Bright. Shiny. Fun. Full of promise.
I just love a new year; like that new calendar with spaces waiting to be filled up (or not) and new ideas for how I want to improve myself and my life, the new year stretches out before me with its immense possibilities.
Every year, I choose a word that embodies what I hope the year to be and what I hope to focus on. It sets a focus for the entire year. You can read a wonderful post about that by Sheila over at Sure As The World from 2013 and 2016. My word this year will be “vitality”. I am thinking specifically of self-care strategies that lead toward feeling vitality. “Self care”, by definition, is self-initiated, deliberate, and under my control. I want to use these strategies to create and live a life of vitality, of sparkle, of vigor. And that begins wih me, and a focus on the things that give me wellness.
I also choose a method to write down the priorities that are largest and looming in my mind; last year I chose concentric circles (you can read about this here); this year I actually am drawing a tree with beautiful branches and placing my greatest priorities and hopes and values for 2017 on these branches. I got these beautiful metallic watercolors in my Sketchbox this month (my husband ordered this for me for my Christmas gift and I am so happy with it – you can see more about it at SketchBox). I usually hang this above my desk so I can see it and love it all year. I also use a passion type planner, and create vision boards. All of these things keep my priorities at the forefront of my heart and mind. So, plenty of fun projects to do for this upcoming year!
For New Year’s Eve, we plan to spend a quiet evening at home with our children. I would like to have a fun way to draw a board game for each hour that we are awake, lovely finger foods and bubbly drinks, and cinnamon buns for New Year’s Day. We usually spend New Year’s doing something that we love as a family. Traditionally it is hiking and being outside in sunshine and fresh air, so we are thinking along those lines again.
My wish for you, dear reader, in this bright and shiny new year, is to find and embrace joy in your lovely life; to find courage to be authentic in your personal life and in your parenting; to find connection, warmth, and love this year.
May 2017 be blessed.
In Joy,
Carrie
The Parenting Passageway 
Same best wishes to you Carrie. My goals for next year are to get fit, exercise and eat well. Settle my son into his first year at school and begin to drive.
For the new year celebration we are also staying home this year with tasty morsels to eat and good champagne to drink. New Year’s Day will be visiting or a drive in my my hubby’s weekend car.
Blessed Be to you and yours.
Happy New Year, Melissa!
Blessings,
Carrie
Ah, Carrie, you are, indeed, a kindred spirit. I nodded my head to this post. Wishing you much vitality and joy in the coming year!
Happy New Year, Nicola!
Blessings and love,
Carrie
Dear Carrie,
Finding your blog earlier this year has been one of my greatest blessings in 2016. I’m so grateful to you for sharing your uplifting and nurturing wisdom and beautiful spirit. I savor every new post and have read many back posts, too. I’m so excited to be able to begin the new year following your writings and I love these ideas for New Year’s. Thank you so very much and I wish you and your family a joyous 2017!
Kate,
Thank you so much for being here! Looking forward to hearing from you in the comments in 2017!
Blessings,
Carrie
Happy New Year! Thank you for your continued thoughtful posts here and for your email support to me earlier this December.
Would you mind sharing what specific planner you use? I am curious about the passion planner genre.
Hi Katie!
It was my pleasure! The planner I got was a Law of Attraction one, which wasn’t really what I thought it would be as I looked up “passion planner” on Amazon. So this is the one I have: https://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Attraction-Success-Planner-2017/dp/B01LWPYVKX/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483149548&sr=8-2&keywords=law+of+attraction+planner+2017 I like it, but it is a little New Agey for me, but not sure if you mind that or not. I got it on sale and just didn’t want to go through returning it. I like many of the steps in it, and I do think it is bringing me a lot of mindfulness in looking at my life and values and goals. I have a friend using this one: https://www.amazon.com/InnerGuide-2017-Goal-Success-Planner/dp/B01K3PJ9IU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483149654&sr=8-1&keywords=inner+guide+planner+2017+jan+to+dec and I am going to look at this planner this week in person, so it might be the one I go with next year!
Hope that helps,
Carrie
Hello Carrie,
Greetings for a happy New year to you and your family. I’ve been a silent reader of your blog for past 2 years (I think) and am grateful for all the precious blog posts, for all the sharing of wisdom and for all the time you put into this blog. Your children are so fortunate to have a mother like you! Your blog is one of the few resources I turn to when I myself alone in my homeschooling journey.
Many blessings
Vidhya
Vidhya,
Thank you so much! Many blessings to you!
Carrie
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