Hello, 2015!

I am happy to say goodbye to 2014. It wasn’t a bad year. You can read about the highlights in my post- 2014, Oh, What a Year it Was! It was a very important year in the lives of all my children. It was filled with a wedding, graduations, big moves, college and a new baby. Since these were major life events for my children, of course they were also important for me.

As a parent, you tend to put your children’s needs first. Although all three of my kids are now legal adults, they all needed me last year. I have to say that in 24 years of parenting, I have never felt stretched so thin before. I love my kids more than anything else in the world and I wouldn’t change a single minute of the past year. I knew it was going to be a busy year and I thought it might be a little tough. I didn’t have a clue. This was the most physically exhausting and emotionally draining year of my life.

The only thing I really did for myself was start this blog. In the nine months since I published my first post, it has been something I have cherished. I didn’t know where I was headed, what I wanted it to be, or if I could even stick with it, but I did! There were times when I was writing posts on my iPad while we were on the road and in the month of November, most of my work came from a hospital room with my daughter-in-law. But I stuck with it and I’m proud of myself. It could have been so easy to set it aside and promise myself I would get back to writing when things quieted down.

It’s a new year and it’s time for change. After a year spent devoted to my children, it’s time for me to claim some of my life back for me. I brought up the topic of resolutions vs. goals in the last Kat Got Your Tongue challenge and many bloggers have posted one or the other or their decision to do neither.

I have chosen my word for 2015. Although I was overwhelmed by the possibilities earlier this week, I knew deep down inside what my word for the year needed to be. FOCUS. It’s time for me to gain some focus back in my life.

My goals will be centered around the following areas-

Me- Finding time for myself and taking care of minor health issues will be the driving forces behind these goals.

Writing- My blog will take up a big part of this section. I expect my blogging goals to be a bit flexible, depending on the area of focus. Working on appearance, posts, organization, social media and blogging community will keep me busy. The longer term goal in this area will be preparing for NaNoWriMo 2015.

Family and Friends- With so much of my time caught up with my kids this past year, it’s time for me to reconnect with my friends and family.

Home- I’m going to form an action plan to aid in de-cluttering and organizing my house. I would like to start work on making my home office a place where I can work and relax.

Some of these will be much simpler to accomplish than others. I see a lot of scheduling in my future but after a year where I had little control over my schedule due to everyone else’s commitments, I look forward to seeing a calendar filled with my own things. My next step is to have a more detailed list so I can prioritize and have goals in place by next week. I’m hoping that having weekly goals and checking on the progress of those goals will help to keep me on track. In turn, my goal is for all of this to help me stay focused and gain focus.

Donna Andrews writes the Meg Langslow mystery series and the main character, Meg, always refers to “my-notebook-that-tells-me-when-to-breathe”. I’ve always thought that I needed one of those and now seems to be the right time.

What are you doing to ensure you are successful in reaching your goals or keeping your resoluntions?