Tuesday 3 January 2017

2017 Resolutions

I love the "clean slate" that the New Year brings.  I know that it is largely symbolic, but I still crave the fresh beginning.  I always make resolutions and I do a pretty good job at keeping them.  I wrote out my resolutions on New Year's Eve and I want to share them with you here.  Here are my resolutions:



1.)  Complete a no-spend year. 

 After the emotional turmoil of 2016, I discovered that I am a complete and total emotional shopper.  While I yearn to work towards minimalism, it seems that my default is to shop when I am overwhelmed.  This causes more clutter and chaos, which leads to more stress.  It also kills my budget.   I found Cait Flanders' blog and I was inspired to complete a no-spend year.  I have an approved shopping list and a banned items list.  I look forward to learning better coping skills (ie. no shopping) and saving money!  I will explain my no-spend year in more detail in an upcoming post.

2.)  Practice better self-care by establishing a self-care routine.

Part of learning better coping skills is practicing proper self-care.  Those little things that we do to take care of ourselves seem to go out the window in a crisis.  I am working to establish a self care routine so that I feel healthy and strong.  I have written out a routine that will likely need tweaking throughout the year.  I hope that the proper self-care will support me through my no-spend year.

3.)  Say yes to family time.

With both my husband and I working, our time spent together as a family is precious and deserves to be treated as such.  The transition to "working Mom" from a (mostly) stay-at-home Mom has been challenging.  I have felt pushed to continue activities that are difficult to do now that I am working.  We have made new rules to help us establish family time as a priority.  We have decided that we can not make plans on work nights.  Our routine is especially important on these nights, as is our quality time together.  We have also decided to say no to any plans that interrupt our family time.  This means that it is okay to say no to invitations that fall on the days that we want to spend together as a family (even if we are just staying at home together).  We are also going to make an effort to schedule fun quality time and vacations for our family.

4.)  Start school in September.  

I have decided to take my business diploma and plan to start in September.   I want to take the diploma entirely by distance learning, as we don't have any post-secondary institutions nearby.  I am currently researching the schools and any prerequisites that may be required.  I am excited to expand my education!

5.)  Learn more about traditional prayers and begin incorporating them in my prayer life.  

I want to continue to grow my prayer life.  I have decided to learn some more traditional prayers and incorporate them into my prayer life.  I also plan to spend more time reading the Bible and learning more about Scripture. 

6.) Establish a routine for the blog and stick to the blog's vision.

This is the resolution that I failed miserably at last year.  I am going to try again.  I am hoping that this year is less tumultuous.  Even if it does have chaotic moments (which it will), I hope that the routine and vision for the blog will help me to stay on track. 

Do you have any New Year's Resolutions?  What are your goals for 2017?  I would love to hear all about them!

4 comments:

  1. Wow, a no spend year! I've never heard of that. Go Ashley! I can be an emotional shopper too, so I'm curious to hear more about this! And creating a self-care routine sounds like a great idea. Self-care really is the first thing to go out the window in times of crisis, isn't it?

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    1. Thanks, Jess. I am excited to do the no-spend year. I have been reading more about minimalism lately and when I came across Cait's blog, I was intrigued! I really hope that the self care routine will make it a habit, so that it doesn't get thrown out the window when chaos arises.

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  2. These are all super great goals, Ashley! I love the one about no spending. You can do it! You are so brave!

    Sarah
    Bows & Clothes

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    1. I certainly hope that it works! Ha ha! Thanks, Sarah! I appreciate your kind words!

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