Oh, January, how I love you.

It's almost embarrassing to admit that I have this tiny photography business. How cliché. I'm a stay-a-home mom with a photography business. Who isn't? Photography is as popular these days as baby hair bows and blogging. I do that too. No, not the baby hair bows.

January is sweeping in though and saving me from melancholy thoughts like these. I love that the coldest month of the year, when the sun shines the least, and depression could flourish is saved by the fact that it is the first of a new year. And a new year brings, for me, the ability to reflect and dream. The fact that it is typically filled with below freezing temperatures gives us all an excuse to pause our busy lives.

I've sort of paused mine. I'm not taking clients in January. I'm not painting any rooms. I'm not shopping or spending money. I'm simply tying up loose ends from last year, and thinking about what I want for 2012. I'm working on my website which needs a touch of something new. Thanks as always to my beloved geek who helps me out. I'm rethinking how many clients I want to take each month, and how much I want to charge. Prices for weddings booked in 2013 will go up a bit. Don't worry, a six hour wedding will still cost less than a $1000.

I'm also pondering what I want to study in my bible. I think I'm going to read all about Saul and David and about David beyond Saul. I'm coming up with a word I want to focus on for 2012. My word for 2011 was peace. I was hoping to have insight on how to have a peaceful home with four kids seven and under. I feel like I gained some insight and now I need to live it out. This year, I'm going to focus on the word inspire. My hope is to be inspired by others; other moms, other families, other christians, other photographers, other bloggers, other women. I don't want to copy or imitate, I just want to see others doing awesome things and leave with vision of how I can do awesome things. I'm surrounded by people doing awesome things. My mom is living through cancer with grace and poise. My sister is surviving twins with grace and poise. My small group, my church peeps, my MOPS friends, my neighbors, my husband are all doing awesome stuff. Hopefully their awesomeness will inspire awesomeness from me which will inspire...

Don't call me corny.

I'm rethinking priorities and budgets and time management. I started making these little rules for myself to help allieviate some minor household issues. For example, I'm not allowing myself to watch TV at my desk anymore (on HULU). I tell myself it helps me edit faster, but then I just get holed up at my desk watching my kids walk from one room to the next. I can still watch some TV but at least I have my hands available to pick Maggie Lu up and hug her. I also made the rule that I have to decide what we are going to eat for dinner when I'm getting breakfast for myself. That way I'm not deciding at 5:30 when I feel exhausted from the day. This has helped us reduce the amount of trips to Wendy's.

I'm also not drinking Mountain Dew which of course you already know about. So far, so good. Two days of caffeine deprivation syndrome wasn't bad. I miss the shot of sugar the most at 5:30pm and 10pm.

Here's to 2012, everyone! Happy New Year!