Happy New Year 2013

I love the beginning of a new year.  I love changing the calendar.  I love a fresh start.  I love an invitation to do something different than I've done before.  

The other night, while I restlessly paced around the living room trying to decide whether I could stand leaving the Christmas decorations up for the NYE party we had planned, I wondered why it is that I'm not more content to just leave things the way they are.  I know people who have not changed their furniture around since the day they moved into their homes.  I know people who haven't gained (or lost) a pound since they graduated from high school.  I know people who have lived in the same places their entire lives, and they love it!  What is it about me that constantly craves change?  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but it's a defining character trait for sure.    

Today, on my favorite holiday of the year (besides the first day of school...which technically is an anti-holiday, I think) I will be purging carbs, sugar and meat from my fridge (which the remaining carnivores in my house will be happily consuming.)  I will also be planning healthy meals for the rest of the month, rearranging the furniture, and putting away Christmas.  And my goal for the day is to change the background of this blog.  I am so grateful for all of the talented people who create blog designs that I can freely copy and paste and use as my own, but I am SO ready to personalize this blog.  I have a vision.  It's a pretty simple one, but pulling it off has been tedious and time consuming.  But I'm getting closer.   Hopefully, by the end of the day, this blog will no longer look like Christmas or 2012.  It will be a new and improved, better version of what it used to be.  

That's a good thing to strive for, don't you think?  Better than before?  An improved version of the original?  I think I'm a better version of what I was at this time last year, definitely better than the 1995 version or the 2004 version.  I think the small, subtle changes that I strive to make are probably better than the more drastic ones.  Change is good.  I look forward to a new year full of subtle changes and slight improvements.