For the past two months I have shopped, gorged and fretted my way through the snowy season. Now I have the next few days to spend time with the special people in my life, sharing laughter and love. Many folks use this time to reflect on the previous year, all the things they have accomplished and all the things they want to do in the New Year. I am mostly looking forward to all of the things waiting for my family in 2014. We are expecting in late spring and our 5 year old is heading off to kindergarten in the fall. Change is happening in our household and I am both excited and nervous for the future.
I am pretty shallow so I don’t often reflect, but 2013 changed our lives in a lot of ways and I found myself thinking about the New Year’s resolutions I made (and in most cases promptly forgot) last year. As January approaches I have resolved to make some healthier changes in my life, focus on my family, and do the laundry more than once a week (this is an often made resolution in my life). A quick Google search brings up several lists of the top New Year’s resolutions and I wanted to share some of them with you, along with some resources to help you start fresh in 2014!
1) Eat Healthy and Exercise Regularly (a.k.a. lose weight). This is a 
staple for most people this time of year. The holidays can stress people out and stress can lead to over eating, so it is no big surprise that when we think about how we want to change our lives we think about a healthier -balanced lifestyle. You can find great reading and DVDs at the library to help you on your way.
2) Learn something new. It doesn’t matter if it is a new language or an instrument, learning something new gives you a chance to gain a new perspective on life.
3) Volunteer. Helping others is a great resolution that tends to make 
it on to most top resolution lists. The Library offers volunteer opportunities in the libraries and in our friends’ organizations.
4) Save Money. In years of plenty and in the lean years this resolution tends to find a spot on lots of lists. The library, of course, is a great money saver when you use it as a patron, but also offers lots of resources to help you with investing, aid, and taxes!
5) Get organized. This is a hard one for me, it is always on my list and is the first resolution to fly out the window. I am just naturally a hair-brained type gal but there are lots of different titles out there to help you try to get your house, family and work more organized!
How about you? What are your tried and true (or tired and over-used) resolutions?
–Natalie
Eleventh Stack 