Out with the old..........

HAPPY NEW YEAR! It is 11:14 a.m. on January 1st and I have NOT been able to yell that as of yet!

New Year's Eve is usually quiet around my house, and frankly...I like it that way. Austin went to a party at Leah Nagy's house (because he is 17 and actually has a life), but the rest of the family stayed home. We had burgers and fries from Five Brothers (our favorite) and played board games and had a movie night. Our movies consisted of Underdog (Trent's current favorite), License To Wed (Paige's current favorite) and Hairspray (so, so cute). You may already know that we LOVE to play board games, so that was a big part of the evening.

Trent was so excited for New Years. He and Paige received Silly String in their stockings and he couldn't wait until midnight to use this stuff. He warned me that if I fell asleep he would spray me with silly string. Unfortunately, this is what happened:

The "man with a plan" pooped out at 11:30 p.m. with Silly String in hand.

Yeah, and him too.............................

So...I guess a Silly String fight will be on the agenda today. That's good, as I will have more energy to clean up the mess!

I am really looking forward to the new year. I hope to make some positive changes....the timeless phrase "out with the old and in with the new" sounds good to me! I am not big on New Year's Resolutions because I never keep them. BUT....I am making a list of things I would like to improve upon in the New Year. Here goes:

1. I want to spend more time with God.

2. I want to be a better wife, mom and friend.

3. I want to lose weight. BOY, do I want to lose weight.

4. I want to exercise daily.

5. I want to guide my kids to be good people.

6. I want to get Austin settled in and happy in college and Paige settled in and happy at High

School.

7. I want to count my blessings.

8. I want to find a way to give back, especially random acts.

9. I want to try to be more outgoing.

10. I want to love people at face value.

Now for the trivial:

1. I want to be better at cleaning.

2. I want to declutter the basement and my scrapbooking room.

3. I want to learn how to decorate cakes.

4. I want to learn how to knit.

5. I want to make HUGE progress on my scrapbooks.

6. I want to make HUGE progress on deocrating the house.

7. Keeping up on the laundry would be nice.................

8. It would be nice to work on the hair and nails. I am looking too frumpy!

9. I want to read more books.

10. I want to keep up on my blog.

Gosh, I have been so short on words of wisdom lately. Maybe I have just been too busy in the Christmas/New Year's seasons. But, I have found some really cool comments made on the blogs of Tina Z. and Melody Ross. I think they need repeating as we ponder how we will spend our New Year.

Per Tina Z's blog:

I think you become a better human being by contributing in some way to the world. It doesn't have to be a big thing, and you don't have to have money or power. It can be little things - helping someone who needs help, working with an organization, offering simple kindnesses and common courtesies without expecting a reward.

When you help because it's the right thing to do, you know it whether anyone else does or not, and you've made your corner of the world just a tiny bit better. I think that when you feel good about yourself, all the rest, the eating, and the health, and the waistline, and the spirit - take care of themselves.

From Melody Ross' Blog:

What’s in YOUR little wrapped box when God hands you thoughts that are like gifts that make life make sense? Do you even open the box? Sometimes I don’t…today I did. I am going to try harder to open the box every time.

….I am thinking about the way that God chooses to bless us sometimes and the way we don’t always see things as blessings until much later in our lives….I am thinking about gifts that come that we see or don’t see….and sometimes that we leave unopened for way too long when the intention of the giver was that we would derive joy from the very moment that the gift was thought of…but that sometimes we don’t see. I am thinking of nothing in particular, but how many things fall into these categories……do you ever wake up with all of the bigness of life swirling around in your head in such a way that it makes you want to jump out of bed and live BIGGER…..to breathe it in and then to breathe it out…..to take it in and then give it out….GIVE IT OUT?

Okay, so I WILL make a resolution. I will try to open the box every day and discover the blessing inside!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!