One Word New Year

Happy 2014!!!

I rung in the new year by waking Casey up and dragging her sleepy self into our room for 10 minutes to watch the ball drop on TV, while Emily was asleep in her own bed and Tom was lying snoring next to Casey and me.  After Casey and I hugged and talked briefly about how she'll turn 10 this year and marveled that in one moment a whole new year just 'happens', she was back off to her own bed.  Emily has been quite the sleeper this Christmas break from school - like sleeping in until 8 or 9 each day!!!.  When the sun came up and Tom and I finally awoke at 8:15 on this New Year's morn, his first words were, "Tomorrow's going to be a real kick to the balls when I can't sleep in until 8:00 anymore."  And that is how we celebrate New Year's here, folks.  Who needs champagne and party hats and crowds of people when all this bliss is here at home. :)  Now let's watch some football!

Here are pictures from our own 'party' on NYE.  (Hang on to your hats, we're a wild bunch.)

   

 



 

 This morning when I logged onto Facebook, there was a blog post from my dear friend Jenn.  She is a speech and language pathologist at Cincinnati Childrens' Thomas Center and works with kids with Down Syndrome.  She's an amazing person and friend, and although I've never seen her in action professionally, I know she's amazing at that, too.  (She like gets invited to speak at national conferences and stuff, so, yeah, she's that awesome and passionate about her career.)  Jenn has her own blog: http://talk-ds.org/.  On her blog today she wrote about the concept of a One Word New Year:

Lose the list of resolutions and embrace where you are right now.  Pick a word to guide you the next 365 days.  That's the idea of a One Word New Year.

She wrote this all in the context of how the word she selected, Nourish, will be the direction of her blog this year, but from what I know of Jenn, I suspect, this word will also be her own personal One Word New Year.  As soon as I read it, I loved the idea.  And I got to thinking about what my own word would be. 

The first word that came to mind, was Fulfill.  I have a couple of personal enrichment goals I really want to accomplish this year and I want to be more present in my own life, not worrying as much as what others are doing or care what they are thinking.  I want to be more fulfilled on my own.

But almost as soon as I thought of Fulfill, I thought of Embrace.  I want to embrace my life more.  Embrace who my girls are now and who they are becoming, not trying to change them to who I think they should be. I want to embrace more who Tom and I are in all of our quirkiness.  Embrace what we have and not focus so much on what we don't have.  Maybe embracing will help lead to fulfillment? 

So, in my typical self of not being able to choose something easily without completely over thinking it, I am creating a new word for my One Word New Year:  Embraceful.
             
In addition to hangovers and football, New Year's is a time for optimism and enthusiasm for what might lie before us in the new year.  While I'm deep thinking and all in this post, I have to share one of the best quotes I saw last night on social media:

 

Tomorrow (today) is the first blank page of a 365 page book.  Write a good one.

 

I like the obvious writing reference as far as documenting our memories, but the concept of being able to "write" the best damned story ever for me and my family is kind of empowering.  With God's help we are all our own authors really.  And authors can make up there own stories.  And words. 

 

I hardly ever write to an audience because I write this for our family and I assume only a couple people actually read it, but if you are reading this, what is your one word for this new year??



2013 Year in Review - The Good, Bad & Ugly

I have loved writing about my family this past year.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  Most of all, I love that I've taken pictures to help tell our story and document memories.  Many of the pictures I include are snapped after I've said, "Look here!" or "Smile!" or "C'mon, can't I get one freaking picture of you guys looking at the freaking camera?!?"  I loved the photography class I took last winter and wish I always remembered to implement what I learned when I grab my camera and snap a picture.  But, inevitably, of the thousands of photos I've taken, well over 50% are overexposed or underexposed, maybe about 20% I consider of decent quality in composition and lighting, but I probably end up posting less than 5%.  So I have a whole lot of real life that I never include because they may not be 'pretty enough.'  As 2013 comes to a close, this post is kind of a blooper reel of pictures that didn't make the cut to share this year.  I hope to learn more about photo editing in 2014 (that and running my first 5K are 2 of my personal enrichment goals for this year.)  These pictures are not edited and some are certainly not the prettiest, but they are of my favorite subjects (my family) and I love them and the moments they captured.  They are part of the summary of our family's life in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Okay, here's one last photo.  Just because I realized in only one of these pictures of me am I actually wearing makeup.  And I'm just vain enough to need to go out on a good note this year.  :)   I hope and pray 2014 brings as many blessings and wonderful memories as this past year did - the good, the bad and the ugly.