DOWNLOAD HERE

desktop  //  phone

DOWNLOAD WITHOUT CALENDAR

desktop // phone

One of my favorite things used to be changing out my desktop wallpaper every single month. A few years back one of my favorite watercolor illustrators Oana Befort used to release a new desktop calendar every month and I miss that. I miss cleaning up my desktop every month, getting rid of files I don’t need, cleaning up ones I do, and putting a fresh wallpaper up. So, I decided that was something I was going to commit to doing this year. So if you like refreshing your computer every month, I can tell you that I’ll have something new for you every month this year.

Multiple times already this year I have caught myself doing something or thinking of something in a way that I don’t want to anymore. Maybe it’s just a negative thought I had about a situation or myself, and I’ve told myself, “no, not this year.” It’s a new year, time for a fresh start, and so that’s what I’m committing to. Starting fresh and removing negative thinking.

How I’m starting fresh: 

I’ve committed to a plan. I have a plan for this blog for an entire year, one post a week, and I’m going to stick to it. I used to blog a lot back in the day, maybe you followed me back then, or maybe you’re new. Either way, hello friend, I’m glad you’re here.

A few years ago … 5 years ago actually, I stopped blogging consistently because my business got started. Thrive, a company dedicated to educating and empowering bloggers through a yearly conference that is now also a blog and a brand new podcast. Needless to say, anytime that I had been dedicating to my own blog got thrown into Thrive. It has, and still is, my passion, that thing that gives me life, fuel, and a purpose. Funny how that thing, educating bloggers, caused my own blog to disappear. Those that can’t do, teach? Nevertheless, 5 years later, I have realized that I need my own little corner of the internet. A place where I can share my personal life, pictures, travel, recipes, all the things. I need a place of my own, and maybe a spot that I can show – hey… I can actually blog y’all, not just teach you about blogging.

My word for the year: 

The one thing I want to have happen this year, no matter all of the craziness that will come my way, is I want to experience joy. My blog was originally called “The Thing About Joy.” And my intention with naming it that was that it would show how joy shows up unexpectedly, and how it can be found in the little things. While I think that will still be a motto around here as I welcome you back into my personal life, it’s something I wanted to make intentional for myself this year. Joy, to focus on it, to search for it in the crappiest circumstances, to savor the small things, the little moments where I feel content and happy. I want to find joy in life every single day, and if it’s not coming because I’m having a crummy day, to force myself to think on it at the end of every day and remember the little happy moments that happened through that day.

I hope that didn’t make me sound like an unhappy person! Because I’m truly not! I just want to be more intentional about life, and not let it slip away. Life goes by so fast, I mean seriously, how is it 2019 already? I can’t believe my husband and I have been married for 8 years, I can’t believe our year of travel is over, and it’s amazing to me that I’m already thinking, “TIME! SLOW DOWN!” No regrets, but I have to be intentional about every day, so I am going to chose to focus on joy at some point of every day.

Random fact about me, did you know my middle name is Joy? That was also a play on choosing my blog name all those years ago. As I’m writing this, I’m realizing maybe it was God trying to tell me to take time for me and my self-health this year.

I hope that something I have said today in this first post of the year resonated with you. I’d love to hear about your word for this year, your intention, or just something you want to think about for the year. Do you find yourself wishing time would slow down?

Happy 2019 friends – I can’t wait to share so much with you in my little cozy corner of the internet.