It's a New Day

I think I thought that I would post about once a week when I started back to the blog. Well, it's been a month. And it being a new year and all, I decided I should probably make an appearance in this space.  We've just come home from holiday in Paris, which you might already know if you follow me on Instagram, aka, my real home.

(I like how I just mention Paris, all blasé like. But really, it's so easy to go there, that it sounds much cooler than hopping on a train for 2 hours for the price of a nice meal. That's it. The fanciest thing you have to do is present your passport when they ask. Voila! You're in France.)

So, I'll get to the Paris update in a bit. Like maybe I'll just save it for the next post and that way I can finish editing some of the photos. Except I'll throw in this image of the Eiffel Tower that I took with my new camera :) It's a rough European life.

Back to the New Year stuff, blah, I don't even know where to start with resolutions and what not. We had a family meeting to review our family values from the last year (we picked values to practice for 2 months at a time) and not surprising anyone, we forgot to do anything past June of 2014. For you Math wizards out there, that's when we moved. So, our jar of Good Things was all about our last few months in North Bend, which was fun to review, but there's no accounting for the the last 6 months. Shocker. The kids picked a few new things they want to try - animation, programming, something violent, drums, ballet, and ukelele. I'll let you decide who chose what, and whether or not we'll actually find classes for these things. We decided to carry over "Mindfulness" as we start January of 2015. And let me tell you, explaining mindfulness to a 5 year old that won't stop juggling a giant penguin will only make you value a sound-proof padded cell.

Anyway.

Those of you familiar with my previous blog (formerly known as an obscure symbol that you cannot pronounce. JK, people. That's a #princejoke) may remember that I prefer to pick focus words instead of goals or resolutions. I don't have any as of yet. In fact, every time I think about the new year and new starts and all this gibberish about newness, I get kind of ornery and surly. I realize my desire to shake people and snap, "Who do you think you're kidding?" is a wee bit on the pessimistic side, so I'm trying to step back and figure out why it bothers me and try to be a bit less irritated. And that's when I had the brilliant idea that perhaps this should be the year that I try therapy. Ha ha ha ha! Good one, yeah? But seriously, I won't get around to it, so I have to do something I know I will actually do. So borrowing from the kids ideas about trying something new this year, and keeping with our mindfulness theme, I am going to give meditation a go. I've heard so many people talk about the positive change that comes from daily meditation, and heaven knows my mind could use some quieting. Have you seen this on the interwebs?

Yeah, Cal laughed and said it reminded him of someone.... So yeah, meditation.

I started a little instagram side account, Doorstories. (I take pictures of doors and write a few sentences about "who" may be living behind that door.) And this has got my mom and Cal bugging me about writing again. Writing a book actually. That just seems so lamely cliche - expat wife sitting around "writing her book." (Almost as lame as people who overuse "air quotes.") As much as I love writing, I'm probably only capable of writing fluff. Maybe chick lit, but not literature, which is what I deem worthy of aspiration. So I just don't know about that, even though the era of self publishing is opening doors for all kinds of people. This is me, not committing to anything, but toying with the idea. If I were to write a book, I can guarantee you that some real personalities would make it into the story and I would always deny that it had any basis in truth.

Okay, I've got to move on to dinner prep for tonight. I hope you all had a good holiday. Relaxing maybe. Or at least watched some good TV. Or just had very few homicidal thoughts. Are you making resolutions? Do you like them? Or all you all Bah Humbug about them like me?

Stay cool people, stay cool.