2014 :: Acceptance

This year started out slow and quiet.  Our family spent a quiet night watching movies and falling asleep before midnight.  It was exactly what we needed after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

I jumped back into my exercise routine by taking a six mile New Year's Day hike with my fellas and our good friends.  I also had the urge to cook at home and try to reboot our healthy eating habits.

Coffee + Beet Juice Study

I've started a drawing a day journal, along with Grady, and I think this will be a fun exercise in trying new things and not getting so attached or intimidated by making art.  Grady plans on using his Brushes application on the iPad and saving same in Dropbox every day this calendar year.  Yes, he's learning a lot about that thing.

Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal Series were a big hit with the kids

We ended the last few days of winter break with friends.  G had his bestie sleep over (which is almost unheard of around here!) and the Rangel girls spent a sunny Sunday with us playing games, running around the property with water guns and critiquing the chicken liver pate that I made with Jill earlier in the week.  The verdict?  It needs a bit more salt say the juvenile pate experts.

It took us all week, but we finally finished writing our thank you notes.  I usually like to have this done on January 1st, but it just wasn't in the cards this year.

My word for the year is Acceptance.  Last year's words were Let It Go.  I feel like I did relinquish a few things in my mind, as well as in my day-to-day life of obligations in 2013.  I really let traditions go over the holidays and it did feel good to let it go and try something new.

I'll work harder on accepting myself this year, my choices, my life and how I contribute to this great big beautiful world.  I'm going to try a few new things on for size and accept my progress as success, whether I succeed in the traditional sense or not - I will have tried something new and that's going to be enough for me this year.

I'll also accept my past failures, transgressions and mistakes.  I'm not perfect and I'm worried that if I don't finally accept all of my failings, I'll keep repeating them.  I need to let the past go and move on. I have so many things and people to be grateful for.

We ended this week at our secret beach in Jenner.  The kids had so much fun running, jumping, whipping seaweed through the air and being silly with one another.  I had a million other things to get done at home, but I'm so glad I stopped and accepted the opportunity to get out into the world and enjoy these three little souls.

Happy New Year, friends.