New Year's of Intention.

hello, all.

i feel so so far out of my normal routine that i'm really craving getting back to it. i've become lost after a short while without it. life is so different here; more rushed, more urban, more suburban, ultra-commercialist and ultra-capitalist and ruder people ... ugh. i don't understand why people stay in central CT, sometimes ... i could live on the state's outer reaches but that central part kills me. it just doesn't have the lifestyle things i've gotten so used to in KY ... great sense of community, thriving local shops and neighborhoods ... farmer's markets ... i've eaten more or less my usual diet, but despite being able to be temporarily saved by whole foods i miss my local health food shops, and of course this market every Saturday. but alas, one more weekend of ravelry with the world's Best Friends and I'll be back in my cozy hamlet.

I wanted to share my New Year's "intentions," quickly, while I wait for my parents to pick me up for dinner. That's right, intentions. Somehow gentler than resolutions. Attempts to try my best, but not at forcing myself to succeed, for that's just setting up for failure. There is one more intention on this list ... but I don't feel comfortable sharing it. It's not a bad thing, you know how that goes sometimes, though.

1. Get yoga membership and go once or twice a week, at least. (There is a nice school not far from my apartment)

2. Stick with new home party candle business for one year and use extra cash toward house down payment and yoga fees (My first party will be Jan. 31 for friends)

3. Do more farm and/or garden work slash food-oriented volunteering and leadership. (This means getting more involved with Holly, a friend/biodynamic farmer, and some of her friends, and at the farm program I volunteer for, and at Earthsave Louisville, and lord knows what else I'll encounter out there this year. and maybe growing some more of my own stuff with what limited physical-space-wise ability i have)

4. Go more VEGAN, with a conscious/consistent emphasis on whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables. Engage in RECIPES!! (should be easier with my new food processor! my main diet downfall now is CHEESE)

5. Become more of a morning person, not rushing out the door each morning. I find that two extra hours is perfect, but I'll have to work up to that. I've wanted this for years, but have never made actual lasting effort towards it.

6. Send each of my best friends a knitted item/local care package by year's end (in lieu of having not given them christmas gifts this year)

7. Knit for charity, at least once.

8. Become lots closer to two KY friends.

9. Read SIX non-Montessori books by New Year's (I'm already 1/3 of the way through Elizabeth Gilbert's amazing Eat, Pray, Love!!)

10. Walk or swim at least a few times a week

11. Send a letter/card to my adopted soldier once a week, and at least 1 package/month

12. Finish Montessori albums and obtain album copies (this is graduate work that I've taken five months off from ....gah.....)

13. STILL be debt-free (credit cards) by New Year's (technically I'm waiting for my second student loan installment to be really debt free, but expect this change in weeks, then i just have to make it last, excepting emergencies of course)

14. Exercise GREAT spending control -- NO new clothes or books, and as far as food "out" goes, order apps. or sides or smalls except on very special occasions (i.e. my upcoming 30th birthday sushi blowout!!).

15. Practice more present-moment mindfulness and proper breathing.

Larger goals include saving enough money to buy a home (meaning to put a huge down payment on it, hopefully 10 percent, especially because my credit is less than sparkling the last few years).

Also I want to be one of those people very possibly living at home by the time I'm in my early forties, with enough saved up to live on.

I want to give myself a travel gift for when i finish my master's degree in two year's, and my montessori training in one. Ireland, perhaps ....

.... we shall see what I can do. I wasn't able to think of a word for this year .... I'll have to get back to you on that. But intentions, I like. Intentions, I can do. Shoot, maybe that's my word, after all. *Intention.* Still, i prefer something a little stronger. any ideas?

looking forward to coming home, sprucing things up a bit, and throwing myself back into the *real* life i love so much, despite having had this life-break. i have to cut myself some slack, though. I think that Heather from Beauty that Moves is right, we need these times where we step away, so to speak (even if, in my case, it means basically throwing everything i've built up in ky away for a while, to see long-missed friends and places), to give us the tools to hit the ground running when we're ready for our return. and boy ... do i feel more ready than ever!!

home, here i come!!