New Year, New Goals

I still cannot believe it is 2014!  2013 was an amazing year and it ended in a blur of activity.  The holiday season at the Grove was our busiest yet!  As soon as I shipped the last order I picked up Mini K's birthday cake and drove straight to her birthday party.  I may have also decorated the outside of our house in the dark, been caught wrapping presents by Mini K because I pulled an all nighter, but this past Christmas was so special.  Baby C finally got Santa and Mini K was a great big sister!  As you can tell from my lack of posts, the blog came in last and honestly, I have no regrets.  I am so thankful to have spent the time with family and friends and reflecting on 2013 as I planned for this year.

Christmas came, then Mr. G's birthday 2 days later followed by Mini K's 2 days after that.  She seemed a little tired, but had been staying up late so I didn't think much of it, well were we in for a shock at her 8 year old well check-up.  Mini K had pneumonia.  Forgive my tangent, but I determined to be more thankful for the little blessings that just appear.  I had been sent a Braun Therms VoxBox to try out the new forehead scanning thermometer.  K's doctor said we needed to monitor her temperature every hour for the first 3 days they sent us home because she can spike a high fever fast.  Did I mention that ALL she wanted to do was sleep?  Well enter my little angel aka my new thermometer!  All I had to do was swipe it across her forehead ---it didn't matter if she was awake or asleep and viola, I had her temp!  The best part is you can use this thermometer on an infant, a child or even an adult.  It is now one of my MUST HAVE products and something I will be giving to new moms!

I am spending this week updating the website and getting ready for our first buying trip of 2014!  We will be launching some new custom products this year as well as adding some non-personalized gifting options in the under $25 and under $50 categories.

New Year's Resolutions have never been a big thing for me, but I am big on goals for the year.  I tend to want to achieve goals and resolutions tend to be forgotten by February!  So here are my goals for 2014:

1.  Cook one new recipe a week. (Keeping it real grilled cheese with a new kind of cheese counts!).  I will be posting these recipes on the blog of Wednesdays this year, so please check out What's for Dinner Wednesday and let me know if you do a similar post as I would love to read.

2.  Write more letters just because!  I know the cost of stamps is increasing, but I LOVED getting everyone's holiday cards in my mailbox so I am going to try to keep it up in the new year by sending the kids godparents random photos and notes of the kids.  The best part, Mini K is joining me on this...she thinks it is fun and has no clue it will help her handwriting!

3.  Entertaining.  I have spent the last 3 years either planning for a renovation, construction, unpacking from construction or decorating.  The reality is, I will always have a house project, the next one, our butler's pantry, starts in 7 weeks but we built this house so we could have space to entertain and then I let life become an obstacle rather than an avenue to entertain.  So this is year we will open our house up to family, friends and neighbors.  Let the party planning begin.

4.  Girlfriends.  I haven't decided on a cooking club, a bookclub or a pinterest party, but 2014 will also be the year I make time ( and host) and once a month girls night!

5.  Be Accountable To My Health.  I have always worked out, but not really with a plan.  I made Crossfit a priority in December and have seen HUGE improvement in my strength so I am adding nutrition in January along with running.   Two feet in casts in one year made me scared of running.  The thought of not being able to drive for 6 more weeks is terrifying to a control freak like myself.  But I ran over the holidays and realized how much I missed it.

SO there they are...if you know me feel free to call me out on any of these goals.  One of my biggest jobs as a mother is to set an attitude of CAN DO for my kids instead of EXCUSES and kids learn from examples and actions not words.