Hello, 2013!

The tiara I was rockin' last night - Happy New Year, y'all! (Darn right it coordinated with my outfit!)

 2012 has been a pretty flippin' sweet year. My attitude shifted in a positive way to the point where I went from self-loathing to borderline megalomania, I got me one of them thar job thingies that people are always raving about (and I actually enjoy it!), and The Hubs and I have taken big steps forward with plans for even bigger steps in the upcoming years.

Of course, no one would know any of this from reading this blog. Heh. As a teacher, I want a certain amount of anonymity so I tend to not mention the specifics... which, frankly, kind of sucks. This blog is boring and repetitive because I am stymied by what I can and can't discuss in blog form. It's a symptom of my overall writer's block. I haven't written something good in literally years.

That said, another reason I don't write as much on here is because I spend my online time in vacant pursuit of Pinterest, Tumblr, and Facebook (with occasional dalliances with Twitter). Hell, I don't even read actual BLOGS that often (let alone books - and I'm an ENGLISH TEACHER)! I have noticed, though, that the blogs I do read with some regularity are ones where people present their lives in a way that I find beautiful - beautiful homes, beautiful activities, basically what I consider beautiful lives. But not in a Martha Stewart way - their lives/lifestyle seems attainable while also gorgeous. (Not that Saint Martha is totally unattainable, but it requires a lot more effort than I think I will ever be willing to put forth.)

So while so much of my life is wonderful and blessed, I still find myself wishing for these little life changes that I see on these other blogs I admire. I also find myself constantly telling my students that their life is what they choose to be, it's all about choice, choice choice choice CHOICE.

Recently I realized that I need to tell myself this a little more often.

In my early 20's, one of the smartest things I ever realized was that one's life is dictated by how they choose to react - they can't choose what happens to them a lot of the time, but they can choose how they react to it. It started a change in me that has ebbed and flowed from then on, and I find myself in another flow of recognizing it. I didn't choose to get hired at my current job, obviously, but I chose to put my best foot forward and it helped me get the job; I now choose to put my best effort in at work, and I'm seeing decent success.

So if I want my life to be more beautiful, like these blogs I so admire, then I need to choose to make it so.

One thing I know about myself is that I don't do well with change when it's an overwhelming amount - I can't do big shifts. (Frankly, I think this is a problem for all humankind, but the majority of people still seem to bite off huge chunks of change then wonder why they don't succeed...) Yes, the new year does lend itself nicely to starting with big change. So while I'm not making a resolution per se, I am aiming to work towards making better choices.

I choose to make a beautiful life for myself.

I choose to make my life with The Hubs more beautiful as well.

I choose to make my health a priority.

I choose to work towards being the best teacher I can be.

Every choice will be a miniscule step at a time that will hopefully add up to something wonderful altogether. Little steps, little choices, creating and further adding to the blessed life I currently have.

The first little steps I want to take are to increase my creativity and cutting out the technology noise. The technology noise is to put down the computer (she says as she types on her internet blog *eyeroll*) to read more actual books, and to eat dinner at our table with music in the background rather than on our couch watching the boob tube more often - I think at least once a week would be nice. Of course, that means I need to make our table more inviting and get all of that crap off of it. The other little step I'm going to take in a minute is to get a blank journal of some sort and do a little daily art journal - I've done, like, 5 pages total last year and it was fun, but it takes a lot of effort. I stumbled upon this version of the idea via Pinterest, and I'm going to go buy a cheapie 2013 calendar to cut up for the actual dates, and a cheap journal from Michaels as my book. A little creative output and writing down of my day at night should be a nice way to relax! I'll share how well it's working at the end of this week.

While I remain a hot mess housewife, the blog will be chronicling my overall journey to make my life what I want to it to be - good and bad, right and wrong. Hopefully my new tagline - "Putting the 'F' in 'effort'" - will be untrue by the end of 2013.

TL;DR I'm excited for the new year as a continuation of all the good things from 2012, and I want to pursue little things that make my overall quality of life better!