Happy New Year - 2008! Make it a good one!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!! Have you sat down and thought about your "goals", "resolutions", anything? Something to work on... that might happen, might not, but at least you tried? For some reason, the year "2008" seems very lucky to me. I am very excited for this year. Don't know why, no specific reason really, it just seems very lucky. Chad will turn 12 (oh my gosh!) this year and will become a Deacon in our church. Luke will turn 10 - double digits! And Macy will turn 8 and get baptized! Haley will be leaving the nursery and heading into Primary this week with all the "big kids" and Reed will turn 1! Lots of milestones. I'm already reflecting on a year that hasn't happened yet, and just expecting a good, lucky year.

My friend, Paula, came over a bit ago. She lives on the street behind us, and we can see her house from our deck. A big, giant tree on the front lawn of the house next to hers' came crashing down this morning at about 6:30. The tree was about 100 years old, and I guess that everyone was just kind of expecting for it to fall down sooner or later. The tree was beautiful, and guys have been out there for hours with chainsaws, taking it apart - kind of makes me sad... something that has been growing for over 100 years, and within a few hours total firewood. But anyways, it crashed into a light pole, and did some damage there, but luckily, didn't hit either of their houses. Totally fell away from the houses, going right towards the street. Paula says it's their miracle, and their good sign that it's going to be a good year. I'm with her on this!

I'm being nostalgic right now. Kind of in a backwards way, but still doing it, so back to the original thought... have you come up with any goals or resolutions or whatever for this year? Mine always seem to be the same... but here goes. Just some thoughts.

1. More date nights with D. Chad is almost 12, and is totally capable of taking care of everyone - especially if Macy does the diapers - so I would really like to go out more often with D. We really enjoy each other (STILL!), and always have a good time out together. And besides, some times it's good to see movies that aren't animated!
2. Ok, done having babies (REALLY!). Have totally got to work on doing something about my body. Last summer, I was walking 3-4 miles every morning and was in pretty good shape, and then I did the Portland to Coast walk with some girlfriends, and it totally burned me out. Since then, I've totally had a hard time getting back into some sort of exercise routine (and I've been eating candy and treats non-stop since like Halloween). It's very dark here in the mornings (and COLD!... and rainy!), til about 7:30am, so going out and walking before the kids go to school is not really working for me. Gotta find something to do. Belong to the gym... but it's not always convenient for me. Gotta make it be... I guess.
3. Got all ramped up about food storage at church the other day... so working on our emergency preparedness stuff. Gonna try and make our year-supply food storage a real thing.
4. Get the basement finished. Or, how about, started? We have the money, now just gotta get a contractor and get it going. Really need to get another bedroom down there so that Reed can move out of our closet and into his own room (just as a side note, he won't be the one moving into the basement, Chad will be, and then Reed will move into his old room).
5. Do some scrapbooking for us. I scrapbook all the time for a client, and hardly ever do anything for us. I'd like to get the kids books all organized and try to get them caught up, at least to some degree. Most of the pages are done, it's just a bit of getting it all together and looking pretty. Finishing up some things so that it all makes sense. Maybe this one can be a goal for January... then find a different scrapbooking goal for each month. That might actually be a doable thing for me. Will let you know.
6. Still work on my cooking/preparing dinner skills. Still not a favorite, but realize that I have 6 other people I need to take care of. Gonna get a rice cooker... so I will finally cook rice the right way!
7. Try and gain more patience with my children. My friend, Liz, who is Korean, informed me that how you spend today, New Year's Day, preludes to how your year will be, in the Korean culture. So, if you work a lot today, you will have lots of hard work in the year. If you spend lots of money today, you will have problems with debt. If you rest and relax today, you will have a relaxing year. We've worked a bit (cleaning all the silly string in the house), spent a little (went out for breakfast and bought a new ceiling fan for out bedroom), and did a bunch of relaxing, so I'm hoping to have a pretty balanced year. I told the children to try and not fight today, so that they won't fight this whole year. Sounds like a good plan, don't you think?

I think that's about it for right now. Those are pretty much the same goals I make every year, but at least I'm consistent... right? I hope that you are having a great day and are feeling pretty lucky about this year as well!

Sorry this post is so long, but I just had a lot to say today!