Reflecting on Past & Present

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you've all had a great Christmas and New Year's! We had a fun time, and I'm also thankful to be moving past all of that. The clock is ticking!

We went north to DH's parents' house for New Year's, had a great time, and brought home one heck of a cold that DH is currently working through while we wait to see how it is going to move through the family (fun!). I'd be tempted to say that he caught it from a family member who came to our family reunion with a raging illness, but I'm not sure if 18 hours is too short a time from exposure to symptoms. In the meantime, bring on the Zicam!

This past year has been an interesting one! I spent four months of it being good and sick (though not seriously, especially compared to the past), and half of it being nauseated at some level. As for the first part of the year, I don't remember much of it! I remember dealing with the deaths of two beloved family friends (one church friend and our pediatrician), moving through the medical system while dealing with our little guy's issues, and spending every other moment on homemaking and parenting.

I love the idea of a new year, and a clean slate - but at the same time, I have learned - repeatedly! - through the years that making New Year's resolutions is, for me, a complete waste of time. I think my record to date for remembering my resolutions - let alone carrying them out - is approximately three hours. So, while I used to enjoy sitting down and making resolutions, I no longer waste time on it, as it is an effort in futility.

However, it's always good to sit back and reflect, and to plan for the future. So, in that spirit, here are the things that I am (not "will be") working on in my life and plan to continue working on:

(1) I am working on becoming a woman of the Word and a woman of prayer. These have been weaknesses for me, and I am working on rectifying this. I have also come to realize that I cannot give away what I do not myself possess, so I want to work on my own spiritual life so that I will have more to give away to my children.

(2) I am working on neglecting my hobbies (birth activism, blogging, Facebook) in order to focus-focus-FOCUS on the important things in my life, that is, marriage, parenting and homemaking. All of these are challenges for me. Marriage is hard, all the more so after having children. Homemaking is a challenge, all the more so after having children. And parenting is beyond hard - all the more so after having children, LOL! (It was a lot easier to be an armchair parent!!). I would be lying if I said that parenting was anything other than super-super-challenging - it has humbled and challenged me in so many ways, and it has also kicked my rear royally in even more ways. Any illusions I had of my own perfections have been shattered by dealing with parenting challenges - a good thing, but still an uber-challenge to develop my skills and keep up with this crazy thing.

(3) I am working on continuing to declutter. We still have waaayyyy too much stuff (and way more than I am comfortable with). My initial goal is to continue getting rid of things until we feel like we can fit comfortably into our home, rather than being shoe-horned in along with our stuff. It's amazing how many trips I can make to Goodwill and still not see a huge difference! But progress is coming.

And there you have it!

Off to do all the stuff I'm neglecting right now - Happy New Year, everyone!