Happy New Year!

I have returned from my adventures to the East. I have been gone a couple of weeks from my everyday life and Sweet Athena as I traveled around Kerala, India on an extended school field trip with 20 other students. It was one of those trips I still can’t believe I took and I imagine I will be reminding myself in the weeks to come, I did in fact just visit India.

Leaving on New Year’s day for such a grand trip has thrown off my sense of time a bit. The the rest of your life feels on pause when you travel around another country for a couple of weeks and for me 2013 stateside has just started. So, excuse me if talking about New Year soup and resolutions feels old news.

Along with many photos, souvenirs and wonderful memories, I also brought back a cold and a bad case of jet lag. Thankfully I have this lovely long weekend to recover. I saw this recipe from my favorite food blog, 101 Cookbooks for a New Year Noodle Soup.  It seemed like the perfect treat to help me nurse my cold and let me pretend that it was only the beginning of the month. It is a bit of a funky soup with what feels like odds and ends ingredients: chickpeas, lentils, egg noodles and walnuts. When I first tried it I wasn’t sure if I liked it that much, but it has grown on me and I appreciate its eclectic style.

What I really want to talk about is what New Year’s resolutions people have. I LOVE hearing what goals and aspirations people are striving for. I find it all very inspiring. The last couple of years I have enjoyed sharing some of mine. I have given this year a lot of thought and the truth is I don’t think I will be making many new goals right now. I just feel like I am already in the midst of so much change with grad school and living in a new city. Instead I think I want to focus to make sure I still make time to do what makes me happy. Which for me I realized means cooking/baking, reading and running. Simple, right? While I love doing new things, challenging myself to accomplish more, I’ve also realized that there are those things that you just always want to keep a part of your life. For now it is easy going with the goals to make sure in all this craziness of grad school and becoming an adult I make time to still do the things I love.

Of course, I did make one new resolution. I know, I know, I just went on and on about keeping life simple this year. But I couldn’t resist. It will actually also be a new series on the blog starting this week. Stay tuned, I’m excited to share. Until then I would love to hear about your resolutions.