Ah another brand new year has begun, and another chapter opening up for possibilities. It seems 2020 is disappearing into the review mirror for more quickly than it feels it should be. Then most people feel it should just disappear without much noise.

I’m not really a New Years resolutions kind of girl, more in line with what are my goals I want to accomplish by the end of the year. I found resolutions have become this thing new year new me crap. The resolutions to change ourselves by massive overhauls right as the clock stokes midnight. Do I need to change myself? Not really. We really don’t need to be so hard on ourselves. With all the constant pressure to look at our faults, that can really distract from what we have achieved and what we have done well in the previous year. All this pressure weighs us down with thoughts of resolving to be someone so far removed from who we were around Christmas time. Instead I am focusing more on “new year, same me growing.” I want the coming year to be a year maintaining some of the things I really did well last year.

Yet you maybe asking why now am I talking about this one month into the new year? Grab some tea, mine is Twining Tea, Winter Spice Blend, and go deeper.

Well let me tell you, the year did not start out as expected nor in a festive way most people did. Nope, I was ringing in the new year with a love one in the hospital, and it was touch and go there at that very moment when the clock stuck midnight. No it was not the dreaded covid, but something just as scary and life threatening as the covid virus. A few weeks into the new year, my love one did come home and is now recovering away from the packed hospital full of covid patients.

Which brings me to something I have been milling around in my brain for most of the month. This year I want it to be the year where I lean into the good stuff. A scary medical emergency can change not only the person going through it, but everyone around them. Life is too short not to lean into the good stuff. The things that set our souls alight, and leave us with lasting change in our lives. The moments we will cherish for future years ahead. Let’s call this the year leaning into the good stuff and new year, same me growing, shall we?

The month also brought with it some interesting things out of me. I never in my life have bought so many plastic storage bins as I did this month! It has been a month of cleaning, sorting, organizing the physical, mental, and emotional “stuff.” Going through a lot of stuff that has built up over the years took a month to completely clean out. Going through social media, and have thorough clean up of all accounts. Deleting old “social media junk,” unfollow people I no longer communicate with, or have not seen in years, and cutting ties with what was no longer serving me.

It was brutal, there was some digital bleeding. But nothing was drastic as finally cutting off the toxicity of past job searches, candidate profiles and company HR databases. This may seem to be an abnormal thing to do, but there comes a time when you finally land permanent in a place that continues to value your contribution everyday, and you finally know you are staying for awhile….or until I retire, you begin the process of cleaning your career profile up. I requested deletions or deleted my profiles from HR databases to cut ties with a past me who is no longer. If I ever want to apply in the future, I will have the option to start a whole new profile without any past judgements.

Okay let me pause here and take a few sips of my tea. That was a lot to unpack!

The month hasn’t all been about reflection of the coming year. Case in point, I have busy on the healthy lifestyle goal. Those who have been reading the blog for some time do remember me and the Whole30 challenges I did (oh boy was that something reading those posts!). This month started off with me dipping my toes in the waters of the Mediterranean diet with a Turkish twist. I now love yogurt bowls, hummus with tomato, goat cheese on toast, and Pide (Turkish flatbread).

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I managed to finish off the month with a little bit more productivity then when I came into it. Here are a few.

Books I Have Read This Month:

The Singles Table by Sara Desai 3.5/5
Heather and Homicide by Molly MacRae 4.5/5

My Watch List:

All Creatures Great And Small (Season 2), Masterpiece
Sen Cal Kapimi (Turkish Dizi), YouTube
Bir Zamanlar Cukurova (Turkish Dizi), YouTube
Around The World In 80 Days, Masterpiece

And….

Things On My Wish List:

Brice Akalay, Brice Fine Jewelry leather bracelets with gold plated bronze symbols. I love her jewelry pieces and I love her as an actress. I’ll file these beauties away for a birthday present to myself. Hmmm.

Weather Tech cargo mat for my car. I recently bought a new vehicle and with what happened to my last car’s trunk mats, I need there to keep from ruining my interior.

Current Tea In The Cup:

Twining Tea, Winter Spice Blend

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Pew that was a lot to catch up on over a cup of tea! So I will end it here my friend with this little quote….