What I Do on January 1st

The last two New Years have been consumed by newborn babies, and this year was the first year I wasn’t needing to be attached to a baby and I have to admit, I was a little lost. I had a moment to think about myself and do you want to know the first thing I did? I took a hot shower.

That got me thinking. The last couple of new years, I have been so consumed with my new babies, that I didn’t really think about what I needed to do for the new year for myself. In order to be a better mom, I need to take care of myself. You can’t pour anything out of an empty pitcher.

Before we had the girls, I would take the first of January as many people do and start fresh. Here are some things I normally do on 1/1:

• Take a shower
• Do all the laundry
• Wash sheets/towels
• Go for a walk

I know these things are not groundbreaking, but it always helped me feel better walking into a new year. Even if they had been done the previous day, I still do them.

Then, throughout January, we do a few things to prepare for the year ahead:

• Throw away old products (shampoo/make up/lotions) and update any products.
• Take a picture of current products so I can be reminded of them when I shop, like the shade of certain creams.
• Switch out razor blades (if haven’t been done recently)
• We used to get new toothbrushes, but now we are using the Quip toothbrush and we have new heads come every three months, it’s amazing to not have to worry.
• Go through our clothes and the girls clothes and give away anything we haven’t worn in a while (minimum 6 months), or doesn’t fit.
• Pick five books that I would like to read for the year.

In 2019 I read Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis and I fell in love with her enthusiasm and humor. I’m planning on reading Girl Stop Apologizing this year and to go along with that, I also purchased her Start Today journal at Target. If you don’t know what it is, essentially it is a journal that helps you set intentional goals and also helps with daily gratitude. I found especially over the last year that I’ve been struggling with gratitude and I’m looking forward to adding this to my morning/nap time devotions. On a personal note, the journal is a part of her “Los Angeles” collection and I think that that will fit me just fine.

Come back on Friday to see what five books I have picked to get through this year.