New Year, New Resolutions, and Unquenchable Optimism

What's your New Year's Resolution?

Every year I come back to same old standards....eat better, exercise more consistently, and live a more well-balanced life. But....I quickly remember that food is one of my favorite hobbies, exercise is fun until I turn it into a chore (which inevitably happens when I MAKE myself exercise), and when I try to live a "balanced" life I find myself saying "no" to so many things I rarely end up doing anything that's really FUN. In fact, with all three I find myself saying "no" an awful lot.

So, this year, I'm flipping the script. This year I'm celebrating the joy of saying, "Yes." Yes!!

And so, without further ado (and yes, it's ado, not adieu....Google it), I present to you.....


My Resolutions for 2012

1. Eat whatever the heck I want and ENJOY it. This includes things that are good for me, but not I'm going to beat myself up for enjoying something delicious. I think fruits and veggies are delicious. I also think bacon is a friggin' gift from God, and am lobbying to get a "no bacon left behind" bill passed. Mmm...bacon.

2. Exercise as a means to worship God, and not as a means to trim down my waistline. I love listening to worship music when I jog. I've had some of my most incredible worship experiences on the walking trails in my neighborhood, to the point of breaking down in tears in midst of the Holy Spirit (yeah, that looks totally normal to passersby). When I start focusing on "getting in shape," exercising becomes SUCH. A. CHORE. I become obsessed with my stopwatch, and improving my time. It starts stressing me out! No more of that -- I'm done. Jogging time is God's time now.

3. Do fun and worthwhile things. While I'm not attempting to add activities to my life arbitrarily, I'm creating focus in my life....focus on things that are FUN and WORTHWHILE. If it's not fun and worthwhile, it's out. Fun and worthwhile is the new black. Allow me to define the terms "fun" and "worthwhile" for ya, courtesy of the New Alison Standard Dictionary:

• Fun: You know that feeling you get when you enter Disneyland, walk under the Main Street station overpass and take a deep breath as you get your first glance of Main Street USA? You know....that tingly, goosebump-y holy-crap-I'm-at-Disneyland {squeeeeeee!!} feeling? That's FUN. That's delightfully innocent joy.

• Worthwhile: It makes someone's life better (yours, mine, a stranger's, whoever). Someone positively and productively benefits.

So...yeah.....fun and worthwhile. Let's make this world a better place, shall we? My husband has a way with words, and he recently tweeted: "Let's make 2012 the year of unquenchable optimism! 'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.' Romans 8:28" 

I challenge you all (myself included!) to make unquenchable optimism your personal theme in 2012. Who's with me?

Lastly, I'll end with the top 10 projects I hope to accomplish in 2012....and their corresponding BEFORE pictures. These are lofty goals, but I'm optimistic. :)


Top 10 Projects for 2012

1. Swap out my builder-grade flying saucer light fixture in the entry way for something sassier. 

2. Spruce up our entry area, around the front door.

3. Make a tufted poof to sit in that empty spot along my staircase wall. I smell fun fabric!

4. Install a board and batten treatment on my staircase wall.

5. Paint my dining chairs and add nail-head trim.

6. Finish my living room.....right now we're rockin' an eclectic mix of furniture (i.e. our OLD loveseat, and mother-in-law's chair-that-doesn't-hurt-her-back). Need to create some cohesion here. 

7. Give the lonely wall in my family room some pizazz with DIY antiqued mirrors (described in this post).....still brainstorming this one, though. 

8. Address the fireplace. Not ready to think about this one yet. 

9. Address the TV nook. Built-ins maybe? Wallpaper in the back? Still deciding...

10. Make some sort of progress in B's recording studio.

 Well, that's all folks! I would love to hear your resolutions and projects for 2012, so please share! :)

Cheers!

PS. I'm participating in these link parties:

http://www.thenester.com/2012/02/its-not-perfect-but-its-beautiful-party-time.html