2018: New Year, Better Me

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First of all, HAPPY 2018! Obviously, I'm very late due to some technical difficulties and basic time constraints but I'M BACK. So be sure to tune in at least a couple times a week to keep up with the madness (or you can obviously follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest to see when the new stuff goes up.

Second of all, I don't get all the hate surrounding the "New year, New me" slogan. If people want to say it every year and use it as motivation/attention getter to spur support and motivation then just support them. Why be hateful? Will they fail and be the same person? Maybe. Or maybe they'll make big changes in their lives or attitudes and feel like a whole new person. Who knows. Who cares. Just support each other people. Geez.

Finally, I'm not gonna say "New year, new me" because I generally like myself and don't want to be a whole new person so I'm saying: New Year, Better Me. I'm using this new year to motivate me to better myself and make some changes. So here are my goals/resolutions/plans/whatever you wanna call it:

• Make a big career move- So I'm currently working in a factory thats starting to look like its not going to allow me to advance and therefore is just a dead end job (still a great paycheck and benefits, don't get me wrong) and I'm looking for something more. I'm looking for a career. So I'm ready for a change and am already pursuing some leads. Stay tuned for updates.
• Be More Positive- I'm naturally a negative person so time for a more positive mindset this year.
• Focus On My Health- I'm also really bad about living off of cigarettes, Monster, and no sleep so I'm going to focus on getting enough sleep, eating regularly (learning to cook maybe...), and obviously quitting smoking. I've already gave up Monster so I'm on the right track. I'm also determined to get back to my pre baby weight (I won't lie, I'm only about 10-15 pounds over. I got lucky but I definitely need to tone up)
• Less Time at Work, More Time With Family- I'm sure I've mentioned it but I'm a workaholic so I'm always working 12 hour days and every weekend. This year, I'm focusing less on the money and more on spending time with J and baby Kota. 
• Stop Procrastinating- I'm bad about putting things off til the last minute. By things, I mean EVERYTHING so I'm working on that. It'll help my stress level hopefully.
• Be Smarter With Money- Generally, I do pretty well with money  but I could be better so I'm making a goal to save $5000 by the end of the year to put towards buying a house when we decide to do so.
• Be The Best Mom- I'm going to do everything in my power to be the best mom to baby that I can possibly be in every way possible. 

So there's a quick look at my goals for the year. What do y'all want to accomplish this year? 

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If you need some help staying on track or want someone to bounce ideas off of/vent to/whatever, my inboxes are always open. Let's make this our year!

October Goals and Updates

Yes, I'm well aware that we're already a week into October, bear with me. But anyways, if you're a new reader and haven't seen these before, this is where I express my goals for the month because it kind of helps me stick to them if I've publicly voiced them. Plus maybe it'll give some of you some ideas or help y'all accomplish some goals too. So here goes:

• Cut back on cigarettes- I was so proud of myself when I quit smoking when I was pregnant and even after I went without for a month or so. As soon as I got back to work though I picked the habit back up. First of all, its stupid expensive these days. Second of all, I'd really like to see Kota graduate high school some day. Unfortunately, since I do breastfeed, that means Kota is getting the nicotine too so I can't just quit. It's gotta be a process.
• Schedule college classes for Spring- So because Kota came so early it messed my whole college schedule and financial aid up so now I'm looking at May or July graduation but I WILL FINISH. I think this is the month I can schedule for next semester... might be next month...
• Cut out Monster and cut back on pop- again I was completely away from caffeine until I went back to work and as much as it sucks working 12 hours a day and 7 days a week on next to no sleep I should be able to find a healthier source of energy.
• Pay off credit cards- there will be a fun post about these little bastards this weekend.

So yeah. That's just a few of my goals I really wanna focus on in the rest of the month. Stay tuned for Nivembers post to see how I did. Also, I have some updates slash information for y'all:

• For those of you who have been following for a while, you can obviously see the change in layout. Not positive I'm done messing with it but for now I'm happy. Be glad to take comments and suggestions.
• To clear things up: J is my fiancé. I'll probably do a big long sappy post about him tomorrow. I don't use his name because technically I'm not sure he knows about this blog and so therefore I don't really have his permission to include him but I'm doing it anyways in a slightly vague way.
• Also new, if you look up in the top left corner you'll see that the blog name has changed. I'm still not quite sure if this is what I'll stick with. I think I'm gonna post a poll tomorrow and let y'all vote on a name for the next week. Again, I'm open to suggestions! The web address will always stay the same so you can always find me.
• ANY topics you'd like me to post about, send me a message on social media or comment below or hit the contact page for other ways to reach me. Also, if you have a story, business, talent, whatever you'd like me to check out and review or just share on here, feel free to send that stuff my way too. I love to support other people's dreams and small businesses (though I may require free samples😉)

That's all for tonight folks. Love y'all and Kota does too (even if she's dead asleep and snoring currently). Look forward to hearing from you guys!