Wednesday, January 1, 2014

01.

It's January 1st! I feel like this past week, between Christmas and today, has gone by in a flash. A lot has happened, a lot has been accomplished, and a million little memories have accumulated in those few days. It's exciting to think about how much can happen in such a short time frame, and it's so cool to look back on an entire year and see how much can be packed into 365 days.
In the spirit of resolutions and goal making, since this is the season of transformation and generally trying to 'be better', I started thinking of what I would like to make out of 2014. What do I want to do with my year? What would I like to look back on a year from now and have accomplished, and be proud of?

I want to be more intentional with my friendships, for starters. I have started to realize how much I truly treasure my friendships (be it online or in real life), but I rarely make legitimate amounts of time for them. I want to spend more time working on these relationships, because they are so important to me!

Another thing I am wanting to do is cook more often. To be specific, I want to use my crockpot. Ha! What a silly goal, I know. But I'm no cook, and when I do get around to using our crockpot, I am always amazed at just how easy it is to make delicious meals! I made a pot roast in the crockpot last month and I'VE NEVER EATEN SOMETHING SO TASTY EVER. I'm exaggerating a little, but seriously, it was so good and I am going to make more use out of that little contraption this year.

And lastly, I want to read more. Junior high and high school were the glory days of my reading lists. I would read book after book, and could spend entire days reading (once in high school, I spent the entire first day of winter break reading a book that I had intended reading over the whole break - so I was little bummed when I finished it in that first day!). I have yet to read another book the way I used to read them in high school (with the exception of the 50 Shades series, but that's another can of worms, y'all. We won't talk about that one). So, my goal is to read five books. That's all. I don't want to overextend myself with a huge reading list when I have spent the better part of the last four years only reading magazines. I'm going to scour Barnes & Noble and Amazon for five good books today and tomorrow (I judge by covers... terrible habit to have), and truly commit to those five this year. And if I read more than that, great! I'll have started a new, great habit and I'll be super proud of myself. SO! Do you have any must-read recommendations? I'd love to hear them!


And as a small project, I'm making a playlist for each month. This is something I do quite regularly, but rarely do I keep the playlists after the month is over. So this year, I'd like to start keeping the playlists instead of deleting them. It's kinda fun to look back over a year of music and see what each month held within 10-15 songs. (Ps, you should join me because I love seeing what other people listen to!)

01. by Haley Tyson on Grooveshark
(and if you have Spotify, here is a link to the playlist to subscribe to there!)

8 comments:

  1. YES to the friendships! You are definitely on my list of people to meet/hang out with in real life ASAP, lady. :)

    I need to get back into the reading habit, too. The number of unread books I own is getting out of control. As far as suggestions go, none of these are particularly new, but in recent years I've really liked "The Weight of Silence" by Heather Gudenkauf, "Peace Like a River" by Leif Enger, and "The Other" by David Guterson. I'm also eternally obsessed with "East of Eden" by Steinbeck (favorite book!), "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, and Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth" & "World Without End." Much like my musical taste, the type of books I read has a crazy range. :) Let me know if you end up finding some good new reads--I'm going to have to buy another bookshelf soon anyway. ;)

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    1. Ah! I will look into these. I have a Nook (which, I don't know why, because I like holding a book more, but whatevs), and the best thing about it is downloading the free samples. So I will download these today!
      I have had Gone Girl on my list for AGES (I read one of her other books, Sharp Objects, and it was fantastic), and I noticed that it was only $6 in the Nook store, so I bought it. Hopefully I read it!

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  2. I feel the same way about the reading habit! My suggestion for you is Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I've read through it a couple times now and they always refer to it as a "japanese Catcher in the Rye". It's lovely though!

    As for playlists... My best friend/blog partner is moving her monthly playlists over to our blog, if you're interested!
    http://withwanderlust.com

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  3. An Abundance of Kathrines, Paper Towns and The Fault In Our Stars (if you haven't already read it) all by John Green. Wonderful, wonderful writing. Also, you might like some books by Donald Miller. A Million Miles In a Thousand Years was a book I read twice last year.

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    1. I've actually read An Abundance of Kathrines! I read that all the way back in high school, just by chance! I didn't even make the connection until recently that it was written by John Green. Hahaha! I'm quite oblivious upon occasion. However, I've heard so many great things about The Fault in Our Stars and I would love to read it before the movie comes out, so I went ahead and bought it on my Nook (of course, it was only like $4 the day I saw it in the Nook store, so I couldn't pass it up!)

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  4. The Fault in Our Stars, Bloom, Bread & Wine, & Love Does. Those are my favorites. :)

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    1. I've picked up Love Does at Barnes & Noble SO many times! Maybe I'll finally buy it this year! :)

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    2. Love Does is good! Super motivating. Bob Goff spoke at the church I used to go to a few months ago, and he is a seriously amazing human being. I also second the vote up there ^^ for Donald Miller's books....but I might be a little biased, because he's a pretty good friend of mine (which is why I always feel a little weird recommending his books, like if someone knew they would think I have some kind of ulterior motive or something). BUT I will say that he was my favorite author before we even met. My copy of Blue Like Jazz has so many highlighted and/or underlined passages and notes in it. Changed my faith for sure.

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