New Year!

New Year's is one of my favorite days of the year. You notice I say New Year's, NOT New Year's Eve. I'm not a fan of the whole staying up really late and watching the BORING ball drop and then being exhausted and sick the next day. I like the following day when everyone else is sleeping off the night before. Its a holiday when nobody does much, which is perfect for this homebody, especially after all the busyness that happens in the preceding month.

It just feels so NEW. And since I'm always making mistakes throughout the year, its nice to turn over a new leaf. New Year's resolution blog posts are lame so I'll just talk about... "things I hope to do/am looking forward to this year."

-My sister in laws wedding! Yay. Weddings are so awesome. And of course, gotta find stuff for it on Etsy! Here's one I LOVE.

-My other sister in law graduating and starting a bakery. And she wants me to experiment with her in the kitchen the summer/fall. So excited for this. Baking is fun, but even more fun with a friend.

-Along those lines, I really want to get in the habit of bread baking this year. I want to perfect a few basic bread recipes. Don't you love the holes in this one? Yum.

-Another kitchen goal I have is raising the number of vegetarian dinners we eat a month from 4-5 to 6-7. Cheaper, healthier, and oh so much fun to play around with. Hoping to draw a lot of from two of my most unique cookbooks: More with Less and The Brilliant Bean.

-I'm looking forward to moving this summer. Our lease will be up and I am so OVER this apartment.

-The BeefyGeek and I have decided that in order to prevent me from growing old before my time, I will be changing occupations this summer. Either cutting my hours, finding a new job, or going back to school. I will have been three years nannying in August, and as much as I love it, its getting to be time I moved on.

-Doing some yoga! Last January I started walking 5 days a week, and I've kept it up, with a few interruptions. Go me! This year I want to add more stretching/resistance training, partly in preparation for babies... the better shape I'm in beforehand, the easier pregnancy and labor will be.

-Getting more organized. No joke. Every time I have even a little feeling of "I may be pregnant," one of the first things I do is check my bathroom closet. Somewhere in my mind there is a voice that says, "if you can't keep this is order now, you won't after a baby's in the picture." I recently got rid of a lot of stuff, but I know there is more to cleanse. I also want to figure out a better system for bill paying/paper organization. Here's an inspiration photo of some nicely stacked sheets from a beautiful website, well worth checking out if you've never seen it.

-I want to do more art this year. I haven't really made time to create lately. I miss it. Such as... basket weaving? I love these baskets. I'd love to be able to make them for myself. Or maybe just buy one. I love the bassinet.

-Read through the Bible with BeefyGeek. This is our year! Hopefully posting updates on our progress here will keep me motivated.

Probably more, but that's it for now. I hope this post is too horrible. I'm super sleepy and my fingers are cold. Not a good writing combo. Plus BeefyGeek is playing Arkham Asylum and its so cool its distracting...