New Year = Everything Will Now Be Amazing

So I've been known to go to extremes. Maybe. Sometimes. So says my mother. And probably everyone else who has ever met me. When I find a new band or album I like I listen to it and only it for two months and then I don't want to hear it again for a year. Same with my food fads. When my plans get changed at the last minute I tend to overreact a tad and let it ruin my day. So its no surprise that I place a lot of emphasis on the beginnings of things - weeks, months, and of course, years. I never start a diet or work-out plan or really anything in the middle of the week. Truthfully, if I had my way I'd always start new projects or goals on the first day of the month.....and it would be really helpful if the first day of the month was also a Sunday or Monday. I guess I like things to be tidy. You can imagine, then, that the start of an ENTIRELY NEW year has ALL of the circuits firing in my brain. Its like a fireworks display in there.

Now logically I know that there is nothing magical about the clock switching over from 11:59 to 12:00 on December 31. There is no cosmic shift that happens. But the fresh-new-start molecules in the core of my being don't care. They jump on the NEW YEAR bandwagon like there's no yesterday and fill my mind with momentum and optimism. Which sounds great.....except that its fantasy level, nothing-will-ever-live-up-to-it type optimism. The kind that tends to be short-lived if not reined in and carefully monitored.

Love me some Liz Lemon. I feel like this a LOT.

And I really am trying to rein it in. A little. Kind of. But this year has some special significance for me that is making it difficult to not go overboard.  First, this will be the year of mine and Randy's (is that grammatically correct? I can't think of a good way to phrase that. Kara - almost master of the English language - enlighten me!) TENTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!! 10!!!! Also, this will be the first full year in several which will be unmarred by invasive medical treatments for infertility. It really does feel like a brand new start - an opportunity to become wonderful. An opportunity that I am going to seize - likely without much restraint, as foolish as it may be.

I have placed some basic restraints on myself, though. I'm  not completely uncivilized. Randy and I have been working hard today writing real, achievable goals and creating a master calendar to schedule all of our goals and activities so that the year doesn't slip away unnoticed. I guess, overall, we are trying to be more purposeful about 2012. We don't want life this year to just happen to us - we want to make the most of it. So along with our sensible, bulleted, measurable goal list I decided to create a visual reminder of how I want my 2012 to look. I used Tagxedo to create my "word cloud" and it was so much fun that I became a little obsessed with making all kinds of word clouds (hence my aforementioned going to extremes issue). Here is the Hitched and Stitched World Debut of my 2012 Goals word cloud. (And seriously - you should totally go make one of these. I made the below cloud in three different shapes as well as one for Zipper (our wiener dog), one for Valentines Day and one about infertility before I made myself stop and continue living my regularly scheduled life.)

If you're still with me - bonus points for you! I know its not always super interesting to read about someone else's New Years resolutions. So I'll shut up about mine for a while - I'm going to start a new blog project tomorrow. But I felt like I absolutely COULD NOT start the new year on Hitched and stitched without setting the tone for what I am calling The Year of Kim. But I know that sounds incredibly obnoxious so I'll only call it that in my head from now on. Its not meant to be obnoxious - only to help me focus as I begin to reclaim some of what infertility and pregnancy loss has taken from me and start taking care of myself again. I hope 2012 holds wonderfull-ness for all of us, even if we do put a bit too much emphasis on its beginnings.