'Tis the season for resolutions guys.

I don't know if you all are tired of hearing/reading about people's resolutions.I know they've been blowing up your IG and FB feeds. The vows of 2017 being "My Year!" and a time for change.  I, for one, have really enjoyed reading others' resolutions this year, and feel so empowered by the optimism of those around me. It gives me a greater sense of longing for the things I want to accomplish. But, I won't hold it against you if you are totally sick and tired of reading about them and skip this post altogether.

I don't know about you, but when it comes to a new year I have a tendency to want to just wake up one day, all of a sudden a chic, do-it-all mommy who crafts her heart out and become this major #momboss. Yeah right Kristin. Wake up and smell the dirty pull-ups. (Can you tell we are having a  swell time with potty training?)

In theory, I know that becoming the person I want to be takes hard work and time. It's just nice to think of myself already achieving my goals. But I have to come back down to reality and realize that I am not going to achieve everything in the year 2017. I will not all of a sudden acquire a chic sense of style or have more minutes in my day. I can, however, take steps towards being the kind of person, wife, and mom that I want to be. So that's my resolution. To take steps.

2016 was hard. I know you've heard me say it. I feel like I lost a part of me this past year, and I'll be danged I'm going to get it back. So I've adopted a phrase for the year 2017 that encompasses all of my goals... "CHOOSE JOY." This is the area I struggle with the most and the area I believe will permeate through my goals and breathe life into them.

I've started a list of 18 things before 2018 and I'm keeping it in the back of my Happy Planner. I want to have it ever present to refer to. Although I don't feel comfortable sharing all of my goals for this year, I will share a few with you. Who knows, maybe you will be inspired. (Notice I'm calling them goals and not resolutions, so maybe I'm a little less annoying... No? At least I tried.)

Since I know Joy comes from the Lord, that's where I will start. 2 of my goals are finding a home church and having a daily devotional. (Totally wanting to jump into a journaling Bible, but we shall see.)

Other goals are:

•  visiting Andrea in NJ
• having a weekly movie night with Ethan
• setting apart specific play time for Aria
• monetizing the blog
• read at least a book a month