Change is a tricky thing. Sometimes it's intentional. Sometimes is happens on its own. Sometimes you don't even notice it until you take a breath and say, "wow I didn't even realize". Change can be exciting, but it can also be scary. For me, change has always seemed like something that I didn't really care much for. Not that I spent much time really thinking about it. I like things how they are most of the time and just stay the course. This year though I feel like that is changing for me. How ironic. It's funny how the turn of one year to another can make us reflect on the time that has past and what we want for the future. Life is evolving and changing and I'm ok with that. I want to embrace that. As I look back on the last year and years past I am proud of the things that I have accomplished and the times that I have pulled up my boot straps and pushed through. I think that being a mom changes the way that you look at life and everything that comes your way. Even Easton has gone through change over the last year. Going from his safe and loved Montessori school to public school has been an adjustment. Together we are navigating through this and adapting to the new ways of learning and moving forward. Every day is not easy, but we keep going. I continue to encourage him through his tough days and tell him that I know that he can do it. It’s these things that I say to my son that also encourage me on my hard days. I know that every day is not going to be a cake walk, but I also know that if I just keep on going it will get better. I sit here today happier than I was yesterday. Hopeful that the days ahead are going to be brighter. I have big goals this year. I feel more equipped than ever to achieve them. I was listening to a song the other day and I thought it was just the perfect theme song for me this year. It was I lived by OneRepublic. It’s funny how music can speak to the places that you are in your life. The song talks about taking chances, not looking back, doing it all and living. This is exactly how I see the year ahead for me. The whole idea of just going full steam ahead and reaching out for my goals, making positive changes, growing and watching the old fall away excites me. The awesome part about all of this is that I don’t think I have been this excited about where I am before. Good things are in store this year. I feel it. I was talking with a co-worker the other day and he was telling me about something that he and his daughters do every year. They pick a word to represent their year. A word that will be their theme for the year. I told him that I have done the same before. But what was different about what they do than what I have done is that they also pick a word that they want to get rid of. A word symbolic of what they are leaving behind. I loved this idea. For 2015 I really have two words that I feel are the essence of who I am and what I want the theme of my year to be. Obviously, CHANGE but also INSPIRE. I want the positive changes that I make to be inspiring. Inspiring for me, but also inspiring for others. I cannot even put the words together to explain the anticipation that I feel for the future. I can only describe it as the feeling that you feel when you first meet someone and you feel that excitement and anxiety all at the same time. All the good butterfly feelings. I feel butterfly’s for the next chapter. I am happy. Then there is the word that I leave behind this year. I really had to think on this and decide what I wanted to let go of. The one thing that really stuck out for me was settling. I don’t want to settle anymore. I don’t want to settle for half of my dreams coming true, for being ok with just being ok. I will not settle in 2015. Big things are ahead. I feel it. I am on the verge of greatness. I am excited and I know at the end of this year I will be able to say I lived!