New Year Gifts

9 degrees over here.

Ankur just left for work and Ishu is still sleeping and I’m standing in the kitchen trying to savor this hot coffee before another day begins.

So far, it hasn’t been too difficult to keep Ishu entertained. Since we spent the last two weeks in California, his puzzles and books and toys feel new to him.

But I know the honeymoon period with these things may end soon.

We’ve got fingerpaints and spaghetti tucked away for when we’ll need it.

And, if all else fails, I can plop him in the bathtub or in front of the kitchen sink. Sure, water gets EVERYWHERE. But it’s a small cost to pay to entertain this child. Ha.

Yesterday, Ishu was trying to climb on top of his learning tower and I said, “Knock it off.” And then he continued to repeat “knock it off” for the rest of the night.

Good thing I didn’t let the eff word loose cause we KNOW he’ll be all over that.

Anyway, wanted to share two new year gifts I purchased for myself at the end of last year!

First, I purchased a Hustle Sanely planner to kick off 2022.

I haven’t really used a planner in a while. But I follow Jess (the person behind Hustle Sanely) on Instagram. I always watch her stories and will occasionally listen to her podcast. While she was packaging up these planners to mail out to people, she was sharing a lot of the behind-the-scenes of what the packaging day looked like.

And mimosas were involved. And I can really get behind a small business that has mimosas while prepping packages for people.

Ha.

All this to say, if you’ve got a small business, I really think sharing the behind-the-scenes does something to people. You see how much sweat, tears, and champagne goes into building a product and you can’t help but support them!

ANYWAY, I love being a planner person. It’s a pretty bulky one so I’m glad I’m working from home this year and not having to tuck this into a work bag. But it feels nice to – once again – map out my days in a more organized way. I don’t know what it is about writing something down. But I feel like if it’s on the planner, I’m more inclined to get it done.

My next impulse buy was a year-long subscription to the Sweat app. The time I’ve felt the strongest in my life was when I was doing Kayla’s BBG program. That was back in Harrogate when I carried my green binder into the LMU gym with print-outs of the workout. But man, the program has grown so much.

I’m easing my way into it with a postpartum challenge. The exercises are very simple. Which I think is good for me because 1) I haven’t worked out in FOREVER and 2) it’s helping me build up the habit of showing up each day. So by the time I do this high-intensity challenge (which starts in 4 days!), I won’t show up feeling super intimidated and paralyzed.

The one thing I love about it is that you can sign up for a program that doesn’t require any equipment. Which is really nice. Because I can just do this in the living room with Ishu. I don’t need to head down to the gym. Heck, I don’t even need to wait ’til his nap time. I can do this while he’s running circles around me in the living room.

I’ve been using the “it’s hard with a toddler!” excuse for a while and, yeah, it is. But I’m determined to do this because I want to feel STRONG again.

So, that’s it. I’m thrilled about these two new year gifts to myself. Happy new year to me!