Happy New Year (A Few Days Late)

While catching up on all the post that I have missed over the last few days, I have heard a lot about people's New Years celebrations and resolutions.

My New Year's Eve celebration - I laid in my bed, in my pjs, with some sparking grape juice, and watched Dick Clark all by myself. So exciting! This is actually my little tradition. I have done it for years now. New Year's Eve is one of the required work nights for Josh. I haven't kissed him to bring in the new year in...years. He did call me right at midnight to say Happy New Years, but it was cut short. (Maybe it's just me, but I'm not sure if it is very "romantic" when he calls me on a break from questioning a rape suspect. However it was nice to talk to him even if I couldn't kiss him.)

Resolutions - Usually my resolutions have to do with 5 things - Getting closer to God, being a better wife/mother/person, weight loss, budget issues, and organization. (I am sure that those are probably pretty common.)

2009 was a pretty good year for my "getting closer to God". There were many times when I found myself relying on Him this past year. I definitely felt Him working in my life and learned to trust in Him in a way that I never had before. I also did read my Bible - a lot. It ended up that I didn't necessarily stick to "my plan" that I had last January, but I did find myself with a Bible in my hands a lot. The most time that I spent in the Word was when we did B90x. (That was when Josh and I, along with the staff and many other people from Elevation read the Bible in 90 days.)

To start of 2010, I again want to improve on my devotional time, but I've decided that I am not really going to go in with a "plan". Because, honestly, I don't know if I can really commit to anything. I'm guessing with a new baby coming I may not be able to stick to a plan. However, I do want to start off right. Next week I will be participating in our church's New thru 30 plan. We will be reading the New Testament in 30 days. We will see what happens after that.

Moving on to the next thing - I really do want to be a better wife/mommy/person. Again, I am guessing there will be a lot of changes this year. I am excited about all the wonderful things that a new baby will bring into our house. I am going to try my best to enjoy each and every moment and focus on the positive this year. No, my life is not perfect (and there are a lot of wants in my life) but I am going to be thankful for what I have and not take all my blessings for granted. I am going to do my best to be an encouraging wife, a loving mommy, a supportive friend, a helpful volunteer, a positive person - and do it all with a smile on my face and a grateful spirit.

Weight loss- Well, right now I am not going to worry about it! No matter what I do, I know I will be gaining some weight. At first it was really hard for me knowing that I literally worked my butt off and lost 40lbs and then it was all coming back on - quickly. Now, I know that I lost the weight once, and I CAN DO IT AGAIN! So I am going to enjoy myself until after Baby Girl comes. (I ate a chocolate donut from breakfast this morning!) However, I am not going crazy cause I know that come June/July when I can work out again I don't want to make it worse than it has to be.

Budget issues - Josh and I made a lot of improvement in our finances this year. We paid off a lot of debt. We also gave a good amount to our church and some to others. We also made it through all the "unexpected" cost that came with car accidents and hospital stays. We are going into 2010 much better off than we went into 2009. Now I do have to say that I still do have a lot of growth to make in my "shopping wisdom". I do need to continue to work at sticking to the budget and doing my part in helping to pay off the debt. I also need to keep in mind that God will give me the desires of my heart (a new house!!!!) but I have to make sure that I am faithful with what He has given me first. So for 2010 we are still going to be working away at the debt and we are still going to be giving to our church and to others and I know that some day I will call a new house home and I will enjoy it much more when it isn't a strain on us financially!

Finally - organization!!!!
I think this is my biggest goal for this year. I know that I am going to be spending a lot of time on it! It has already started.

Alyse went home with my parents right after Christmas and we brought her back home after New Years. When she came home, she started to cry. Why? Well, first because I had put all the Christmas decorations away. It took me 4 days to finish that project. But this year when I went through everything, I did a lot of editing and organizing. There are a number of decorations and stuff sitting in our garage waiting to be donated or added to our quickly growing yard sale pile. (I'm serious - we have a huge section of our garage that we keep adding to. We are planning on having a huge yard sale this spring! All the money will go towards our debt/donations. But our main goal is to get this house ready for a new baby and hopefully to move.)

The other reason that she cried was because she couldn't find all her toys. Our house is not very big and after Christmas I had this moment where I freaked out about toys and then baby stuff taking over our house. So Josh and I went and bought a whole bunch of storage tubs. We organized all of Alyse's toys. Most of them are in her toy box, but we also added some to her closet, and then created a "toy closet".

Each tub has her toys organized and ready to be played with. At first I felt all OCD about the tubs and was going to pull out my label maker to label the tubs, but then I decided that she wasn't going to be able to read "Art Supplies" or "Little People Animals", so I took pictures of what was in them and I am going to attach them to the front. When I opened the door she actually got really excited about it and seems to like it. I think it is going to work really well. (And of course I bought a few extra tubs because I know some more toys will be added to her collection.)

My next goal is to tackle our closet. Then the shoe closet. Then the guest room closet. Then Alyse's closet. Then the TV stand. Then.... a whole bunch of other small places. It will all end with the big project of our attic and garage. Then comes that big yard sale I was talking about.

With all that said, I don't really know what this next year holds. I am just going to enjoy the ride because I have a feeling it is going to fly by.