The After Christmas Blahs and a Fresh Start

I always feel a bit "down in the dumps" after Christmas. I'm not depressed, but I'm not very enegetic or motivated either. I do look forward to the new year though and the thought of a fresh start.

Last year my "word" was "Simplify" which I did in many aspects of my life. I've said that 2009 was my year of the purge. I got rid of a lot of stuff that had been cluttering our lives and I'm NOT a pack rat and I run an organized home, but I had been holding on to things that I really didn't need.

This year, I'm not sure what my "word" will be. With what my family has been through the last quarter of 2009, it probably should be "Hope". Hope that my husband finds a great job, hope that my job stays stable and a bit less stressful, hope that Connor continues to do well in school. Hope that I can continue to be fitness conscience and don't stop making exercise a priority.

One thing I did last year was keep track of how much money I saved by clipping grocery coupons. It's something I usually do when I'm watching a DVD, so I'm really not spending any additional time doing it. I do our weekly grocery shopping on Sunday mornings and Hy-Vee totals your coupon savings on their receipts, so I kept track and the grand total after doing our shopping last Sunday is $470.91, but I'll bet it was probably more than $500 because I'm sure I had used coupons for small trips and forgot to write it down. $500 just by clipping coupons. Not bad.

We spent today getting most of the Christmas decor taken down and put away. I usually leave it up until after the New Year, but this year I didn't want to wait. I'm really hoping to get some scrapbook mojo back and play in my scraproom. I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday, January 5th so I've got plenty of time.


Happy New Year to all of my family and friends! We, of course are staying in tonight. We'll probably watch Iowa State in the Insight Bowl and it looks like we're going to do the steak dinners at Hy-Vee for dinner....Yea!...no cooking!