Life

I spent so much time on my computer this past weekend. Between trying to find an apartment in Minneapolis while still living in New York City to finally putting some finishing touches on this blog (which, by the way, these “finishing touches” seem to never end. Oh well.), my laptop and I were best friends.

By the way, have you ever thought about having to use dial-up Internet in today’s world? Can you even imagine how long it would take us to get things done? It’s crazy to think how much we depend not only on the Internet these days but fast Internet. Nobody likes waiting for anything—and that includes a page to load.

Anyway, when I wasn’t looking for a new home or making things pretty here on Better with Family, I was rounding up great things for my first-ever Must-See Monday. I know a lot of other bloggers push out their favorite content of the week on Fridays but I wanted to be different. And honestly, I’m surfing the web so much more during the weekend, so it makes sense for me to do things this way. So there.

In no particular order, here’s my five Must-See Monday topics:

1. All Things E’s “14 Books to Read in 2014”

Erika over at All Things E put together this awesome list of books to read in 2014, some of which she’s already read and provides a corresponding review of. I can’t wait to tackle some of these.

2. Aly Carroll’s photo shoot from Fort Myers

Aly is one of my favorite photographers. I booked her for an event I put together during college after being so entranced by this black-and-white image she took at a wedding. With the cold temps here in New York (and the even colder ones I’m going back to in Minneapolis in a couple of weeks), seeing some warmth in these images was a breath of fresh air.

3. Scout Sixteen’s coat

Justin over at Scout Sixteen is one of my favorite men’s fashion bloggers to follow. And this coat he recently featured on his blog is to die for. I love the simplicity of it and all of the tiny details. And the fur-lined neck is one of my favorite touches. I wish I would’ve picked this up while it was in stores.

4. The sauce recipe from Jeanette’s Healthy Living “Saucy Barbecue Meatballs”

I was looking for a good sauce to put on chicken wings and came across this gem. While I didn’t use it for making meatballs, I think it turned out great. The flavors really soaked right into the wings and they were amazing.

5. HOUSE*TWEAKING’s gold wall art

I came across this piece of wall art on Pinterest a few weeks ago but didn’t click through to the site until a couple of days ago. I absolutely love the print. Expect a DIY post in a few weeks (or months, let’s be real) showing you how I tweaked the design a bit. I’ll fill you in on part of the surprise: I’m going to use a glossy gold paint for the arrows instead, and there might be glitter involved.

 

Is anyone else not overly ecstatic about the idea of “new year, new me” status updates, blog posts, and resolutions? I was recently discussing with a friend about how I don’t understand the significance of celebrating New Year’s Day and the idea behind “starting over” once a year. To me, these types of resolutions and thought patterns seem to fall down faster than they were constructed.

Although I usually try to fill a void in my life or change a habit when I spot it rather than waiting until January 1 to declare all the changes in my life, I wanted to share with you a few things I am going to try to be better at this year—and hopefully well past the year of 2014.

I am going to write more.

I am hoping this blog will help me be better at this. I have always been so entranced by the written word and storytelling. I used to write a lot more during high school and then fell out of the pattern once college came around. I started forming ideas for a novel (the few friends with whom I’ve shared the plot line tell me it’s going to be a best seller!) but that is going to take more much more time and energy than a blog will. So in between figuring out characters and conflict, this blog is hopefully going to help me share some of my favorite things with you.

I am going to help more people without expecting anything in return.

My friend Emily blogs over at Choosing To and she recently wrote about Selfless Sundays, where she does something good for someone else every Sunday. I think this is a fantastic idea and want to work on doing that, too. In a society where we’re only looking out for ourselves, it goes a long way to let someone (even a stranger) know you’re looking out for him/her, too.

I am going to send more snail mail.

Don’t get me wrong—I love email, texting, and FaceTime. But after being so heavily saturated with digital communication, getting a card in the mail with a handwritten note is like winning the lottery. I can’t believe how many young people don’t even know how to address an envelope or why we have zip codes. I’m going to send a handwritten note or card every other week this year to different people in my life, and hopefully to people with whom I’d like to reconnect. If you get a card, don’t expect to see cursive—I forget how to use that a long time ago!

I am going to read more.

During college, reading seemed like such a task because it was page after page, chapter after chapter of seemingly boring, dense content. But now, I finally have the time and desire to read for pleasure again. I bought a Kindle Paperwhite about a year ago and love it. I find myself reading books much faster since I can adjust the font size and leading (the space between the lines) to my comfort. I used to think I was such a slow reader but now I think the text was just too small in books. Although I’m not going to set a goal for a number of books to read, I would be happy with finishing about 50 this year.

What are you going to do?

Instead of telling me what your New Year’s resolutions are, what are you working on this year? Leave me a comment below so we can continue the conversation.