Hello January of 2019

Well, hello out there to all my lovely readers from all over the world. Is it still appropriate to say Happy New Year? After all, we are at the tail end of January and I feel just a tad bit guilty that I haven’t checked in sooner. The New Year can be a little tricky for me some time. Between coming down off the Christmas holiday “high” and it being the dead of winter, I feel like a bear that just wants to hibernate and awaken when the spring flowers start to bloom. But that isn’t how any of this works. Life is summoning me to be present right now in the dead of winter and motivate. I have never been really big on new year resolutions; too strict and rigid for my liking, but I don’t think that they’re a bad thing to have if that’s what works to motivate you to reach your goals. I’m the type of girl who usually has a few things that I want to focus on during a set period of time and then I break the main goals down into smaller steps to work on daily, weekly, and monthly to achieve them. That way, I am actually more intentional and focused and not overwhelmed by the huge task at hand. The objective for me this year is to be more intentional in my day to day. There are a few things that I will be working toward over the year and my pace in general will be more slowed down, but the slower pace will help me to have that laser beam focus that is required to build Rome (wink). As a disclaimer, I do use a planner to help me keep what’s important in focus. If I don’t have my planner I usually forget many important things and life is chaos.

Rudi and I trying to hibernate for the remainder of the winter.

So far, January has been pretty good to me. I kicked the New Year off by celebrating Karina’s birthday on January 11. Karina took the day off from work and we indulged in delicious food and drink of her choice followed by a mini unicorn cake that I managed to pick up from the bakery on a whim. She enjoyed her day thoroughly.

Delicious shrimp tacos for me and a Mediterranean style pizza for the birthday girl.

Micro mini unicorn cake. Isn’t it the cutest.

By happenstance, there are a lot of people who are dear to me that celebrate birthday’s in January. Three of my best friends; Crystal, Karina, and Jenny, my late Nanna Clara, and my father Timothy.

Crystal and I in our younger days.

Jan 5

Karina, the birthday girl and I on the beach.

Birthday Jan 11

My grandpa, me, and my dad.

My dad’s birthday Jan 14

My late Nanna Clara and I

Jan 17

Jenny and I at our favorite place

Birthday Jan 31

With so many exciting plans on this years horizon, I decided to make a conscious effort to move my body as much as possible throughout the day. For me, that looks like layering up and going on very long walks just about every day. I love walking because it helps me to get ready for any upcoming travels and keeps me semi-sane. I do have some very exciting travels coming up in March. I will be in South Africa for about two weeks exploring the best of what that part of the world has to offer. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. This trip came up so unexpectedly. South Africa was not on my radar for this year, it was actually being planned for the following year. But with travel, you go where the flight deal is, and that’s exactly how this venture came about. If you are a wandering soul like myself, I highly recommend following pages such as secret flying, airfare watchdog, and Skyscanner. That is 100% of the time where I get my flights from.

As of lately, when I am not catching up on household chores or reading or planning travel, I am at home preparing for the upcoming move from Fort Knox back to Virginia Beach. I am pretty stoked to be moving back. If you know me then you also know that the sea is home for me. Any place by the sea and my soul is most content.

Standing by the seashore

Moving back to the Tidewater area has me excited for many reasons. I’ll be closer to family, friends, and my church. I have missed that trinity way too much while being gone. But with any move there is stress, and we have had our fill of stressors as of late. I am actually flying out tomorrow to go and secure our home back in Virginia Beach. Lots of moving parts coming up here and I just want all of it to be done and over with. Someone cue my fairy godmother ASAP.

A few of my new reads for the year that Santa left under the tree for me. I am currently reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (not pictured). I can’t wait to start reading Circe!

Well, my beautiful readers, I will be sure to keep you guys updated on things. I need to learn how to do a much better job at keeping my social media platforms updated as well as the blog. You know, it’s so funny that I even like blogging because I am a private person for the most part and I think that is why I have such a hard time posting to social media. There needs to be a healthy balance, but I do know that I need to get way better at this. All with time my friends, all with time. Until we meet again. It has been a joy updating you guys. I hope that you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed sharing. Sending out light and love into the universe.