My New Years Resolutions

New Years Resolutions

Hey everyone! I hope 2014 is treating you well so far. My brother just left to fly back to school and it is quiet here at home. I am posting my resolutions here so you can know what I'm trying to do this year. It's not too exciting, but it is my life (which is what this blog is all about!) so here it is:

1. Clean out my closet/ room- I have lots of clothes that are falling apart or really old and don't fit anymore (from middle school!) that I need to get rid of or give away. I need to clean and organize my closet and my room. It is getting out of hand.

2. Lose weight- for my health and so I can fit into some of my older clothes again.

3. Read everyday- read for at least 20 minutes everyday. I want to read more classics and finish reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes. I also want to read more books in foreign languages.

4. Don't buy ANY makeup- I have tons of makeup that I really need to use. I tend to buy lots of similar products (I have about 15 light pink shimmery eye shadows) and not use all the products I have. I want to try to not buy any makeup or beauty products this year and use up as many products that I have already as I can. (I will probably have to buy conditioner since I only have one of those and I use it everyday, but I have 4 unopened tubes of toothpaste, so I think I'll be fine with everything else. This will also help me with #1 because I will have more room to store things.)

5. Teach more people about Veganism- This means posting more on my blog, reviewing more books on Shelfari, posting about veganism on Facebook and Pintrest, telling my family and friends about it, and living a better vegan life.

6. Love myself more- try not to think negative thoughts about myself and don't put myself down all the time. I am hard on myself. Relax a bit.

7. Finish reading the bible.

8. Write in my journal more- I don't tend to write in my journal when I'm feeling down. I need to write to get stuff out.

9. Exercise!

I've been doing pretty well with this so far. It has been almost half a year since I went vegan and I'm still going strong! My choir director gave me a vegan cherry raspberry cobbler/pie for my Christmas present and I cried it tasted so good! I LOVE cherries, but so many cherry pies are super sweet and I like tart cherry pie. This pie is perfect. (I'm pretty sure I'm just going to eat it for dinner because it tastes so good).

Yesterday my mom and I cleaned out my brother's gecko's cage and I started thinking about pets. I have never had pets (except for the sea monkeys and fish that my brother killed) but I love animals and love taking care of my friend's pets when they need me to. Bobalina (my brother named her Bob before he found out she was actually a girl. Bob-uh-LEE-nuh.) is about 10 years old. She spends most of the day sleeping under her log cover and eating crickets. She likes to play with my brother and gets excited when she sees him. She lives in the same terrarium as her cricket friends/food and I suppose she lives a pretty great life since nothing is trying to kill her. When I was catching the crickets and placing them in her travel carrier, I realized how much I really do care about them. It doesn't bother me that they are being eaten by Bobalina. She is made to eat crickets. It's natural for her. But the idea of killing the crickets myself makes me sad.

How can people with pets eat meat? How can you eat a sentient being that just wants to love you?

Moving on.

Crickets stink! They are so smelly. Mom and I scrubbed the cage and put in new sand and it was still smelly! Ugh! I am so glad that Bobalina lives in my brother's room.

In other news, bible study is starting up again this week! I'm super excited because I really love going to bible study. It is really fun to hear what other people think about what we read and to make connections because of other people's comments. I have been trying to read the bible cover to cover for the past few years. I started in both the Old and New Testament and read a little in each every day. I now have only Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, and Revelation left! It has really helped me get the chronology of everything in my mind.

That's all for now! I'll post more tomorrow!