Happy New Year and some new focuses (Day 1 of 365)

Happy 2022 everyone! I hope everyone had a good end to 2021 and that this new year is a blessing to all. As for me and my crew, the last week of 2021 was full of sickness and tiredness. The boys and I have coughs and congestion. Bill went to Urgent Care yesterday as he had a fever and sore throat and congestion. COVID test was negative, the doc said there is a virus going around. Thankfully, today Ben is not coughing as much. Jacob is hardly coughing at all, and I am just coughing a bit. Bill is still in the throes of it. He said his sore throat actually got worse overnight. Rebecca (knock on wood) hasn't come down with it yet.

 

Our New Year's Eve was very simple. Bill spent the day resting. I spent the day doing laundry and resting. Dinner was our traditional "Fancy Appetizer" dinner where we set out our fine china and eat appetizers. This year I made too much food, but that is okay as we have leftovers for lunches and snacking this weekend. I made a veggie appetizer pizza, hot wings, lasagna bites, pigs in a blanket, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, and a fruit salad. The wings, mozzarella sticks, and fruit salad were the most popular. 

After dinner, we did dishes and had a family movie night with watching Encanto on Disney+ as Bill had never seen it. We also watched parts of the football games. We had ice cream as a late snack and watched the ball drop in NYC. Ben kicked the old year out by opening the front door and letting the new year in. Neighbors down the street let off some fireworks. Then around 12:30 we all headed to bed. 

Today, the boys slept in until around 9:30-10 and I got up shortly after. I have been puttering around, folding laundry, reading some of a new to me book, etc. Just taking it easy. We will watch the Rose Bowl here in a bit as the boys want to see Ohio State play. 

I have also been scrolling through blogs, reading updates on other blogger's goals and things that they want to accomplish this year. I am not going to make a huge list of goals as those have always been unsuccessful in the past. Instead, I have a few areas that I would like to focus on. 

Those include: 

• Change things up. I have been living in a rut. I need to step outside of my comfort zone if I want my life to change in anyway. I have a few ideas of things that I want to do to go in this direction. 
• Read more and participate in a book club. I have been wanting to join a book club for a while, but never have due to being too shy. However, a blogging friend is starting on Facebook, so I joined that one and enjoyed reading the first selection "Year of Yes: How to Dance it Out, Stand in the Sun And Be Your Own Person" by Shonda Rimes. (I will do a book review for this book later next week, but it was sooooo good!)  
• Get healthy. This will encompass losing weight, exercising more, and taking more time to rest.
• Declutter my life. This includes getting rid of stuff in my physical life as well as my digital life. Defriend groups on Facebook that clutter my feed with nonsense. Get rid of excess crap in our house and free up space. 
• Blog daily. I want to try to challenge myself to put up a blog post daily or at least 6 out of 7 days a week. 

So, there you have it. I'm not going to go all out and post a long list of things that I probably won't achieve. Instead, I will be grateful for what I do achieve, and I may do mini challenges in there as well, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. 

As for the rest of today, it is raining and dreary out so a nap may be in order. I will probably read some more as well. Usually, we go to my parents' house, however my mom has been sick with flu like symptoms all week--- fever, throwing up, etc. and since we have been sick, we will stay home and veg out. I will probably make frozen pizzas for dinner-- simple and easy. I do need to menu plan for the next week as we return to work and school and after school activities. 

What about you? Any goals for the New Year? How are you spending this first day of 2022?