2016 has already brought the drama. On January 2nd, my daughter somehow contracted a nasty stomach bug and gave it to all of us. Why are stomach bugs so highly contagious?! Ugh. I have a pretty big phobia of vomiting so it was like a nightmare come true. Long ago, before becoming a parent, I recall worrying immensely if I could be a good mom because I didn’t want to deal with any aspect of throwing up and/or the stomach flu. I say this sheepishly, because it sounds, so, well, pathetic.

I am happy to report that we are all on the other side of this latest illness. Unexpectedly, the toughest part of it all was not the vomiting, but being sick at the exact same time as my husband. It was so hard to take care of my daughter while feeling so miserable. Oh, and did I mention my mom got it, too? Just awful.

Getting sick so close to the new year was a bummer. I felt so motivated and ready to tackle a number of tasks, and now I feel like I am walking around with this glazed over, overwhelmed look on my face.

I am working hard to simplify my life again. Everything feels cluttered and complicated, and just…difficult. Laundry waiting to be washed, recipes waiting to be cooked, text messages waiting to be returned, blog posts waiting to be written (even though I almost never find the time to blog anymore), and so, so much more. Pre-school research has been on my to-do list for like six months and it hasn’t happened. There are just piles of shit all around my house begging to be sorted, organized, looked at, dealt with.

Simplify simplify simplify. I need to simplify. One way I am working on re-gaining some control is by instituting a spending freeze for the month of January. No new clothes, no new make-up, no new toys, no new STUFF for the next few weeks. So far, I feel victorious after leaving Target without a super cute shirt I was eyeing. Like, it felt scarily good to just say “no” to a silly $22 shirt that was going to make me happy in the interim, but ultimately, I did not need.

Another super easy task I checked off my to-do list was to unsubscribe from tons of email subscriptions that no longer serve much purpose in my life other than cluttering up my inboxes. HUGE weight lifted. Also, I figure this will help my spending freeze goals, because I often find myself very tempted by amazing sales and emails about the latest products. More shit I do not need.

I look forward to getting back on the workout train this week. L and I finally did some meal planning (we haven’t meal planned in over a month) and there are some fresh homemade meals in the pipeline. I feel good about what’s ahead. One step at a time…