2014: A New Year

New Year’s Eve 2012 was spent in Boise. With sparkly dresses, fishbowl drinks and below freezing temperatures (I think it was about 10 degrees…)

Stephanie and I were talking about New Year’s Eve 2013 and we both wanted to do a New Year’s post but we both don’t do New Year’s Resolutions! I think I made a resolution once when I was 16 to work on my abs… well I’m now 23 and they’re pretty much the same. However, the idea of starting fresh and having a clean slate is hopeful and exciting! January 1 is really no different than January 2 or February 23 or July 7 – it’s just another day on the calendar. But this notion that January 1 is the catalyst for a change is intoxicating. In lieu of resolutions, Stephanie and I are posting some of our favorite quotes to inspire and motivate us to make 2014 the best year yet! We hope they inspire and encourage you too!

• If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.   -Iven Turgenev
• I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me.   -Tracee Ellis Ross
• There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.  -C.S. Lewis
• Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.  -Isaiah 43:3
• Now is your time. Become, believe, try. Walk closely with people you love, and with other people who believe that God is very good and life is a grand adventure. Don’t spend time with people who make you feel less than you are. Don’t get stuck in the past, and don’t try to fast-forward yourself into a future you haven’t yet earned. Give today all the love and intensity and courage you can, and keep traveling honestly along life’s path.  -Shauna Niequist
• Feeling unsure and lost is part of your path. Don’t avoid it. See what those feelings are showing you and use it. Take a breath. You’ll be okay. Even if you don’t feel okay all the time.    -Louis C.K.
• ‘It is finished.’ May those words land on your bones for the nights when fear tells you the cross was a beginning and you must finish grace.  -Jon Acuff
• Sometimes I wish I could go back in time, sit down with myself and explain that things were going to be okay, that everybody loses ground sometimes and it doesn’t mean anything. It’s the way life works. This is hard to understand in the moment. You get to thinking about the girl who rejected you, the job you got fired from, the test you failed, and you lose sight of the big picture – the fact that life has a beautiful way of remaking itself every few weeks.   -Donald Miller
• Enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. Spend each day with some laughter and some thought, get your emotions going. Be enthusiastic every day to keep your dreams alive in spite of whatever problems you have. Work hard for your dreams to come true and to become a reality.    -Jim Valvano
• Some days life is all about your dreams, hopes and visions for the future. But there are some days where life is just about putting one foot in front of the other. And that’s okay.    -Unknown
• The future is scary. But you can’t just run back to the past because it’s familiar. Yes it’s tempting, but it’s a mistake.   -How I Met Your Mother
• Move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.   -Anthony Bourdain
• It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.   – E.E. Cummings
• I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life: if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.  -Roald Dahl
• Never lose sight of the fact that just “being” is fun.   -Katherine Hepburn
• Experience: the most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.   -C.S. Lewis

I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don’t want to get to the end, or to tomorrow even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down.  -Shauna Niequist

If any of you need a good book to get you through the dark dreary winter months ahead, check out Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist (see above quote). It’s on both of our favorite books list.

We hope that 2014 is filled with healthy families, good friends, exciting adventures and even bigger dreams than 2013. Happy New Year!

~Kelly and Stephanie