New Blog

Hello!

Kitcher's Café is now at The LKC! Please check out my new blog at www.thelkc.com

See you there,

~Lana

First Snow of 2017

Week two of blogging in 2017. I already feel like I'm running a bit short on ideas (no wonder I haven't blogged in a while!) but I'll push through and see where this takes me. Instead of considering Sunday the end of the week, I think I'll need to change my mindset and start seeing it as the beginning of the new week. With Monday as the beginning, it starts the week off on the wrong foot. Monday blues at work, etc. But if we start it on a Sunday, we have the opportunity to start it off right. Fun activities on Sunday? Day of rest to launch the new week and feel reenergized?

That's another thing I should probably adopt - an actual day of rest. Other than during vacations, the 2017 person, at least the 2017 New Yorker, rarely allows time for rest, thus running on empty week after week. And if I were to adopt a day of rest, what would that mean for me? Do I allow myself to cook? Watch TV? What do I consider restful? Is there a difference between fun and restful? Should I choose fun things that only require little energy?

What does a day of rest mean for you? What do you do on those days? Or perhaps more importantly, what do you NOT do on those days? 

We had our first real snow of the winter. Snow brings me joy, mostly because it allows for guilt-free laziness, but also for the physical affect it has on the world - peaceful and calming. Stores close, plans are canceled - you can sit at home and enjoy the snowfall, take walks, play, and feel at peace. Granted, having to work and function in the snow is a different story - I do not enjoy owning a car or having to get around in the snow when plans refuse to budge and work insists on staying open. (A heartfelt thanks to all of the workers that do not have a choice, namely hospitals and other necessity shops and operations. We appreciate all that you do!)

For the first snow I took a couple of photos. Believe it or not, it's difficult to take photos when it's actively snowing. Snow is wet, and cameras don't do well in water. These macro photos also would have been easier to take with a tripod... Next time. Either way, it was fun and I hope you enjoy these few.

Welcome to 2017!

It looks like my last post was almost exactly one year ago. How did that happen? Has a full year passed already, right from underneath my nose?

Early in January, I was presented with a challenging situation at my place of work, which more or less consumed my life for six months. Finally the situation was "relieved," however I have continued to live in the pre-June consumption mind-set and routine. Well, I'm ready to pull myself out of it. I've taken time to think about my goals these first couple days of January, and put down on paper the different things that I want. What I want to accomplish, what kinds of habits I'd like to make, or beak. How do I want to live and what do I enjoy doing?

I started by putting all of these different thoughts onto a large piece of scrap paper in pencil. This helped make it feel less permanent, and more like sketching... paper I could throw away and pencil in case I'd like to erase or change my mind. To start, I just jotted it all down without worrying about how many there were, or if they were reasonable.

The second step was to then review all of these different ideas and narrow the focus. Of course I couldn't accomplish them all, so I took a practical look at which of them I most wanted to accomplish sooner rather than later, and why. After reviewing my top priorities, I was able to come up with specific goals (some habitual, some larger scale accomplishments), and create an action plan for how to achieve them. I'm also putting into effect some new tools in order to track my progress which, for a notebook junkie like me, makes the process fun.

Enter: Hobonichi Techo

Front of Hobonichi without cover

Daily pages of Hobonichi

I use daily pages for to do lists, quotes of inspiration, drawings, pasting items from travels, anything and everything.

Monthly pages of Hobonichi

I use this page for looking back at the month and the meetings or accomplishments I'd like to remember. I have a tendency to forget the awesome things I've done, and use this page to keep tabs on myself. Tim Ferriss has recommended a "jar of awesome" so I'll start with a "journal of awesome" this year.

At a glance monthly pages of Hobonichi 2017

I use this page for daily habits I'd like to form.




I'd also like to re-read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I think it will be a helpful reminder about how to form habits, especially at this time of year when many people will forget all of their resolutions before even the end of January.

My 2017 New Year's Resolutions include:

1) Plan and execute our wedding before the end of 2017
2) Find a new place to live (not renting) before the end of 2017
3) Visit one new foreign country before the end of 2017
4) Complete 20~25 books by December 31, 2017 (approximately one book every two weeks)
5) Wake up by 6:30 am daily
6) Write down three things for which I am grateful every day (daily gratitude)
7) Exercise twice per week
8) Blog once per week

Not only do I plan to keep these resolutions in my Hobonichi and use the book to help me track my progress, but I will also post these goals somewhere in my house so that I will see them daily.

And to help bring some more art and creativity into my life, here are a few of my new images. You can expect to see a bit more macro this year as I attempt to learn how to use my new lens. I hope you enjoy them!

What are your goals this year?

All the best,
Lana

Disclaimers:
All photographs are my personal work. Please do not reuse them without permission or appropriate credits.

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