Does anyone else feel compelled to clean every corner/counter/closet in your house before the year ends? That’s been me, my mom always told us it was bad juju to go into a new year with a dirty house. I spent my day yesterday deep cleaning our carpets; today since I got off work early I rushed home to put together the rest of my room then I started to clean the pantry and kitchen downstairs. Like you guys, there is not one single piece of clothing sitting on the floor of my closet right now, how crazy is that?

To be honest, I love the idea of a new year and starting over with new beginnings. Do you guys do new years resolutions? Or is that a thing of the past? I feel like there are a lot of people out there saying they don’t do resolutions anymore because it sets them up for failure. I don’t feel that way though, I always set one or two big goals for myself to try and do during the year. Mine this year was to learn to cherish things and to live in the moment. I feel like I did a pretty good job at doing just that.

Five things I am grateful for today are:

1. filtered/bottled water; something we need in order to live but literally take for granted because we don’t really have to think twice about clean water
2. not having to hunt for my food, being able to go to a grocery store and buy whatever i want whenever i want
3. having air conditioning/heater
4. modern medicine and healthcare (even though there are a lot of problems in the US healthcare system, I am still thankful to live in a day and age where it exists and things continue to advance)
5. growing up with parent’s who gave me the world