On the twelve boards of vision...

An afternoon dog walk to the local pub, turns into a mini pub crawl, but isn't how I anticipate ringing in the new year. Christmas, cancelled due to COVID, (again.)

I'm starting to believe there is little point making any plans. By 6pm we sit with our dry shredded chicken in chilli sauce. Which my husband can never quite get the order right for, and always gets corrected in the local takeaway.

This is the first New Year were we don't bother with an extravagant bottle of fizz. Priorities change, tomorrow is a brand-new year, let alone a new day. Not long after the clocks strike midnight we make our way to bed. In the morning we are bright-eyed and bushy tailed not something many can be proud of on New Year's day.

"You know what our problem is?" I ask.

"Nope," Jon replies as he prepares a breakfast of poached eggs on sourdough bread.

"We do everything last minute, we don't plan. One of us has a hair brain idea to do something on the night or the coming weekend and are disappointed if we can't book anything."

"Yeah," he answers distracted as he concentrates on timing the eggs to perfection.

Enough! Time to change. I declare, we will do a vision board. After we clear away breakfast, he dashes to the study, and returns with twelve A3 sheets which he carefully sellotapes together portrait style, before flipping them over.

Next, he appears with an old makeup bag I have full of colouring pens and pencils. I look at him dubious, he is a talented artist. I am not! His look tells me without words not to be a baby, this will be fun. We write the months, one per page after I rescue the oversize cardboard box Jon's new exercise bike, a Christmas gift, came in. I lay this on the dining room table before we put the sheets on top.

The rest of the day is spent drawing, badly in my case, the things we want to achieve in the coming months of 2022. The strange thing is, this is fun and I soon forget what a terrible artist I am. We have a lot of giggles along the way and vow to talk them through when we finish.

However, he does catch sight of the January picture of myself running. To say the dimensions are squiffy is being generous, my ankles are wider than my thighs in the scribbles on the page. If anything this will scare people from taking up running.

We spend the whole day doodling away, breaking only for snacks and refreshments. But, we keep getting drawn, no pun intended, back to the papers. Early evening creeps up on us before I start to explain my visions for January.

First the customary lotto ticket, complete with my numbers written in for good measure. Next is my badly drawn bedroom, we moved here five years ago and although we painted our room and the en suite, bought fitted wardrobes and furniture. The room still has the soul of a new build, not us in the slightest.

My picture starts with an artificial plant wall, a Hollywood mirror in the centre and dressing table below. A tranquil location to apply and remove make-up, read and relax. Exactly what I need after a long day. The bed although not perfectly square gives the impression of comfort and is inviting with lots of pillows and crisp white bedding.

Next to this picture I drew a deep free-standing slipper bath, the perfect place to truly wind down after work. Something I am keen to encourage us to do this year along with restarting meditation and yoga. Life has got in the way in 2021 and these activities have slipped by the wayside, but they are on the vision board now.

Jon goes next explaining several outdoor activities he has expertly drawn. Hiking, bike riding, running--with normal size ankles. The great outdoors is exactly what we need to encourage us to have earlier nights, rather than carrying on working past midnight some nights. By doing the outdoor activities and my wind down rituals we will slip off to sleep easily, our minds switched off and relaxed.

My picture is of a clock and a kind of strange bell to signify an alarm, the hands pointing to 5.30am. This was my wake up time when I worked in an office, things have slipped here as well.

Again, my turn, and I lay before him how I wish to return to my routine of an early morning run with the dog. Followed by a yoga workout, sitting in the same place all day can't be doing me or my posture any favours whatsoever. I will follow this with some mindfulness by writing my gratitude journal which is something I have done religiously for the past 4 years.

Breakfast will follow, before I dedicate an hour to read or write, depending on my mood on the day. I used to follow this routine, bar the writing, when I commuted to work. Therefore, I want to resume this and pick up the practices from when we first started home working, and I began to use this extra hour productively.

Weekend breaks, holidays, visiting friends and family are also prevalent and hold a considerable proportion of our vision board. Along with trips to the theatre and cinema, which we plot into our calendar as we go to ensure they happen. Our weekends we allocate time for planning meals for the coming week to encourage organisation, healthy meals and healthy habits.

I wonder if this may be a new ritual which we embrace, our New Year's day of vision board making. I may need to add in some art classes if so, to go along with my piano lessons and the night course I have enrolled in.

The next day we are on our way to pick up the supplies for the artificial plant wall and dressing area. The bath will follow, in the meantime our regular bath will need to fulfil this role for us. Our bedroom is transformed in a day and our tranquil oasis of relaxation is Zen like, we couldn't be happier. What a fantastic start to the year. No you can't see my pictures, they are awful!

I hope you like my story and will subscribe to read more. Clicking the heart shows your support, subscribing means you can follow my writing journey. My series, The Order has it's first novel FamiLIES coming out this year. Thank you so much for your support.