2017 desires and hopes

For many people it is traditional that when they welcome in a new year that they make resolutions. Promises of being a new person, starting something new, changing their lifestyle or quitting a bad habit are often declared before the clock strikes midnight and a new year is welcomed.

Whilst neither myself or Lee as individuals or a couple go in much for the tradition of new year resolutions - if we really wanted to change something or quit a bad habit we would anytime of year and not wait for the new year to do so - we have decided to make the most of 2017.

Even though our desires for the year are not life changing plans such as change career or move somewhere new, they are things that will hopefully make life happier for us. In essence they are simple desires and hopes for the year, but along with hopefully being healthy and not having any life changing bad news, they will make the year more worthwhile. Whilst many families already accomplish our simple desires until now circumstances have meant that we haven’t been able to, but with better budgeting, organisation and time-management, willpower and determination they are achievable.

Here are our top plans for 2017  -

Family holiday

Apart from a brief two night stay in Leeds which was spent rushing around hectically visiting family, we are yet to have a family holiday as four. As such top of our plans for this year is to have a family holiday.

Even though a holiday abroad to a breathtaking country with hot weather and beautiful beaches to enjoy would be amazing, a simple yet fun family holiday in the UK would be perfect. At the moment we are looking at either a holiday at a holiday resort park or caravan as they are both the type of holidays that myself and Lee have fond childhood memories of when we were growing up and would love to relive them with our own children.

Reignite old hobbies and interests

With family life being hectic with very little time to spare and us feeling exhausted over the past few years since becoming parents both Lee and I have lost interest in our hobbies. Putting our children first and having very little childcare on hand to help (due to us living away from both of our families) means that it is rare that we have time away from family or work to do as we please.

This year we are resolved that this will change and that we need to make time and put in effort to enjoy the things we once did and loved.

I need to overcome tiredness at the end of the day and make a more conscious effort to read as I once did. Likewise my love of art needs to no longer be ignored and I need to override the thoughts of ‘I can’t be bothered’ and instead pick up the paintbrush and get creative for me once again. Drawing and crafting with the kids whilst fun does not fully quench my desire to let my imagination run wild and create my own art.

Being a creative soul too, Lee also wants to reignite his love of creating his own art work.

Another loved pastime that he wants to restart is angling. Evoking fond memories of days spent carp fishing with his late grandad he hopes to go fishing once again and do so with Bug at his side. Not only will he be reliving cherished childhood memories and doing something he loves once more but he will also be following a family tradition of fishing as a family and pass on the art of fishing to his child. To make sure he follows through with his plans on fishing once again and to make sure they enjoy their time on the bank we have bought tackle and fishing gear from wet-wellies.co.uk

Visit family

We live away from both sides of our family live. Luckily for me I live closer to mine in comparison to Lee but still the distance between us and them means we don’t get to see them as much as we would like. Over an hour’s drive parts me and my family and over 200 miles (a good 6 hours drive) parts us from Lee’s family.

A combination of a lack of enough free time, juggling differing schedules and money (it adds up pretty quick and expensive to visit Lee’s family as we have to cover fuel, hotels and food) means that visiting family, even mine who are a lot closer than Lee’s, is a rare occurrence.

Whilst we are never going to be able to manage to visit all of our family on a weekly or monthly basis we have put our minds to making sure that visits to family is a whole lot more regular this year.

As the distance between us and my side of the family is not too vast we plan on making sure to visit them very regularly by making sure our schedule and family routine factors in enough time for day visits up to see and spend time with them.

Likewise as the amount of time between our most recent trip and the previous trip to visit Lee’s family had spanned over four years, we are determined to visit them at least twice this year if not more and spend more than a night or two there too.

Time is fleeting and precious. We are going to make the most of this year and those to follow as the children are only young once and we deserve to enjoy our time for both our and their sakes.