Ch-ch-ch-changes

Before you roll your eyes and think "oh God AJ is about to utter the infamous "New Year, New Me" mantra that's always floating about at this time of year isn't she?" I'm not, I categorically promise you that this is not what this  post is about. Because newsflash people, I'm a great person! I'm a fiercely loyal friend, a champion of others causes, a cheerleader, a hard-worker (despite all my doctors advising otherwise), I am an excellent mother to our fur-baby Ginny, I work to raise money for the charity close to my heart, I am a #TopWife :-p, a grateful daughter, I fight for myself, and others, I have well-rounded, well informed opinions and I am funny as fuck! My best friend also mentioned that I'm the queen of the pun so even if you don't believe the rest you have to believe that one! 

Anyway enough blowing my own trumpet (for now, because knowing your own worth is important and so is talking about it) on to what this is actually about...

New Year, New Priorities! 

This year that I've decided that in order to continue being the same old great person I am so glad I grew up to be (because seriously I went through so many different personalities to get here) I have to stop relying on other people and things to make me happy. So when my old Bucket List contained things like "Buy a Chanel Handbag" and "Be tweeted/retweeted by John Green" this new one will be about doing things that make me feel better inside and out. That I am responsible for making happen. 

My favourite quote is this from Julian on One Tree Hill (or whichever scriptwriter wrote it for him).

Isn't it just so nice realising that you can be happy a hundred million times because it's just a mood, a feeling, an emotion. It's not something that you can see, or touch, or arrive at-it is just something you FEEL. I don't know why it took a quote from a -frankly brilliant- teen drama for me to realise this but it did, and i'm just rolling with it. 

So going forward I have a new bucket list. One for the year of 2017 and it goes a little something like this:

• Write down something good/nice that happened everyday
• Clear out your closet every 3 months and donate at least one bag to charity
• Plant a memorial plant/bush/flower for Pip 
• Raise the rest of the money for the Aberdeen cuddle cot-only £500 to go and you can help here #shamelessplug
• Try a NEW recipe at least once a month- remember how good it feels when you dance round the kitchen with your bowl and spoon!
• Start a bullet journal- God how I love my new bullet journal! There is a post on my pages coming real soon.
• Make ice-cream (invent a flavour)- Damian bought me an ice cream maker and as soon as I can figure out how to make dairy free ice cream without almond milk i'll be all over it.
• Say "YES" more often
• Don't say "YES" when your body needs you to say "NO"
• Send letters- real ones to real people
• Stop relying on other people for your own happiness
• Stop apologising for being unwell

and there are a few that I just had to migrate from my old bucket list:

• Visit the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye
• Visit DisneyWorld Florida- 114 Days and counting!
• Visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter- 114 Days and counting! Haha.
• Stand on top of a mountain
• Reread Harry Potter forever and ever into perpetuity

So there we have it, New Year, New Priorities-and alongside my word of the year which I wrote about here it's already shaping up to be a bloody good year :-).

Do you guys have any changes you are trying to make in the new year? Do you buy into the New Year, New Me culture? Are you tired of the same old crap perpetuated by the media that makes us think we are lesser and need to change because the earth did something to the sun that it always does? Let me know in the comments, and on twitter!