Month to Month Challenge - January

So, January is gone - I can't believe it. I thought for sure it would never end at one point, but as usual the minute I have that thought, I blink my eyes and POOF time is gone.
Anyway, I decided about 1/2way through the month that this year I am going to give every month a theme. Some way to challenge myself for that particular month. So, for January I decided it would be "Try Something New Month". So that is what I did, tried to do things in a different way or something I never thought I would be interested in, etc. It was really pretty fun! I do think of myself as quite open-minded when it comes to different activities, I usually don't snub something unless I have tried it, or it is stupid, against what I should do, etc. You get the point.
So, some of the things I did this month are; exercise (at least 2x a week), tried making new foods like candy again (haven't done that in awhile), read two different books (usually don't find time to read any), I have tried to blog more regularly and have read others blogs, re-arranged the furniture in the living room, & some other things you can see in the following pictures. (I am sure I tried other things as well, just can't remember them right now & if I wait til I do remember, this post will never get published! And I know we all don't want that! So I guess that is another one! I tried to procrastinate less and be more active - I even cleaned the kids bathroom and took a bath, haven't done that in a few months either. And before I get any snide comments, I shower!:))

I decided to take the tree down in January, before Sara's bday (19th), which is my usual goal. Note: I did NOT like this one, thus, the downstairs tree is STILL up, but before any of you rush over here to help me take it down, please know I am planning on taking it down today - if Josh will let me!
I made breakfast one morning! Jainie woke up and found me in the kitchen & was so perplexed she asked me, "Mommy, is it my birthday?" Josie laughed hysterically. (For those of you who don't know, it is a Thalman tradition to have breakfast in bed on their birthdays; which is obviously pretty much the only time my kids get anything besides cereal that they dish up themselves). :) The sad thing is that you can see it wasn't even that wonderful of a breakfast, but in my defense, we also had hot cocoa!:)
Another thing I tried, which I am not too fond of but life makes it a necessity, is taking pictures of the kids school stuff and then throwing it away. And, now that I think of it, maybe I should have just folded this up and put it in his 6th grade folder. Shoot! Anyway, Jaxon's science project on H1N1 - we did tear a couple things off to save.
Last but not least, my latest obsession - Zoo World on Facebook. I don't recommend you trying it. It is highly contagious! (But I am moving up pretty quickly, I think this picture is of my 2nd island, now I have 4 - one of which is uninhabited.)
So, there you go. A few things that I tried new in January. It made it a bit more exciting for me besides the normal to do. So, if you are feeling a bit blah, I would suggest you try to think of something new and give it a shot!