Welcome, 2014, and BRING. IT. ON.  I am so ready to dominate this year.

In 2012 and 2013, I set goals in five different categories: blog, home, fitness, reading, and life/family.  In 2012, I had one goal in each category; in 2013, I was extra ambitious and set three goals in each category (and did pretty well!).  But when I sat down and tried to do that this year, it didn’t feel quite right.

Often, in yoga, the instructor opens a class by instructing the yoginis to set an intention for their practice.  The intention is private, is set silently, and can be anything you choose.  I try to be mindful of what I need from a practice when setting my intention, and I usually choose one word to represent what I am seeking that day.  Sometimes it’s peace, sometimes strength, sometimes joy, sometimes redemption.  Other days, I choose to dedicate my practice to another person – usually, to Peanut, because she is the person who inspires me most to live a good life.

So when mulling over how I wanted to approach 2014, it occurred to me that I don’t really want to make resolutions this year.  Instead, I’d rather set an intention for the year, and let that intention inform everything I do and all the choices I make.  My intention for 2014 is: A Better Life.

Last year, we moved to Buffalo in search of a better life.  We wanted shorter commutes, lower cost of living, no humidity, walkable neighborhoods – and we found those things.  But as much as I know that we took a huge step toward improving our quality of life when we moved here, I also know that it could get even better.  So this year I’m dedicating myself to living well, and spending all year finding out what that means for me, and for hubby and Peanut.  I’m looking forward to making those discoveries, but I think they’ll look something like these ideas, which are knocking around in my head right now:

• A better life means getting organized.  We moved from a 3,100 square foot house to a 1,900 square foot house.  We have a lot of stuff in storage right now.  But I know I can cut down on clutter even more, to make our days run more efficiently and (hopefully) make my life easier when we (hopefully) move out of this rental and into a (hopefully) bigger place of our own.
• A better life means a life lived outside.  I love to be outside in nature, breathing the fresh air and enjoying the gifts that each season has to give.  We’ve spent a lot of the past year-and-a-half in hibernation mode, because when you have a preemie, you have to be extra cautious about exposing her to germs.  But I can’t find long-term happiness inside, on the couch.  Peanut is big enough and strong enough now that she’s up for more, and it’s time to start integrating her into the things that hubby and I enjoyed doing – hiking, kayaking, exploring – before she came along.  I’ve always dreamed of introducing my kids to the joys of the great outdoors and I can’t wait to fold Peanut into all of our family adventures.
• A better life means unplugging.  I am guilty of spending too much time tapping away at my iPhone, and that needs to stop.  Now.  I would rather let a few emails pile up and respond to them when I can than grab the phone every time I hear that tell-tale ding.  I need to spend more time being in the present, just enjoying watching Peanut play or feeling the breeze on my face or listening to birds call from the trees.  (This past weekend, we went out to spend an afternoon with my in-laws, and I realized ten minutes into the drive that I’d forgotten my iPhone, necessitating an afternoon without my technology.  And you know what?  It was glorious.)
• A better life means running a race that scares me.  I got back into running last year, after a hiatus brought on by injury, then a high-risk pregnancy, then postpartum recovery and adjusting to the new reality of life with a preemie.  After a strong finish to the year, I would love to take my running to the next step and take on a race that challenges me in new ways.  I have one in mind, but I’m not going to spill the beans just yet.  Registration doesn’t open until the spring, and I don’t even know if I’ll get into the race, so I might end up looking around for something else.  But I do want to take on – and conquer! – a scary new challenge this year.
• A better life means cooking more.  I kind of got away from cooking, and I have just started to enjoy being in the kitchen again, after a long time of feeling frustrated.  This year, I’d love to finally bake a really good loaf of bread and to come back to a real love of cooking healthy, nourishing food again.
• A better life means exploring my new environment.  Here’s a cool thing about moving: it’s a whole new world to explore.  When I left DC, I knew the city pretty well.  (Live anywhere for ten years and it’ll be in you.)  Buffalo, though, is new to me.  Oh, I’d been here many times before we moved.  But the occasional visit is different from living somewhere.  Already, just after a few months, I’ve seen so many new places and things.  This is a really cool region, and the people who live here have good reason to be proud of their city and its surrounding areas.  I can’t wait to sniff out all of the gems – hidden and not hidden – in Western New York.  And of course I’ll share!
• A better life means improving someone else’s life.  As you all know, I signed up to be a volunteer tutor for Literacy New York and I’ve been matched with a student!  I can’t wait to spend this year helping her reach her goals and improve her reading abilities.

Those are just a few ideas I have, a few thoughts about how I might make my life tangibly better this year.  Not resolutions, not even necessarily plans, just ideas percolating.  I’ll check in periodically and update you all about my intention and what I’ve done to advance it – just like I’d check in with my intention during a yoga class.  And there’s something else I decided to do this year:

One Little Word

I keep hearing about Ali Edwards’ “One Little Word” workshop, and I keep seeing bloggers I admire signing up (like my pal Katie, who has done the workshop several times, and Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness, a blog I love reading).  Every time I see someone else sign up for the workshop, I think to myself: I need to do this.  I have a word in mind, which is connected to my 2014 intention of chasing a better life, and I can’t wait to share it with you all and talk about what this word means to me, and how I plan to weave it into the fabric of my life and family this year.  I really plan to live my one little word this year, and I think that if I follow through with it, I’ll see out 2014 with the knowledge that I really did live my best life this year.  More to come on that very soon, I promise.

How about you – did you make resolutions for 2014, pick a word, set an intention?  Or do you think that’s all hogwash?