Happy New Year To Me!

I say Happy New Year to Me! I have an awful lot to be thankful for and am excited for the coming year. I have never been much of a resolution maker and I am sticking to that sort of. I have been thinking (weirdly enough) about how hard it is to cook for only two people. You should have seen the pot of pasta I made tonight. It was homemade noodles with my new KitchenAid attachments and there were homemade meatballs involved but it was just too much. I decided that I need to learn how to scale back on my cooking amounts. I'm just so darn wasteful. So that thought process got me to thinking about other goals. I wondered IF I should make them, if I could keep them, and if I wanted the stressers of making/not making a goal. So I decided to keep them simple and pretty generic. So here is a semi-list of goals and things I'm grateful for all rolled up into one. (This is where you click to get out of here because truly this couldn't be very exciting reading to anyone except ME. And afterall, it's always about me now isn't it.....)

1. I am going to read more this year. I am not setting a goal of how many books or how much time to spend doing it but I just need to read more. I love to read. I had an epiphany in the PDX airport a few years back. I was in Powell's bookstore and was about to pick up a book and I thought to myself "I need to figure out what I really like to read" (This reminded me of Runaway Bride when Julia Roberts decides she needs to figure out what kind of eggs SHE likes.) I like books about real events. Especially WWII. I loved reading and am still working on it - it's a hard read - MAO. Fascinating to learn about that time period and the beginnings of communism and the weird turn of events that allowed MAO into power. It has some similar themes to Hitler. I'm going to read more this year.

2. I am going to figure out how to cook for two people and this cannot include dining out as this is the most convenient way to cook for two. I have found a bit of a passion for cooking this past year thanks mostly to my friend April. She's amazing at cooking - however, not baking (this is her opinion - not mine!) I love trying new things and have been quite successful at it except for the amount thing. You should have seen the chop salad we had for New Years Eve. We are still eating on it. Nic and Alli have had to endure it for two nights. There is still a giant bag left. Along with rolls, pasta, prime rib, sausage pies, and the likes. I am not going to be so wasteful with my cooking.

3. I am going to continue excersising. April, my aforementioned friend, and I hiked and hiked for almost 6 months. We did it mostly every weekday morning and averaged 3 -4 miles in the mountains. It was fantastic. My life revolved around getting to bed early enough for the 5:20am wake-up call. I am looking forward to the weather being nicer so I can get back to that. However, in the mean time, I can go to the YMCA with April and do yoga and treadmill - namaste, namaste...........it's such a still activity and I find myself in giggling mode quite often. If the guy behind us just wouldn't breathe so heavily it would help.....

4. I am going to treat my friends better. I feel like the few friends I have are just the best. They are so thoughtful of me and my concerns and I fear I haven't been the same to them. I am soooo selfish by nature and it's the one thing (among many others for sure) that I stuggle with. My friend Judes is the most kind, loving, caring person I know. Always thinking of others. Always stiving to help out where she can. She is an incredible example of how I need to be.

5. I need to enjoy the journey more. I am such a destination seeker. I rush thru the process of getting to where ever my journey may be taking me and I forget to enjoy the journey there. I don't know when this happened to me. I thought I used to be a journey lover but I am absolutely the worst journey lover now. Relax, laugh at the stress, enjoy the journey.

I have many other things to add to this list - mostly about family, music, etc. but I have now gone on for what seems forever and I'm certain if you are still reading this you should have been gone long ago and gotten back to your family......

Here are some things I am soooo grateful for and hope that I always show my gratitude for them:

1. My husband. A.Mazing. Loyal. Integrity. Thoughtful. (He gave me a pencil bouquet on the first day of school when my last kid went off to college.) Loving. Dedicated. Man, I could just go on forever with his qualities. I'm not sure how I roped him into marrying me but I've been riding his coat tails ever since. Recently he was talked about in a negative way behind his back by some people and I thought to myself, "If they only really knew him......." We will celebrate 31 years of marriage this month. Where did the time go by? I couldn't be more grateful that he is cancer-free. I think about it often and I can't believe he/we went thru that twice. It's a life altering event and while I would never ever trade the lessons learned, I wouldn't wish it on anyone under any circumstances.

2. My family. See list above. They bring me such joy. I LOVE being a mom. I LOVE being a grandma. It's just every good joy all bundled up into a family. God really knew what He was doing when He created families. I love them all so much.

3. My beliefs. I am so grateful that I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. I am grateful for the opportunities it gives me to serve.

4. Music. I love that I can listen to it. I love that I can participate in it. I love how much joy it gives to people in general. I love the positive influence and feelings it can give people. I just love love love music. Thank you mom and dad for giving me the appreciation and gift for it. I dragged (tho I hardly think you were really dragging) you along to so many lessons/recitals/performances etc. You paid for all of the lessons - the instruments - and for me, it really 'paid' off. You are incredible examples of how to support your children in their interests. (Even tho you did try to bribe me with money to quit 'banging' on the piano. It didn't work very well did it?)

5. Life. I love being on this earth. I oft times will hear people say that they are ready to move on. Not me. I am staying firmly planted here. I love where I live. I love those who surround me.

Happy New Year to all of you! (If you made it this far in reading, this wish is for you. You deserve it after reading this post I have bloviated on. However, it is my blog and I would argue that I can write for as long as I want - and I did! Afterall, it is all about me......see #4 goal......)