2011

Happy New Year 2011!  I remember exactly what Drew and I did on New Year's Eve 2000 and I can not believe it has been eleven years since then.

I hope you all had a great holiday and New Years with your family and friends.  I took a little break from heyMamas to chill with the family and we had a great time.  I am sure for many of you that were off and were able to have extended family time, when your alarm rang this morning jolting you back to reality, you probably felt just like I did.

All day I have been trying to think of something meaningful to say about this past year as I look forward to the year ahead.  One thing I have to say is this past week as I read some of my favorite blogs and browsed through their wonderful 2010 recaps, I can't help but wonder how everyone does it?

Where does everyone find the time to devote to their posts?  Yes, of course some of those blogs that I love are done by full time bloggers where it's their job to blog everyday and put wonderful memory filled posts together with handy links to past stories, but alas I am just a working mother of two, that commutes at an ungodly hour into the city, stays inside a building all day and then commutes back  home to my wonderful family.

Needless to say, as Drew and I try tirelessly to raise two solid and conscientious children, be good spouses to each other and run our household, yearly 2010 recaps are just not getting done. 

I digress, and someday.....someday when I have more time to myself and my little blog here, I too will do a yearly recap with pictures, favorite posts and maybe even some music. 

Someday.

That should be one of my resolutions.

By the way, trying to raise conscientious children in this world takes ALOT of mental energy.  

ALOT. 

If I had one theme about this past year it would probably be that.  Holy cow, did I use more mental energy than I ever thought possible trying to explain things to my two precious girls. 

I'm just saying....

One night at dinner, we went around the table and shared with eachother what our New Years Resolutions were. Each one of us talked about what we could either do more of, or be better at in the coming year.

Nothing that I contributed at that dinner inspired any special thoughts, which is why it is January 3rd and I haven't written anything yet.

But, today at work, after talking to many of my co-workers who went back to their hometowns for the break and found themselves questioning why the hell they were in New York.  Now here is a subject that sparked a meaningful thought inside me.  

They talked about why were they spending most of their money to live in a tiny shoebox apartment when they could live in their hometowns in a beautiful rental house for 1/100 of the price?  Or why do they eat out every night or buy eight hundred dollar shoes and spend the better part of their day locked in a building behind four computer screens?  Why are they tired all the time?  Why do they feel like people are more competitive here than any other place they have ever been?  Why do they do it and how long will they keep it up?

I love hearing these stories and often daydream about the quality of life in other cities.  Being a native New Yorker and only knowing one pace basically my whole life, I need these stories.  I need to know that there are better ways to live.

Inside, I know there is a better way, but I feel like I will never truly find places like that because I have nothing to compare my current existence too.   I have a crazy life.  I run all over the place every single day from morning until evening.  I never sit down, I never relax, hell I don't really even know how to relax.  I don't.  I am in project mode all the time.  Sometimes, I will literally stand above my bed at night waiting to get in it.  I have to tell Drew to yell at me to get into my bed so that I just stop what I am doing and just lay. 

So here is my resolution and hopefully one I can really get behind and not just pay lip service to.  

Even though I live in New York and am totally and completely crazy and overbooked on any given day, I am going to try to live in a way that is completely true to myself.  I am going to try to adopt a total anti-New York attitude in terms of lifestyle and spending habits.

I am going to try to live the life I want to live.  A life that would be easier to live if I was not in New York.  A low key life where things are not valued as much as living a good life.  I am going to follow my own pace, set achievable goals, sit on my couch every now and then, not feel compelled to spend eight hundred dollars on shoes, not renovate my house because that's what everyone else does, talk with my girls more about things that don't cost money, and not get caught up in gossip.  Well, maybe just a little gossip here and there.

That's it.  That is my most major resolution and the one I am going to try the hardest to stick to. 

I have to. 

I have to, if I want to live the kind of life that I want to live.  Wish me luck...

 

What was your most challenging resolution?