant and here we are. I’m joining the gym (5 minutes from our house) tomorrow and have already started a clean eating January challenge. Though we unfortunately all just got sick — I’m feeling so much better about myself and my health already. I’ll be sharing more about that next week!

I’d like to hit the bottle a little less in 2017. Most nights I love to unwind with a glass of wine on the couch after Piper goes to bed. I seriously look forward to it ALL day –but it just seems to have gotten excessive with the holiday season and drinking more than one glass because I’m overwhelmed or stressed. I’d like to keep wine drinking to the weekends — unless there’s something special happening (dinner with friends, a work event etc.). I’m attempting to only have wine on Friday’s in January!

DO MORE WITH PIPER (AND SULLY)

Afternoon trips, creative projects, playdates, walks to the park. I’d like to have one activity for her a week (art project, cooking etc.) and one playdate a week that I pre-plan. I love that I’m able to work from home and spend a lot of time with Piper but I think I could be doing more with that time. Poor Sully has been neglected the past 18 months and I really want to make more time for him by taking him on a walk a few days a week (even if just around the block) and playing toss in the backyard.

BE SOCIAL

The past year has made me a recluse and I’m determined to hang out more with my friends, get to know our neighbors and go into DC for events. I also want to have a monthly date night with Austin, go to the movies (it’s the perfect time to break this resolution in with the Oscars right around the corner) and have monthly date with my girlfriends. Every year I say I want to entertain more, but I want to make it happen.

TAKE CARE OF MYSELF

This aligns with my other goals to get healthy and drink less wine–but I also want to spend more time on self care. Getting my  nails done once in a while or treating myself to a facial. Not waiting 6 months between hair appointments. Taking yoga classes, finding time to meditate and write in a gratitude journal a few days a week. Make time for hobbies that don’t involve browsing Pinterest that I’ve long forgotten about like painting, baking and decorating our house and working on our yard and my rose garden. And of course, trying to be better about reading before bed!

TRAVEL

Before our family grows I’d like to do a bit more traveling — Europe is on my list for 2017 and I’d like to make it to NYC and DC far more frequently. I thrive off of the energy and inspiration I get by getting out of town and need it for my work. I’d actually like to make it a goal to travel abroad FOR work this year. So far I have trips to NYC, Florida and Charleston booked for the Spring.

 START FAMILY TRADITIONS

I’m big on traditions and now that Piper is a little bit older this year I look forward to creating  memories throughout the year that we carry on over time. There’s no better time than January to be more aware of the changing seasons and what we can do to make every month special.

JUST DO IT

I’m a big procrastinator with just about everything in life. Instead of putting off emails, dishes, proposals etc. I want to just DO them so I don’t spend more time thinking about it. In the same vein I hope to pick up after myself as I move throughout the day, I’m not tidy by nature but I’d like our house to be more organized and clean instead of cluttered and messy. Make the bed as soon as I get out of it, clean up the counters and kitchen every night before bed etc.

DEFINE MY VOICE & PASSIONS

2016 was a challenging year trying to “find” my voice after many years of blogging and I’m so thrilled the end result was the birth of The Mama Notes. I love what I’m doing here – and I wish I had many more hours to dedicate to curating stories from other mothers, writing posts and doing research to share. I also loves producing and styling original content and I hope in this year I can work on defining my voice more in this regard — it kind of gets lost in the mix since I’m no longer a fashion blogger, but I don’t necessarily want to be a mama blogger who shares pictures of my kids all day.

I also want to be better about saying no to opportunities I’m not passionate about and actively pursuing ones that fulfill me — such as growing KVE’s floral business, which I’m so excited about.  Now that I’m a mom, I find my time so incredibly valuable and I’d rather be spending time with Piper versus doing something I’m not thrilled about just for the money.

TAKE CONTROL OVER MY EMAIL

And finally, I hope to take control over my inbox — something which causes my great anxiety and much distress. In 2016 I became really good at not reading my emails on my phone and it made a huge difference – I hope to keep that up. I have several email accounts for my different jobs (Mama Notes, Glitter Guide and Kruse & Vieira Events) plus a personal email so it’s a lot to manage. I got to inbox ZERO before the new year started and it feels so good to have a fresh start. I hope to keep it up, use more filters and task managers to stay organized and set hours for checking email so that I’m able to be more productive in other areas of my work.