HELLO 2011!!!

Every year, I am always sad to pack away all my Christmas decorations. The last few days I have been packing them away in our red and green storage boxes to store away for another year again. Today as I was sweeping up the tinsel (which by the way is a very messy thing to have in the house with a 5 and 3 year old running around), I couldn't help but think that I was sweeping up the last of 2010. I don't know if we have ever been so happy to see the New Year come, and after the worst year that we have ever faced together, we have happily embraced 2011 with a hug! Our 2010 was the equivalent of humpty dumpty except that instead of falling off the wall, we were pushed by people we trusted and were left to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and had to try and put them back together again. We prayed and prayed and prayed that God would turn our situation around and finally our family joke has become that we gave up praying for 2010 and started praying that 2011 would be our best year yet! I'm excited to see what God is going to do this year!



We do have our "resolutions" this year.



Of course there is the "let's get in shape" resolution. James wanted to do it to quote "be a monster..." and I am tagging along because I like working out together and as silly as this sounds I love hard workouts. James and I borrowed P90x from a relative and did our first workout yesterday. I found it incredibly enjoyable to listen to James huffing and puffing and groaning and moaning next to me. Half way through the workout he was in the bathroom trying not to puke while I was still doing workout sets. Now normally I wouldn't brag, but he kept acting like I wouldn't be able to do it and it was a "guys" workout, so I have been having a little too much fun giving him a hard time. I will say though that I had a hard time keeping up with the push-ups, my goal is to be able to do pull-ups at the end of this 90 day thing ( I think it will take longer though, James said he needed a break today...lol!). The pull-ups are definitely important to me because in grade school, I always missed out on the highest patch (president patch?) for the fitness test because I could not do enough push-ups. Very detrimental for a little girl... I know some of you know what I am talking about! ;)



My own goal is to finish my novel. I am so close to being done, just a few chapters away and it is the most incredible feeling to see it all coming together.My sister who majored in English is in Cambodia until the end of January, and I am hoping to have it completed when she returns so that we can start the major editing process. To help I am going to keep up on this blog because it is kind of like my free writing to get my mind going and it helps to keep me accountable!



Last is to focus on loving people and teach my kids what it means to love others. The one thing that was successful this past year is that James and I did not want our kids to turn into green-eyed monsters during Christmas time. We set up an advent calendar that the kids would open up everyday and receive a small treat. However, mixed in with the treats the kids would every so often receive a slip of paper that had to do with giving to others. One was to go to the dollar store and the kids each picked out a toy for the dollar store toy drive in town. Another time they were each given money to go to the grocery store and pick out food to donate for a shelter. Then another time they were each given money, so while we were out Christmas shopping and we came across a salvation army worker, they would have their own money to put in the bucket. It ended up being a really great thing for all of us, as it turns out working on teaching our kids this taught us a lot too! We are going to make a point out of being intentional about this. I'm not sure how yet, we are praying/keeping our eyes and hearts peeled for ideas, so we will keep you posted.

That is it for now, we will keep you posted! Happy 2011 to all of you and we will be praying that this is your best year yet as well!