Happy New Year!

 I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas/Holiday and a wonderful passage of the New Year. Ours was great. Got to spend almost two weeks with the people I love the most in this world, can’t get better than that. Did a LOT of video gaming (mix of Farm Together, Warcraft and Switch games with bro). 

I didn’t read as much as I would have liked so I finished the year out at 69 books (my goal was 100). Still, pretty happy with that amount of books read considering how crazy life got this past year.  

New Year’s Eve we had my Uncle Angelo, Aunt Arminda, Godmother, Uncle John, Diane, Flo, their son Nico, Trisha, Nelson, Amalia, Danny, Mom and I all gather at Danny’s house for a family party. It was wonderful. We had delicious Portuguese cuisine, so many laughs, lots of liquor and just good times. I really wish we hung out like this more, and I think that’s gonna go on my resolution list because I love them all.  

And… there goes that decade. I have mixed feelings about the last decade. I had some amazing memories … but I also lost my dad, the most important person in my entire life (tied with mom/bros). Amalia was born, an addition to the most important people of my life. It’s just … all those stories about the ups and downs of life have never been more true or real for me than in the last 10 years. 

They were a rollercoaster of every emotion imaginable, and I really hope to do without a few of those emotions these next ten years, but I have a feeling I won’t be so lucky.  

Overall, I feel very blessed to have had the people that I do in my life. It’s so easy to rage and bitch (as I do all the time), but to sit down and be truly thankful, it’s not easy. I think I’m adding this to my resolution list also.

Speaking of… below are my resolutions from last year and how I faired. Lol Since this post is already pretty long, this year’s will go in a new post after this.
 

1.      Read 100 books. I put a goal of 60 for 2018 and ended up reading 125. I don’t know if I’ll read anywhere near 125 again, but still wanting to make it challenging with 100 out the gate!   Read 69 books, which is still pretty damn good in my book (har)!) 

2.      Write more in here. This one will always be on the list! Keeping a journal has always been therapeutic, so it’s a win-win either way.  Yep. Failed at this. The last week-ish doesn’t count!

3.      Visit a brand new spot I’ve never been to (even if it is in Connecticut).  I DID! I went to Jersey Shore with the family in September. New place I’d never been too and a lot of fun!

4.      Okay, instead of raging at myself to Publish a book, how about calmly… and no pressure at all … work on a book and attempt to complete it *gentle pat to the head as not to scare off*.  I’ve worked on a few book ideas over the past year but haven’t written much of substance so will call this one a fail too.

5.      Eat better. Not in an attempt to lose weight (though if I dropped 10lbs, I’d be happy), but more to stop feeling so exhausted all the time. Just eat more greens and fruits! – I definitely cut down on the bad crap I eat, but I’m still not where I’d like to be. I’d call this one ‘broke even’.

 

6.      Cut back on sugar. I have NEVER been a ‘sweets’ person, but fuck… the last four months it’s like all I crave and it’s horrible because when I don’t have sugar … I feel like crap. It really can be as bad as drugs! I did this one! Tho, this past week with all the treats around here I’ve been bad, but I did pretty great this year so yay!

7.      Spend more time with Momma. Typically I get home and the last thing I wanna do is sit around socializing with my mom (introvert life sucks man) … but I want to make an effort to suck it up and spend more time with her. I am blessed to still have her in my life after already losing my dad and I want to make the best of our time together.  Maybe do puzzles or word searches together.  – I can do so much better. Yes, I made more time for her, but not nearly enough as I know I can give her. This will be on next years too. This one is a ‘broke even’ as well.

8.      Tied into that, take momma on a bonding ‘spa’ and ‘shopping’ day. Just us gals.  – Going for Christmas as a gift :P

9.      Find a new game to play/enjoy … Warcraft needs a break.   I actually found THREE new games to enjoy: Surviving Mars (many logged hours), Farm Together (manyyyyyy hours), and Planet Zoo. I play these three a few times a week to break up the WoW craze (:

10.  Keep doing the 30 minutes (at least) a day work outs. Doing ‘em.

 

11.  Spend more time in Nature. You always feel more refreshed/alive … so go out more even if you don’t take pics (though that would be added bonus). – Failed at this. I’ve become such a hermit, it’s quite sad. I find so much more comfort in my room these days than out in the world.

 

12.  Try to cut out coffee from your life (I dunno if I’ll be able to do this one, but gonna try!). Nope. Impossible. I cannot live without it.

13.  Draw more. It won’t get better if ya don’t practice!   Also, cuz it ties into this sorta… color more! You have lots of coloring books, do it! This is a half fail, half did good.  I actually got a friend into more drawings than me lol! She’s been rocking her drawing goals… me? Nope. BUT I did color a lot more, so there is that! YAY lol.  

Overall, I’m happy.  It seems I broke more even than I thought … and the bad ones weren’t truly BAD fails except the eating one maybe… and not stopping coffee :P  Overall yeah… I’m definitely happy. This year had its huge downs, but it also had its huge ups (my niece was born being Numero Uno). I have much more to be thankful for than to be upset about.