Resources for a Bright Shiny New Year

The fresh start aspect of both Back to School and New Year's appeals vastly to me - they're my favorite times of the year. In September there's new crayons, and in January there are new calendars, what's not to love?

Even when I was a little girl, I was big on New Year's resolutions, and most of the time I take time to line out my plans and resolutions for the year between Christmas and New Year's, but this year I tried to focus on actually taking that time off ... no surprise: it was lovely :o)

Not having lined out my plans and resolutions by January 2nd would normally drive the perfectionist in me completely crazy, BUT ... for Christmas, LtDan gave me the best gift EVER: a night away to rest and relax and just be still. Having that night close enough to the New Year to consider it a New Year's Retreat makes me a little giddy, I'm not going to lie. I'm fairly sure LtDan may not really get this part of me, but he's marvelously gracious in indulging it and I love him for it. I asked for one night, and he gave me two, so there's a date night and a retreat rolled nicely into one spectacular gift. D o u b l e YAY!

Here are a few things I'll be working with on my Back to the New Year Retreat:

Leonie Dawson's Shining Year Workbook

When I stumbled on this post from digital strategist Nathalie Lussier, wherein she lists the top ten planners for entrepreneurs, I was in planner heaven. I poured over each suggested planner, considering and evaluating the merits of each one, but the one that pulled me right over the moon was Leonie Dawson's Shining Year Workbook.

This isn't a planner in the calendar sense - it's a workbook to guide you through planning how you want the coming year to be. It begins with a review of the past year and gives you a place to remember the great, the good and the won't-do-that-agains, and a place to put it all to rest so you can move on to dreaming up a shiny new year.

Although I do generally make resolutions every year, I would be hardpressed to produce a respectable list of said resolutions from any year gone by. I'm so excited to use this book for 2016 - it's beautiful and whimsical and colorful and optimistic. With such a happy place to get it all down, I'm sure I'll be returning to it regularly to keep the shiny dream fresh. It's such a brilliant idea to make a true workbook for dreams and goals and resolutions, and I'm pretty sure Leonie's workbook will be an annual purchase for me. I also went back and purchased her weekly planner for 2016. Because, you know: planner junkie!

Sacred Ordinary Days 2016 Liturgical Planner

I came upon the Sacred Ordinary Days Planner back in late October and have been using it ever since. This planner fuses the liturgical calendar, the Book of Common Prayer and a daily planner. Although my own church experience when I was growing up didn't provide experience with liturgy or the Book of Common Prayer, I'm intrigued by them.

I've been looking for a daily plan to follow for Bible reading and prayer, and this lovely book fits the bill beautifully. I don't use it as a daily planner per se, but it's the place I'll be writing down what I learn and ponder in my daily spiritual walk. In the past, I've used various books and spiral notebooks, but I've kind of jumped around and have wished for a regular place to write things down. I'm excited to finally have a book that I know I'll use consistently. Click }here{ to read about the KickStarter campaign that got Sacred Ordinary Days started - the print run has already completed and sold out, but you can purchase a PDF of the book }here{. In my own experience, printing the book pages on my own paper made stepping into the bound book less intimidating. Anyone else have a hard time writing in a brand new book/planner/journal the first time, or is that just me?

Evernote

I've always been a journaler, and a big five-subject spiral notebook and a pencil have always been my preference, but I'm slowly making my way toward using a digital journal, and Evernote works well for me. I'm looking forward to reading back over 2015 and hope to see some patterns and remember things I wish I could remember I learned :o)

Word and Theme for 2016

I've not done this before, have you? I'm super late to this party, but I keep reading about choosing a single word or theme for the year. It sounds like a great way to maintain focus, so I'm in. I'm not sure who had the original ideas, but here's a great post by Laura at the Hollywood Housewife that puts it beautifully.

How about you?