New Years Eve

 2022.

You were the first year in a while where our world was starting to feel even a little bit more normal after a pandemic. But you proved to be just as hard as the years before.

2022. This year felt long and quick all at the same time. Life moved at lighting speed and while it was happening it felt like it was taking forever. 

I have made resolutions in the past but if the past year has taught me anything, it's to be nice to yourself. The world will try to keep you down enough. I think going into 2023, I want to do things differently, but I want to celebrate the small victories more. I want to celebrate that after a day of work, cooking dinner and bathing the kids was accomplished. I want to celebrate the mundane tasks that I think I haven't given myself credit for in the past. I think a lot of people do this. They forget their own strength because society tells them what's to celebrate and what not to. 

This year I went per diem at my job and my time changed. I started raising a teenager, celebrated 5 years of marriage and sent a kid to kindergarten. We traveled and had some health scares and have found ways to try and be better. There were a lot of ups and downs this year. Looking back, I wouldn't say it was a bad year or an amazing one. It was overall a good one, but a learning one for sure. I think mental health is just as important as physical health, but I saw the correlation more than ever this year that if one is off, the other can fall with it just as fast. 

New Year's resolutions have a record of not always being accomplished. So maybe reframing this next year, not as "your year" but as a better one than last. To reframe our minds and how we see things. 

For me, it's going to be putting myself first more without seeing it as selfish or lacking. It's going to be making time for happiness in the little things and knowing that I'm doing more than just good. 

2023 is going to be a year where my baby turns 4. My baby years are dwindling and getting used to the changes is a process. 

I guess going into the new year I just want everyone to know that I'm proud of you. I'm proud of all of us for getting through 2022 and still standing going into 2023. We have made it through every good and bad thing that life has thrown at us. It can be easy to see the hate in the world with all the destruction thrown at us especially in our world today. But I still believe in the good. 

Thank you, God, for getting us through another year.

Here's to more writing, loving and living

Bring it on 2023