On New Year's Day...

"The soul's awakening is gratitude"  (Sarah Ban Breathnach)

 This New Year's Day will not see me joining a new gym or starting a new healthy eating plan, I don't have to give up smoking because I don't and I didn't drink very much before I got pregnant anyway.  What it will see me doing though is starting my new journal as I did this morning, a precious hour in bed alone while my girls were downstairs with their Daddy.  I took some time to think about the upcoming year and about January in particular.  January can be such a bleak month, all the festivity is finished and all that stretches ahead of us is two more months of winter and the usual daily routine, but with some reflection and creativity it can be a month of new beginnings.

 So, in my journal I've thought about how to make January a bit brighter - just with a few simple ideas.  Making plans for lunch with friends, planning a trip in to the museums in London with my girls, a trip to a local art gallery on my own for a little treat, spending some time organising photo albums and writing in dates and special memories to go with the photos, compiling a list of books I'd like to read ( I find the 'New Books' magazine particularly helpful with this), making some little plans for the gardens (I don't plan on doing much gardening this year with a new little one on the way) and I'm also making plans for the things I would like to make for the new baby, starting with some little cardis and some bootees.

 Also in my journal I'm trying to start as I mean to go on with a list of the gifts that January will bring.  Already this morning, before I even got out of bed, I wrote down the following;
"- Lying in bed, before sunrise, kissing and cuddling my girls, laughing and singing - heavenly.
 - Sunday morning reading and writing in bed."
Already January has started pretty well.  How happier and more content does it make me feel to start the day knowing that I already have something for which to feel grateful.  If I write nothing else in my journal this year I want to commit to recording the gifts in my life.  The really small moments in my day, that can go by unacknowledged unless I'm looking for them.  Flicking back on previous journals when I've done this well, each entry brings a smile to my face and makes me feel as though my life is so rich and full.