HAPPY NEW YEAR!

For those of you who slept through the festivities...it's 2008! :)

I was awake, and watched the ball drop, but everyone else here slept through it. Not that they missed much, it's the same every year. You know, when I lived in NYC, I never took the opportunity to go to Times Square because I had learned from the "natives" that it's insane, way too crowded obviously, and not as fun as it looks on TV. Maybe one day we'll go when the kids are older, just to say we did.

New Years Day is always a time for reflection - and resolutions. I've never been one to set resolutions because I'm the first to break them! There are things I'd like to improve about my life that I think about every day - some I mention to others, and some I don't. I've heard the saying "A goal not written is just a wish" (or something like that,) so at the risk of not accomplishing my wishes, here's what I'd like to accomplish & improve about my(our) life in 2008.

Family
First and foremost, this is the most important place that I can spend my time. Building strong, loving relationships with my husband and kids is at the top of my list. So, how do I do that? I bunch of little things, I guess.

I want to be more patient with my children. When my patience runs thin, I'm grouchy with EVERYONE around me. Unfortunately, Ric gets the largest share of that. So...when I'm complaining here about my 2-year old's latest tantrum, I would hope that it's "constructive venting" so that I can be more patient with him after I've complained to the world! (By the way, I do appreciate ALL of your constructive feedback - keep it coming!)

I want to spend more time together as a family. We waste WAY too much time in front of the TV, and we call it "family time" - Hmmmm.... The obvious place to start is Family Home Evening - consistently! Even Ric's Patriarchial Blessing says to have FHE every week - you can't get more specific direction than that, can you? It's so hard with Ric working during the days, my teaching a couple of nights a week, and trying to keep my Stamping Business going. We seem to be running in too many directions at once! Ryan isn't even involved in any activities yet! What happens when he starts asking us to play Soccer or something?


Finances
I think that this causes me the most stress! We're so lucky to have the employment we have. We're even more blessed because we don't have to put our kids into day care! But we still struggle, with two jobs, and my business to make ends meet. The solution isn't more money coming in, it's being smarter with our money. We just finished our Financial Peace University classes and we learned so much! The hard part is applying it to our own lives! We've actually talked with our Bishop about offering the classes to members of our Ward, and I think we may facilitate that in the future, but for now, we have to complete our own baby steps and make progress!

I would like to restore our $1000 emergency fun and eliminate all the rest of our debt in 2008. The credit cards are all gone (Yippeeeee!) but we have more left that we need to eliminate. After that, we'd just have our mortgage and would be able to really start saving & planning for the future. (One other little thing - ok, it's not that little - I don't want to pay any more bank fees for overdraft checks! It's killing us when we don't pay attention! I'm sure we're just padding the bank president's salary by doing that - why not keep that money?)

Personal
The typical resolution for most people is to lose weight. I'd LOVE that! For me though, the only time in the last 10 years that I've lost weight was when I was pregnant or I followed a high-protein diet! (Nothing else worked.) Getting pregnant again won't be happening (snip snip!), and even though I did well following a high protein diet, it's just not practical. So I'm hoping that eating healthy meals and chasing my kids around will result in a healthier me, AND maybe a few pounds gone! One can only hope, right? :)

Another thing I want is to spend more time on ME. It's pretty much the "norm" these days for women/mom's to take care of everyone else first, and then IF there's time/money/energy left over maybe we'll think about ourselves. I have to change that so that my husband has a better wife, my kids have a better mom, and I just feel better in general! Even if I do one little thing for myself each day - I think it will make a difference. (Once in a while a trip to a Spa or even a pedicure wouldn't hurt either!) Hmmm...I think that making sure I get a shower every day might be a start! :)

My Business
This is my greatest source of frustration right now. What I see as the problem is that I don't have good blocks of time to work on it! Because I have a cat-napper who doesn't sleep longer than a half hour at a time on most days, it's really difficult to focus and get things done. I just get something started and she's up again! There's a lot of things within my business that I'm not happy with that I KNOW would change if I had that consistent dedicated time. Rarely, when I do have the time, I look at my cluttered desk and become incredibly overwhelmed with everything that's on my to-do list I keep in my head!

I was getting up about 2 hours earlier for a little while, which made a HUGE difference, if only to keep myself organized! Then we all got sick, and sleep was a precious thing! So, I want to start doing that again. At least I'd have a couple of hours to keep up. Then I want to have a friend over to watch Megan a couple of days a week while I work in my office, making phone calls, updating my neglected website, planning classes, etc. For that to happen, I need extra income to pay her - but we'll get there eventually!

Church
It's so hard to stay out of the "hafta-do" rut when it comes to Church callings and responsibilities! Right now, I'm the ONLY one who plays the piano/organ in the Ward. (There are a few others who try when I'm not able to - and I REALLY appreciate that - but it would be nice if someone else felt confident enough to relieve me!) Anyway, since I'm the only one, I play for Sacrament Meeting and Primary, and any other occasions (i.e. baptisms) when I'm asked. I really enjoy it - but it can become a chore. So, since I know that this is the situation for a while (unless some moves in - here's hoping!), I want to be more joyful about serving in my calling. No more grumbling about it when Sunday morning comes around! :)

The other things on my spiritual list are (as I was reminded in the comment below) Temple attendance, Scripture Study, Prayer, and just being prepared. I would LOVE to be able to attend the Temple once a month! Because it's over an hour away, it's a good 6-8 hour event, depending on traffic, what we do there, etc. Luckily, we can get a sitter and be gone longer than a few months ago, so this may be possible! What would be even better is to go with another couple and make a day/evening of it!

You know, even though we had a very talkative kid with us in Church on Sunday who had to say hello to his friend Michael during the passing of the sacrament, we were able to hear most of the talks that were given. One talk was especially good. In his talk, Brother Simon mentioned one thing that I want to remember. (This is probably a really bad summary, but here's hoping it makes sense!) He basically said that all we need to know from our Heavenly Father has been written in the scriptures and recorded in the talks given by our Prophets, etc. So we don't need to look for "lightning bolts" of information, or new revelation specifically for us before we do what we need to do. (Or what we already know we need to do!) To understand what God wants us to do means that we should use the "Force" (he used a great Star Wars analogy), or our time spent in prayer and trusting the Spirit's promptings as we study our Scriptures. I hope that made sense, it was a really great talk! (I don't think that he had much written down, but I'll ask him...maybe I can share it with you, or just review it myself!)

Lastly, be prepared. It's something that Ric and I have been working on this past year, and really need to focus more time on - being prepared for anything that might happen! We do have 72-hour kits, but they need to be fine-tuned. We're also building our food storage - but again, need to be more vigilant. Another thing for the list!


In summary...
- Be patient with my kids
- Family Home Evening every week
- Restore Emergency Fund
- Pay off rest of debt except our mortgage
- No more NSF fees
- Healthier meals & more activity
- Do something for myself each day
- Get up early to work on business, keep up in general
- Attend the Temple
- Scripture study and Prayer
- PREPARE!

I think that's it! I don't ask much do I? At least now it's written down. :)

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From all of us - we wish you a VERY happy and healthy New Year!

(Edited to add...)
"If I may, please add to this the following item. Attend the temple often, Read, study, and follow the "All is safely Gathered in" pamphlet and watch and be ready..."

Someone, who didn't leave their name (though I can only guess who! Mom? Andrea?) posted this comment.

See what happens when I only have a few minutes here and there to get things done? This is a perfect example! I completely forgot my Church goals. So I've added them above... :) Thanks for the reminder!