Happy new year

I know this blog has been sorely neglected. Last year just felt so off all year and I felt overwhelmed much of the time. In many ways it was a tough year......I lost four family members and a friend. But in other ways it was good....a new church started in our area that we really like.

Anyway, it's a new year and I'm looking forward to great things this year. 

Instead of coming up with a bunch of resolutions that I'll be lucky to still even remember into February, I like to come up with a word as my theme for the year. (Maybe I was so lost last year because I don't think I did that.) So, I played around with a lot of different words but none were feeling right. Then The word 'gratitude' rolled through my head and that felt all kinds of right. 

So there you go.....gratitude. I'm going to spend my year remembering, noticing, and looking for things to be grateful for.

I bought myself a cute little journal to keep track of it in.

I'm excited about this and looking forward to the changes that taking the time to see and be grateful will bring.

Hope the new year is bringing you inspiration and excitement as well!

It's a New Year

Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I enjoyed the time with the family and have great expectations for the year ahead.

Instead of making a bunch of resolutions that I may or may not keep, but most often find myself completely overwhelmed with, I prefer to chose a word to guide me (and my efforts) throughout the year. For 2012 my word was 'better'. I did do better in many areas, but also found that I let some things slide and didn't do as well in those areas. Over all, though, I am happy with my efforts. It takes a lot of time and energy to raise four teenagers, work in our own business, and keep our household running. I feel like I'm accomplishing a lot just to be able to keep my sanity. LOL

So, in keeping with my theme word, this year I've chosen....

I'm terrible about pushing the things that I don't enjoy doing off until they absolutely HAVE to be done. This year I want to learn to just do them and get it over with. That way, when I play and craft it can be done without guilt. (I always feel guilty when I'm crafting and the sink is full of dishes or the floor is covered with muddy paw prints.)

I look forward to getting this bad habit under control and really think that it will bring an added sense of peace to my life. Not to mention all of those pesky tasks that will get taken care of sooner rather than later. I know that if I learn to just go ahead and do it, it will save me time in the long run. I'm certain that my procrastination makes for a bigger job to be done by the time I make myself do it.

I hope that you have a wonderful year and are able to make any changes that you desire and that it makes for a happier, better life for you.

Welcome 2012

It's a new year, and with that comes a flood of new ideas and new commitments that many of us make to ourselves. Since I'm usually terrible at keeping new year's resolutions, I've really enjoyed the trend of just picking a word that describes where you would like to focus your attention for the year. Last year I chose 'thrift' as that word (as it applied to my crafting mostly.) I think I did pretty well with using things that I already had on hand instead of always buying a whole bunch of new stuff every time I wanted to try something.

For my goal in other personal interests and activities last year, I chose

I've decided to stick with that word again, but this time across the board. I found that it really does release me from a lot of the stress that past resolutions have caused. I mean, think about it....how hard is it really to do at least one thing better during the year? I don't narrow it down any more than that because the possibilities on ways to improve are endless, I tell ya.

Last year, I did better about keeping the house cleaner (although at the moment it looks like a bomb went off, but that will get back in shape now that the kids are back in school.) Dax & I worked out last year and completed the whole Insanity program, I lost the 10 pounds I had hoped to, I got into the habit of flossing my teeth daily (no more fibbing to the dentist that I was really consistent about it) I made more and more foods at home instead of buying them pre-made, and I did some de-cluttering (and have miles and miles to go my friend.)

Just look at all the things that I did 'better' at last year!! How in the world could I end the year disappointed with myself about my resolutions? My hopes are that this year the continued improvements and building on the things that I did last year will show a noticeable difference.

How about you? What did you decide?

It's a new year........

Welcome to the new year.


Like many other bloggers, I like the idea of a word to guide me for the new year.


It took me quite awhile to settle on just one word. I really kept going back to some of the words I've used in the past. I guess maybe I didn't get the ideas associated with them as fully developed as I'd hoped. Whatever the case may be, it took more consideration this year than it has in the past. But I finally settled on

I chose thrift because this year we have decided to make a real push (and the associated sacrifices) to get all of our debts paid off, both in our business and at home.  I've already made a big step in that direction by changing our insurance coverages on our vehicles and our home. I saved over $2000 for the year!!!! Can you believe that? I didn't think it was really possible, so I was shocked........and a little sickened that I've wasted that much money for who knows how many years.

Anyway, I'm hoping to not buy so many new project supplies and work my way through using up some of the things that I already have. It will not only save me money, but will also help to clean things up a little.

Last year I chose two words, one of which was calm. I gave it the good-old-college-try, but because of the actions of others in my extended family, it turned out to be a year with a lot of hurt feelings for my husband and anything but 'calm'. Fortunately, the offending family members don't live near us so we were able to block much of it our from our daily lives. And, since I really try to be a peacemaker, I offered advice that would have solved the whole issue early on, but was (in a round about way) told to mind my own business. So be it. The issues still haven't been resolved, but my husband is at peace with it, and really, he's the one that matters to me.

But, after all of that, I can say that I didn't even consider 'calm' as a word for this year. lol I'm just hoping that 'thrift' won't have the same opposite effect that calm did last year.

Do you chose a word for the year? If so, what did you chose and why? (if you don't mind sharing)

I hope that everyone has a year blessed with love, happiness, and abundance.