New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! To begin with, the New Year's Eve sleepover at A Gym Tale was once again a success. We had a group of 20 children and we all had a wonderful time. The evening was filled with running, climbing and an obstacle course, snack and winding down with a movie. Afterwards, getting ready for bed and our countdown to midnight (which in reality was 10:15pm - but we turned all the clocks ahead to midnight!). And everyone slept until 7:30am the next morning!

One of my favourite things to do at this time of year is take inventory of the resolutions that I made last January and which ones were worth while and those that I did not continue with. I find it inspires me and re-energizes me to continue working towards goals.

During the last year, I really tried to focus on expanding my connections with clients as well as other local businesses. I feel as though through my blog, Facebook and monthly emails I am able to keep contact with the many families we see on a much more regular basis and it has been wonderful getting to know so many families better. As for other local businesses, I have also tried to run various promotions and exchange ideas and cross marketing strategies and I also feel that this has been a success over the past year.

Personally, I had wanted to get back to working out regularly. This was not successful - at all. This year it will be moved up to one of my priorities - and not excessive exercise by any means - 1 yoga class a week, running 2x a week and a daily walk with my dog. I feel as though I really need this to better cope with stress, gain more energy and simply to feel healthier than I am now.

The second personal goal I had for this past year was to keep in touch better with friends and to make the effort to go out with friends or date night's more regularly. This was not a success, but not a failure either. From January - June, we saw friends at least once a week - even if it was just dinner or coffee. During the summer I played soft ball a group of friends and had a great time each week. And then September rolled around and I have barely seen anyone since!! For this year, once again I would like to make a commitment to going out or seeing friends at least once a week.

I try not to make too many resolutions because than I cannot keep any of them. But I am hopeful that these two personal resolutions will be rewarding enough to keep me motivated! What resolutions have you made for this year?

Teeth!!!

So it has been awhile since my last post, my apologies. Ewan has had both of his front teeth coming in for the past week and has not done well with them. The first two came in and we never noticed until he bit my finger one day! However, with the top two teeth, he has barely been sleeping, unless he is sleeping in my arms, and just overall miserable. Needless, to say I am also exhausted and my home is a disaster because I have not been able to put him down. One tooth is completely through and the other is so close - hopefully any day it will be through. 

With all of this going on, I have also have not been successful with getting my 8 hours sleep each night - or my resolution to exercise each day (that was this weeks resolution). Obviously, Gretchen Rubin did not have a baby when she took on her project!! I will keep trying...

One resolution that has been successful is to tackle a nagging task. Each day this week I have tackled a task that has been on my to-do list forever. The first one was to return a pile of things to Staples that have been sitting in the garage since January another was to bring in two posters to have framed. It definitely felt good  finally getting these things done!

Well Ewan is up, I promise to update again soon!

The Happiness Project

I have just finished a wonderful and inspiring book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It highlights one woman's challenge to herself to try all sorts of resolutions to make her even happier. She was not unhappy before, but she felt as though there were some aspects of her life that could use improvement in order to allow her to make the most of her life. The 11 resolutions ranged from energy to marriage, parenthood, leisure and money. Each month she attempted several resolutions related to one area of her life.

After reading this book, I have decided to create my own 11 resolutions and put each one into effect over the next year. For the month of March, I am going to work on increasing my energy. This week I am attempting to get 8 hours sleep each night.

My hope in writing this is that I will feel more accountable to myself. If anyone else has read this book or put their own happiness project into effect, please let me know your thoughts!

For more information on this book visit www.happiness-project.com/