Monday, January 01, 2007

A New Year

Ah, the possibilities! I am so excited to see what this new year holds. 2006 was a great year. A quiet year, a year of great contentment. We watched Elise learn to eat solid food, sit up, crawl, stand, walk, talk (still a work in progress), and learn a million things about herself and the world around her. We enjoyed being settled in our life - our home, our role as parents, Andy's job, my new role as homemaker, our involvement in our church. There weren't a whole lot of "big" new things in 2006, but instead a lot of small, happy, quiet moments that made the year wonderful. And then the year ended on the best note - our dear friends Bob and Beth welcomed a new child into the world on New Year's Eve! Welcome, dear girl. You are in for quite an adventure!

New Year's resolutions are not a strict tradition for me. Some years I make them, some years I don't. This year I will. There are a few things that have been on my mind for the last little while, and after thinking about them for a few months or so, I've decided to make an intentional effort to implement these things into my life. Here they are, in no particular order:

  • Pay closer attention to and show appreciation for acts of kindness and responsibility. I particularly desire to notice work that is done behind the scenes, people that typically receive little thanks for their hard work.
  • Be prepared. This is really another way of saying "don't procrastinate". I want to be available when opportunities arise, opportunities to help, opportunities to learn, opportunities to enjoy. I don't think that I can necessarily prepare myself for the particular details of life, but I do think that diligence in work, love, virtue, and learning will go a long way in preparing most people for most things.
  • Observe details. Elise reminded me of this earlier today when she turned a red pepper slice into a toy telephone. I would never have noticed the similarity in shapes. I want to notice details (this goes along with appreciating unnoticed work, see resolution #1). I believe details are important.

Well, those are some of the things I'd like to work on this year. There are some practical, more tangible goals, too, of course. There are a lot of books I'd like to read. There are quilts to be made. There are new sewing projects to try, namely little girls' clothing. There are improvements to be made to the church nursery. There are improvements to be made to our home. There's potty training Elise - yikes! There will be, Lord willing, preparations to be made for a new baby (don't get excited - our hope is for a new baby to join our family early in 2008). One of my long term goals is to get an RN license, and the breakdown of that goal includes completing hopefully two prerequisite classes this year. I don't think I've mentioned that decision to anyone but my husband before, although it's one that he and I have been discussing for quite some time. So there you have it.

Those are some of my goals for the new year. What are yours?

2 comments:

Chris Tindall said...

an RN, huh? That's exciting! :) And those are some great goals! Myself, well - I'll blog about my one and only resolution sometime on my own site. :) I have many goals, but only one that I am making a resolution for this year - I believe it's the most important thing I can do, and focus on. By the way - Janene's right - your blog is awesome! :)

Anyway, congrats to Bob & Beth (of course! We're very excited, and saddened that we were out of town at the time everything happened...) and Happy New Year to All! :)

Holly said...

Talk about leaving me in suspense! You've decided on the most important thing you can do, and you don't say what it is?!? :)