Welcome to Unpolished Blog 2016

I'm not always into New Years. Usually I have some passing thoughts about what I could resolve to do differently. There have been a couple New Years which have started with intense Resolutions, like the year we gave up meat and desserts at the same time (our families definitely didn't know what to do with those). Most years, I don't commit to much of anything.

2015 was difficult for many reasons. Learning to balance life with a small baby that has yet to learn to sleep through the night consistently, trying to work from home, making time for myself, my spouse, my kids, and never feeling like there was a good balance.

This year there are lots of vague goals in my mind. I'd like to lose that last 10 pounds. I'd like to write more. I'd like to have a better attitude and not get frustrated so easily. Overall, be more positive and enjoy my family more. We have work goals as well, after a long year of me working less consistently and Michael working a lot more to balance it all out.

But goals need to be specific, so I've been trying to think of how to turn these into something more concrete.

So, here they are. Written goals are some % more likely to be achieved:

1. Run a half marathon this year. Yikes. I wrote it. I've said several times in my life I have no desire to run more than a 10K. I was a sprinter in high school and college, not a long distance runner. But I've been enjoying running in my older age. I continue to use my Fitbit and my daily step goals to motivate me to exercise and lose weight. Today I ran about 5 1/2 miles. I'm getting more comfortable with longer distances (longer to me). To combine my goals of continuing to lose weight and stay in shape, I want to train for something longer. Whew.

2. I want to blog every day. I don't know how likely this is. I tend to be a long-winded blogger. But I want to try to sit down and write for 5 or 10 minutes, and push "publish," without having to spend tons of time on my posts. My posts often take me much longer because I read them and review them and edit them several times before posting. I don't like publishing errors. I want to commit to "unpolished" blog posts, where I write about things more succinctly. When I think about this year, there are a lot of things I could write about, personally, as a family, as a foreigner working and living in Guatemala. Things like training for a half marathon while balancing life (maybe if I write it again it will really happen) watching my youngest baby experience her second year of life while knowing we are done having babies, watching historic events in Guatemala, like the new President take power this year. So, "unpolishedblog2016" will be my tagline.

3. Experience more cultural events. Embrace life here. Enjoy my girls more when we're at home together. Read more Spanish newspapers (helps with my vocabulary).

4. Read more books.

That's a pretty hefty list for now. I'm going to get crackin'.