Make No Resolutions

I started to write a blog post at the end of December, and I quickly realized that it read like a total brain dump and was more a journal entry than a meaningful post. Since that was where my head space was, I took a few days off to just focus on family and the holidays. At our home we do activities for Christmas Eve/Day and New Year’s Eve/Day. I’m tempted to have my kiddos put their shoes out on the night of January 5th for gifts from Los Reyes Magos, but we’ll see if I can get my act together for that.

We’ve had some major progress on the house in Jaguey, Perú, so keep an eye out for some update photos at the end of this post.

Happy New Year!!

I’m not a huge one for making New Year’s resolutions to begin with, but I’ve always hated thinking I’ll make some epic change for the better only to find that, for whatever reason internal or external, I’ve completely abandoned the idea three months later. This year I’m not going to make any “Resolutions.”  Instead, I’ve taken a page from Tim Ferriss and have completed a Year-In-Review for 2022. I’ve always loved a good post-mortem, and this year was a good one to take a look back. I used the advice on his blog (see link below) and looked at three basic categories of the previous year.

As per his system, I made two columns: Positive and Negative. As I looked back through my calendar, in each column I listed People, Activities, and Commitments, that triggered either positive or negative emotions. Fascinatingly there were a few people who, depending on the context, were in both columns, but I digress. Armed with this information, I need to complete the next step(s) in the process: schedule more time with people or doing activities/commitments that yield a positive experience and cut back or cut out the time spent with the people and activities/commitments in the negative column.

I am very bad at saying “No” to things, even time with people/doing things that I know produce a net negative experience. I am hoping that if I keep this year-in-review handy and refer to it often, I can make better decisions on how and where to focus my time without succumbing to guilt, etc. I hope that referring back to this with regularity will help me to help myself. I need to be more cognizant of where I choose to spend my focus in order to have the energy and mental acuity to achieve what’s important to me, like being a stable, reliable mother who isn’t cranky and irritable the majority of the time.

House in Jaguey, Perú - Update 7

This is a view of the Lima side of the house. We’ve chosen some paint colors that we hope we can live with for a long while, but the important thing was to get a protective coating of paint on the exterior. In the end, the front vs. the side color is a bit too yellow for my taste, but it’ll protect the surface!

Here’s the Camaná side of the house, and in the sunlight the difference between the colors doesn’t look as extreme. We are going to have A LOT of clean-up to do once our construction is completed.

The Camaná region is considered desert. During January-February there is some rainfall, and the annual average is somewhere from 0.5 to 0.6 inches. Very occasionally there are heavy rains that can cause serious roof damage if you’re unprepared, thus the spouts for water to run off the roofs.

Here you can see my brother-in-law Stiven’s side-kick Rayo up on the roof inspecting the new spouts.

Here is the kitchen-dining area with its Smoky White walls and column. The unpainted area will ostensibly have our cabinetry and appliances. The pipes sticking up through the floor between the two types of tile will be for a plumbed island counter area.

The studio is also the same Smoky White color to give a fairly color neutral space for art-making.

Here is the Master Bedroom - two walls a deep blue and two walls Smoky White.

And this is the porch looking into the studio area with its cream colored walls and white columns. Next update, I’ll share photos of the kids’ rooms - we found some fun colors and designs to get them started!

What are your plans for 2023? Do you do a year-in-review or are you a firm believer in setting resolutions to kick off the new year?

I’d love to know what works for you!

Useful link(s) this week:

“Forget New Year’s Resolutions and Conduct a ‘Past Year Review’ Instead (#559), Tim Ferriss