What I Know For Certain

When I am living my life authentically this is what it looks like:

Spending time in nature

Making our food from scratch

Eating healthy

Playing with my kids

Reading with my kids

Having time to myself

Exercising

Washing my face morning and night

Brushing my teeth morning and night

Blow drying my hair

Picking out a nice outfit and putting on makeup

Being Creative

Reading a good book

Discovering something new 

Laughing

Talking with my kids

Talking with my husband

Snuggling with my husband in bed at night

Walking the dog

Hiking with the dog, kids, and husband

Having a clean home

Having all the laundry washed, folded, and put away

Having good, whole, healthy food in the house

Having a lesson plan for schooling

Having a meal plan for our meals

Made Beds

Having date nights with each of my kids alone

Camping

Having date nights with my husband

Having a plan for the day

Listening to the radio/music

Getting a good night sleep

Reading my favorite blogs

Writing a good blog

These are the things I am going to focus on because these are the things that make me happy. I feel centered and whole when I am spending my time doing them. Noticeably absent from this list is the TV video games, Ipods, Kindle, or any other contraption that takes me away from my family or them away from me. It is harder at times to get through my day without these items because it means that I have to spend my whole day actively engaged in, not only my life, but the life of my family.(I know to some of you this sounds completely ridiculous that I might feel this way, but there are others of you out there that know exactly what I am talking about.) It is so much easier to flip on a button and let a TV show or movie take away a few hours of our day, but I end up feeling so icky on the inside that that time spent that way wasn't worth it at all. Any benefit that I thought that I had gained in allowing my kids to be glued to an electronic device is voided out when the guilt sinks in that I did not choose to spend that time doing something more constructive with them. Something more in tune with the way that I know I need to be living my life to remain true to my authentic self. 

I don't believe in making New Year's resolutions. All of those promises to myself never panned out when I was younger because I wasn't ready to really seem them through.  I won't really be making any new promises to myself this year. I will just be gifting myself with the knowledge of old truths that I discovered so long ago, but have set aside among the noise of everyday life. 

I am not sure where this blog fits into the big picture. I love writing this blog, and I love reading other blogs even more, but I find that I sometimes spend too much time in "blogland".  I think that this blog is a good outlet for me, but I need to cut down on the amount of time I spend writing drafts/posts and reading those blogs that I love. After all, sitting here and typing/reading is just another way to ignore my real life if I spend too much time doing so. I hope that you will bare with me while I try to figure things out. 

I wish everyone a very Happy New Year!