My Year of Yes

Since my son was born a little more than 7 years ago, I honestly have to say that my life has become everything I wanted it to be. After my maternity leave was over I did not return to the Jr Operations Manager position that I had occupied before that. I had been employed by the same Call Center for 9 years! I had moved up into a number of different positions gaining lots of experience along the way. I worked with a great group of people and made so many friendships along the way. It is also how I met Sandy. I had a longing though, I wanted to be home with my children! Sandy and I were fortunate that while he was in University I could have my shifts be later so that at least one of us was home with the girls almost all of the time. I hated missing out though and so I was lucky enough to stay home once Noah was born.

Not only did I get to stay home, I was then able to surround myself by children and their growth. Another love of mine. And for the last 7 plus years I have been blessed and thankful to have children grow up in my home, with my own children and I haven’t missed  out! Well mostly…

During these 7 years Sandy has worked mainly from home as well. I never imagined spending so much time with someone and falling more and more in love with them. I love that we truly do not get tired of each other and instead grow with each other. I have watched Sandy change positions and take leaps in the last 7 years and have been so happy for him! Meanwhile, I have become comfortable! Comfortable with my routine, my family, my great group of friends, my childcare families, my church family and my responsibilities. I cannot complain, I wouldn’t complain, I truly love my life and the people in it! And I would not change the last 7 years, they have made us who we are today!

In the past month or so, I have been thinking a lot about my comfort. I have decided there is more that I want in this life! More for myself and my family! More for my relationship with God and the direction he has in store for me. I have come to realize that I hide in the comfort. I often do not try new things or do things for myself. I devote most of my time to those around me, but I have realized that in that, I am not growing the way that I want to!

I decided it was time for change! I am a balancer, a scheduler, an organizer, so I know that there is always a way to work things in and still have a happy balance! My first step for me was to enroll in an online course. I love my family, friends and adventures and the kids love looking back at pictures and the blogs Sandy writes about our family. I want to be able to create that for them as well. Especially focusing on our trips. I want to do it confidently, so I decided to take a WordPress Training Course. And guess what? I started it a few weeks ago and completed it during the Christmas break! For me! It was nice to be able to have a glimpse into Sandy’s world and going forward I am excited about my blog and what I can do with it! Most importantly though, I did something for me and I didn’t lose time with my kids!

While we were in the city during Christmas we went to Chapters and while I was in the store, I decided the next thing I wanted to do for me was read a book! I know to some of you, it may seem like an odd thing to want to do for myself. I have “never had time” to read in more years than I can count! I have read tons and tons of children’s books, but nothing for me! I had heard about a Shonda Rhimes book that I thought I may like. “Year of Yes”. I love her tv shows, I watch them all, so I knew she would be a good writer, but I had no idea how much this book would speak to me! I have been making time to read and still spending time with my family.

Another thing that I did, I bought Sandy and I memberships to the gym. The Winter is always hard for me. I fill our lives with as much fun as I can squeeze in just to be able to make it to Spring. It may sound crazy, but the cold dark days really do wreck me! The hardest part for me though is not being able to exercise. I am not a big runner or into classes or anything like that, but I love to be able to get out for a walk each day to de-stress my muscles. The Winter sucks that out of me. This year I decided that wasn’t happening. I was making time to go to the gym each day and walk it out! Tomorrow is my first day and I am excited that this Winter will be different! It may not be fresh air and beautiful scenery, but I would get my exercise and feel better about my body!

I am not one to make New Year’s resolutions. I believe that you can commit to any kind of change any time of year. My changes began in late November, early December and it will carry me through 2017. I have decided that I will now learn to say Yes to challenging myself, learning new things, pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I will now learn Yes to saying No. I stretch myself so thin sometimes trying to help anyone and everyone I can. Sometimes, the situation needs to be No. This is something I need to learn for myself and my family! I will also say Yes to God and digging into the Bible this year with my kids. They have an excitement to learn and so do I, so this is something we will be saying Yes to and the direction he wants to take our family this year!

I have been fortunate to have 10 days off during this Christmas Break! That doesn’t happen for me usually. It is hard because I do not receive vacation pay, so when I am not working I do not get paid. Part of it was unexpected time off, but overall I believe this stretch happened for a reason. I needed these 10 days. It gave us so much family time without our daily schedules. We had fun, played games, watched movies, enjoyed treats and time with friends. And for me, I was able to have some me time to help sort out what new challenges I want for myself in 2017. Every year I take down the tree on January 1st. We always ring in the New Year surrounded by family and friends, so I like to have it up for that, but I am always ready to say goodbye to it the next day. This year I wasn’t ready. I wanted another day! So tonight I sat by the Christmas lights to read my book, loving every minute of it and enjoying the smell of the tree for one last evening! Knowing that the next time I sit by our lit Christmas Tree I will have been through my Year of Yes and I am truly excited for what that means!