P365: Christie

Happy New Year, Readers.  2013 is upon us and being that I just turned 35 on Dec 24th, I will say it is my year to be 35 and Alive!

There are a few things that I have set myself up to succeed in this year.  I asked for Ninja Blender for my b-day/Christmas present from my mom and grandma and I got it.  Even as I write this post I am drinking a Kale, Spinach, fresh squeezed OJ, Frozen Strawberry and Banana smoothie.  It's delicious.  I like vegetables, but I don't love them.  I wish I did, but they are more a committment than, let's say, cookies, which I never have a problem eatting.  Anyhow, the set up for success is that I get Kale and Spinach in my self every day, first thing: cup of decaf joe while I get ready and a Garden Smoothie while I go to work.  Easy.  If you don't have a good blender and want to try this amazingness, you can pick one up at the smoothie bar at Whole Foods.  Often it's called the Farmers Market or you can have them make it to order.

Other areas I have set up for success would be the darling puppy, chocolate lab, that we got our daughter for Christmas.  She is adorable and needs to be walked, a lot.  Since I want to be doing a lot more walking, she is the perfect addition to our family, because it's forced, whether at noon or 2am.  (Not sure my personal exercise plan would include a 2am walk, but she's totally worth it and once out the door, I can find a happy place about it.)
I have found some beginners Yoga in the tv and filled up my queue with episodes that I have done off and on in the last 3 months.  Yesterday I bought an official Yoga mat, pink, and will put it to use later today.

An area that I have wanted to be more disciplined in is writing.  I love to write.  I have a lens in my brain that sees most of my world in chapters that ought to be in a book, or illustrations of concepts that I believe in.  Yet, when I sit down at the computer to write, I often stare at a blank screen.  I will write a sentence or a few sentences and then edit, edit, edit until I delete and am back to the blank screen.  At some point that is dumb and I walk away.  But I want to write with all that's in me.

About a month ago I was walking by my friend Allison's office and she asked me to come in.  I sat down at her kitchen table desk, which I love, and she started talking to me about Project 365.  How there would be a blog with different voices; each of us committing to 3 things we want to do every day for 365 days, starting January 1st.  I was excited!  "Of course I want to be a part of it," I said.  I told her I needed to think about my three things and I would get back to her.  I thought about it like this.  I need to pick something challenging, I need to pick something easy, and I need to pick something fun.  This year I committ, via project 365, to:
Challenging
Drink at least 64oz of water every day.  Water, blech.  Why drink water when I can drink a delicious and nose tickling Diet Coke?  Ugh, I know I need to drink water and that Diet Coke is making my bones brittle and something about formaldahide for the brain tissue.  Honestly, I'm not in a place to give it up altogether, but I am willing to commit to at least 64oz of water every day.  In a perfect world, I would be a decaf, smoothie, wine and water drinker when this is all said and done, but I am not there today.
Easy
Give a verbal affirmation to someone in person or do a random act of kindness (RAK) every single day.  I want to say meaningful things to people more often than I do.  I think nice things about people all the time and now I want to be intentional about circling back and to tell the person what I think about them or what they did or how they made me or someone else feel.  Or, I want to do a RAK that makes someones life better.  With this in mind for the last couple of weeks, I've already started this where I see applicable opportunity.  We went to get the mail the other day at our clutter box and someone had left their keys in their box.  Nobody was around in any direction, so I locked the mailbox, and walked to the apartment that matched the box number.  The guy that answered the door was surprised and said, "Thank you."  And on my way I went.  I suppose that the keys would have been there for him once he realized it, but it was no problem to walk them over to him, which is most definitely what I would want someone to do for me.
Fun
My fun will be blogging 2-3 times a week.  About whatever.  Having fun with writing again, not really worrying about it the way that I painstakingly do.  Sheesh, just write already.  I will put stuff on here and stuff on my personal blog: www.christiefarley.typepad.com You'll notice I've had the blog a while but somewhere along the way I got bit by the fear bug and it changed to recipes and lists, ie: safe.  But totally boring.  No more.  I will write and it will be fun.

So there you go.

Oh, who am I?  I'm Christie Farley.  35; married; daughter; dog; fish.  Work at a big o' church in the OC.  Love Jesus, love people, love a good book, love a cheesy book, love chips & salsa, love to give outside the house and be splendidly introverted inside the house.  Hate raw tomatoes, hate sunburns, hate laundry.  I'm looking forward to this year of all that's above and whatever adventures are around the corner.