In 2007...

I’m definitely going to try to keep my spiritual life and my relationship with God in order. I know that I must keep my eyes on Christ and not get caught up in the hassles and worries of everyday life, because He has the answers and directions. Why would I try to figure things out on my own when my Heavenly Father is right there just waiting for me to ask Him? I have been doing a pretty good job with my daily bible studies, though sometimes I wait until too late in the evening to start and I get sleepy. It amazes me how much is in the bible… I need to do a much better job in my prayer life – I can pray directly to Jesus, but I don’t do it often enough! Why is that? He is right there just waiting to hear from me all the time!

Yes, one of my resolutions is to lose weight! Yes, this has been a resolution for my every year since 1983! I’ve probably lost 300 pounds since 1983! Gained it too!! I started on Weight Watchers almost 3 years ago and lost over 50 pounds to reach my goal. Then I got pregnant with Ian. I didn’t really try to start losing the baby weight until a little over a year ago, and got as close as within 2 pounds of my goal. Then this holiday season arrived, I have been eating everything in sight, and have gotten no exercise!!! I plan to totally recommit to Weight Watchers on January 2, and will have about 12 pounds to lose to reach my goal. I’m really going to do it, and do it quickly!!! It is just ridiculous to eat like I’ve been eating lately….

I want to make sure that I spend quality time with Ian each day. Sometimes I get so caught up in the things that I have to do around the house that I don’t take 10-15 minutes with Ian to just sit down and look at books with him or show him a new way to play with a toy. Time is so short and precious, and before I know it he will be grown. I want to be able to look back on his life and feel good about the time that I spent with him as a little one, rather than feeling regret for doing laundry or washing dishes instead. He goes to bed early – There’s time to get housework done! Twenty years from now it won’t matter whether the dishes got washed right away, will it?

I hope to continue to grow friendships with other women in the coming year. I realized a while back that I had very few really close friends in this world – I actually never have. But a lot of it was my fault for not trying to cultivate any new friendships or repair old friendships. So I set out to correct this! I hope to continue to develop friendships with the ladies in choir and Sunday School at church – There is so much that I can learn from them, and they are wonderfully supportive. I have a wonderful group of online friends on the Weight Watchers web site – The TN Waltzers and Christian Moms. I love those guys – So supportive. I need to stay in better contact with a couple of ladies from high school. And I just recently found my old roommate from college, Carol!!!! I am so excited about finding her – We’ve got 20 years to catch up on!!! I pray that God will help me to be a true friend to all of these ladies, and that He will lead me to other friendships as well.

We REALLY have a lot to do around the house….. The house is about 10 years old, and we haven’t done much maintenance to it so it is showing some wear. And the furniture is older than that, and it is REALLY showing its age. Sometimes I wish that we could just sell this house as-is with the appliances and furniture in it, and start fresh in a new house with new furniture and appliances! That would be so wonderful!!! But I really don’t think that will be happening. So, in lieu of that, here’s a little taste of what needs to be done: (1) Get rid of my old living room furniture and move Mike’s furniture from the spare bedroom to the living room, and perhaps replace tables. (2) Paint the entire inside of the house. (3) Rip out the downstairs carper and carper at the landing at the top of the stairs, and replace with laminate flooring. (4) Replace the rotted wood trim outside. (5) Have the 3 pine trees in front of the house removed. Some of this we can do ourselves, and some will have to be hired out. We just have such a hard time getting started on projects like this…

I really hope that Mike and I can take a nice vacation this spring. We decided to not spend a lot of money on each other for Christmas this year, with the intention of taking a trip in the spring. I have no idea right now where we will go, though places like Las Vegas, New York City, and San Francisco appeal to me. Mike mentioned the Bahamas, but for some reason I’m just not having a good feeling about that. I’ve been to Vegas a couple of times, but I always really enjoy it and it would be marvelous if we could stay at one of the ritzier places, such as Wynn or Bellagio… I’ve always wanted to go to New York City and spend a week doing all of the “touristy” things. I want to see all of the places that I’ve seen in the movies and on TV!! Does that make me a country hick?

I’ve really got to make some decisions about my job in the coming year. I will have been with my current company for 10 years in 2007, which is the longest that I have ever worked anywhere! I’ve been in the same department – Promoted to Manager a few years ago. I’m really starting to feel burned out in this position. I have lots of things to do, but I have lost my motivation to do any of it. I find myself spending time trying to look busy, and accomplishing very little. I know that this is wrong. I think that after the first of the year I will begin to look at other opportunities to see if anything out there appeals to me. It would be hard to change jobs since I have been here so long. Of course, what I would really love to do is quit work entirely and be a stay-at-home-mom, or at least cut back to part-time somewhere, but I don’t see that happening. I will continue to pray for direction about this.

I’ve got to start doing a better job with financial management in the coming year. I don’t think that Mike and I will be willing to make out and follow a budget, but we at least need to try to save money better than we have been. I’m going to start putting some money in savings each time we get paid, before I pay bills. Pay us first!! I also need to get Ian’s college fund set up – I meant to do that in 2006 and never got around to it. (However, I did get the Disney World trip savings fund set up!! I’ve got my priorities you know…) We really blow a lot of money – We could cut back quite a bit and hardly feel it.