2014: SLOWER

I decided to pick a word for the year on the advice of Gretchen Rubin whose Happier at Home I read and loved a year ago.  I tossed around a few: enjoy, engage, relish, present, mindful, etc (etc would be a GREAT word of the year), but I settled on slower because it summed up a lot of the others.  And because I have 4 little kids.  It's hard to do ANYTHING quickly.

For me, moving slower means making time for more as well as enjoying the moments as they come.  Last year, I wasn;t big on specific resolutions, but I set a larger reading goal.  This year, there are some really basic things that I want to remember to do, and I need to take the time to follow them through.

To operationalize my word of the year, here are my 2014 resolutions:  (And it is dorky, but I really do take these seriously.  I am not the kind of person who says I am going to do something and then bails-- I am all about the follow-through)

1.  Lose those last 17 pounds.  I lost 10 and then have been maintaining that loss for a couple of months because dieting sucks and depriving myself of food is a bummer, especially when I am nursing and starving.  But I really do like the bonus calories nursing provides, and it will ultimately be less painful to lose all the weight while I am still breastfeeding.  So, I am cutting my calories by 50 this week in the spirit of renewal, and I am going to make it a point to be able to eat what I want and enjoy it. No more standing at the counter scarfing food and then not recording it.  Instead, I am going to have a reasonable serving of whatever I want on a plate, in a seat, like a person.

2.  Wash my face and moisture EVERY SINGLE NIGHT before I go to sleep.  I have been skipping this more often than I should, and it's showing on my poor old skin.

3.  Floss twice a day everyday.  Seriously.   I act like I don't have time to do this everyday which is of course crazy.

4.  Drink at least 74 ounces of water a day.

5.  Read a book a week.

6.  Read to or with every child at least once a day.  Ben does more reading than I do, and I am a little ashamed of that because I love to read, and I know how important it is to read to kids.

7.  Write fiction without caring about what will become of it.  Write to get back to writing and back to my rhythm and because I love it so much and miss it as a part of my everyday.

The great thing about the word I picked is that there are many other things that fall under it: blogging more, wasting less time on the internet, doing more stuff with the kids, following through on my hair growth project-- FASCINATING THINGS, and I don;t have to spell them all out in a contract.  Instead, I can relax and see where the year takes us.

So there you have it.  2014.  My SLOWER year.