Resolved

I love ringing in the New Year. I love the clean look of a new calendar with only birthdays and holidays carefully and neatly written in with my best pen. I also like to write down my hopes and plans for the upcoming year.

Do you make resolutions for New Year's? I thought everybody did, but Chuck said he never has. His reasoning is why make promises to yourself that you know you probably will not keep? I just read on a Catholic blog that one third of the people who make New Year's resolutions have broken them by February. I can't vouch for how accurate that statistic is, but based on my personal record, it wouldn't surprise me.

I posted resolutions for 2007, and of the three resolutions I made, I kept only one and that one I didn't keep very well. I never did write down resolutions for 2008, possibly because I was sick around New Year's and Mary Mae was still so young that just maintaining normalcy day after day was an accomplishment. (Sometimes I didn't do that so well either, Ha!) But this has not been a stellar year for me. In many ways, I feel like I've backtracked in many ways, and I've developed some personal "habits" that I really do not like. In short, I don't think I am a better person at the end of this year than I was at the beginning. Failure to more forward is essentially the same as going backward.

So, I'm going to make my resolutions, but I'm going to try putting more prayer and thought into them than I usually do. I'm also going to follow advice from a friend about making my goals more specific and measurable, and also making sure they are realistic.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. I think we will be busy most of the day with some housework most of the early part of the day. Since Christmas we've only done the bare necessities, and now it is time to catch up on some laundry and non-essential housework. We will probably spend our afternoon and evening with cooking, eating, games, and shooting each other with NERF or airsoft pellet guns. Okay, that last bit is how the guys will probably spend their evening... I think the girls and I might choose an activity that is a little more subdued. *wink*

God bless!