Happy New Year! And Welcome to the blog! I’m Kathryn. I’m a 24 year old Carolina girl with a passion for all things creative. I recently married my high school sweetheart, Anthony and we are figuring out married life in our Eastern North Carolina home with our black lab (fur child) Zoey. As we get settled into this new chapter of life I wanted to be able to share our journey, my creative passion and my interest in all things lifestyle which brings us to the birth of the blog. So now that we’ve met, let’s start the new year off right by talking about our goals!
As cliche as it may sound, my Husband and I love to have new year resolutions. Even during our 8 and a half years of dating we would occasionally sit together and talk about the goals we had for the next few months or years. Now that we are married it’s even more important to make sure we are involved in what things the other wants to accomplish so we can help each other by accountability and encouragement. Here are the 5 main goals I’ve set for myself for the New Year!
Declutter and Get Organised
Yes, I know. Me and every other person on the planet. The past year [2019] was crazy for us, planning a wedding, moving into a new home, Bridal showers, parties, (you get the point). Getting married means combining the two houses worth of items you already have with all the new items your friends and family are gifting you. While you try to replace you old items one by one as new things arrive, it’s easy to pile things in your guest room closet to deal with later - especially when the rest of the house is covered with mountains of wedding decor (post to come on this in your future). This year it is time to focus on clearing out the old college blankets and coffee mugs and packing the wedding dress back into its box. Plus learning how to share space and make room for whatever awaits us in the future.
Eat Healthy
I’ll be honest this one ends up on my list every year. I always want to be healthier, I think we all do, but it’s easier said than done. Busy lives and any other excuse you can find, can make fast food a go-to dinner more often than not. In 2020 I want to encourage my family to have better habits, starting with the food we eat. In the past we have tried meal planning which works for a while but can become a chore that is easily pushed to next week and eventually never. Anthony and I decided to try something new and invest in a weekly meal service that will send us 4 already planned out meals a week. While this may not be ideal for everyone, we decided that having someone prep a meal for us may keep us on track with eating better and maybe get us excited about the healthy foods we are eating.
Send Birthday Cards
I come from a big family. Because of our size we don’t traditionally do gifts for Birthdays or Christmas for every member of our family. In the past year I have found myself wanting to find a way to recognise special occasions or Birthdays of people we care about other than a quick text or social media post. Taking the time to write someone a card is an inexpensive and thoughtful way to let someone know you are thinking of them. Plus if you are like me, you enjoy looking back at the cards you have received over the years and reading the messages that were so thoughtfully written. To help myself stay on track with this one I decided to purchase a set of cards that I can keep on hand that way each month I can write out the necessary cards and I won’t have to make a special trip to the store each time.
Create Rhythms and Traditions
This one may leave you scratching your head, but you could also call it starting a routine. In the marriage counseling session before our wedding the Pastor talked about family dynamics and how they would change once we got married. This is a topic that I hadn’t given much thought about and wasn’t really convenience we would have an issue with until.. Christmas. We were just married 9 weeks before and our parents are wanting to know.. “Who’s family will you go to church with Christmas Eve?”, “Who’s house will you wake up at on Christmas morning?” Creating a new family means creating new traditions and getting into a rhythm that works with your lifestyle - even if it isn’t what the rest of the family is used to. This year we want to take the time to decide how Holidays will be handled and how to spend time with both families fairly. We also want to focus on our day to day rhythms as a family such as attending church weekly or going grocery shopping at a specific time of the week. While we may not always be able to do a load of laundry on Monday, it will be helpful to us as we learn to work together as Husband and Wife to know what things we want to / need to get done.
Be a Loving Wife
Last on the list, but most certainly not least. Being a new wife can be tough. Obviously we love our husbands, but are showing it the right way? Are we doing enough? Only being married for a couple months I don’t have a lot of advice to give but I know I want to strive to be better. I want to be more helpful to my husband, kinder to my husband. I want to pray for him more, talk with him more and do more for him. While I know that we will always be working on our relationship, I want to start our marriage on the right foot, with my heart in the right place - focusing on showing my love to Husband.
New Years resolutions may not be everyone's thing, but we should all have some goals to work toward. So what are your goals this year? Are the same goals you always have that you may quit in 6 months or are you the one that really dives in and sticks to those resolutions? Either one you are, I challenge you to pick one goal this year and strive to achieve it. And don’t forget to stay tuned to see how I do with my 2020 goals!
With love,