A New Year

I think it is very easy on blogs to get a pretty one sided view of the blogger. I know I often find myself feeling pretty down that I don't make my own yogurt or scrub down my baseboards monthly (seriously, I read blogs on both of those things today--I can honestly admit that I scrub my baseboards never!).

I could only show you the glossy highlights of my life. I want to do posts on how fabulously mellow and great our Christmas was. And how proud I am of my awesome teenagers (and how on earth, with parents like us, did they end up cool AND with rhythm? Mysteries abound!)And how awesome my Christmas party with my seminary kids went (the words hilarious and awesome spring immediately to mind!) And I could post pictures of the neat decorations we are making for a Young Women's Mother/Daughter activity (but I can't until Feb, because that one is a secret--but we are sure having fun with it!)

But instead I will confess that I spent the whole entire day working on the finances that I have been sorely (pathetically, really!) neglecting--for months . I KNOW it is not a big job to balance my checkbook, etc, if I do it every week. And, furthermore, I KNOW it turns into a big, hairy, stinky, nasty bearcat of a job if I neglect it. Sigh.

I am also worrying and praying for people I love. For babies to gestate and be born safely, for the hospitalized to have their Doctors guided and inspired, for the worried, confused, stressed and grieving to have their hearts lifted and their burdens made lighter. It makes me think of how, in the Book of Mormon, when Alma and his people were slaves to the Lamanites (and the renegade Nephites), who treated them horribly and forced them to carry heavy burdens, that the miracle they were given was NOT to have the burdens removed. It was that they were strengthened so the burdens seemed light. I pray for miracles like that for those I love whose burdens seem almost to heavy to bear.

2013. Maybe I will be able to dink around less, and accomplish a few things that will stay done! In general, I avoid New Years Resolutions (I merely have to look at my track record to see why!), and prefer to think of each day as a great place to jump in and become better.

But I am still not betting that I will scrub my baseboards every month.

New Years Resolutions

I don't make 'em. I do not think it is necessary to have a "date" to change your life, and for me it actually works backwards. Positive changes can happen anytime, and some of my most successful ones have started on a Wednesday in the middle of a random month (or some such!). I am a firm believer that ANYONE can change, and that the New Year may help a few people (but not most!) and--that change is not easy.

That said, I am still trying to improve my life. I have been following FlyLady for about 9 years now, and many of the most positive changes in my life have come from her--but I am still not a great housekeeper*!

AND, the one goal I did make (but it wasn't a New Year's Resolution--it was just a goal for the year)--I AM DOING!

Tahh Dahh!



2010--THE YEAR I LEARN TO KNIT!

Yes, I know it isn't the world's most beautiful knitting, and I am having a bit of a hard time with patience! (Yes, I KNOW--I always do!) I know that I have to practice long enough to establish A) Rhythm, and B) Muscle Memory, but I STILL want to be great, instantly!

I keep reminding myself that everyone starts somewhere, and this is my start!

*Interestingly, on this topic, I was having a FABULOUS, late night girls talk** with one of my dearest friends, when this subject came up. She said something along the lines of "we all know you view it as a balance, with sanity and mental health on one end, and a perfectly clean house on the other--and you have to give up one to have the other!" I don't recall ever putting it into exactly that terminology before (although, I certainly could have, and have just forgotten it!), I do think it is fairly true.

I am searching for a balance--when my house gets too bad, it does "repress me+", but I know too many people, (and I have gotten caught in the cycle) that cannot do any living because their house isn't clean enough. They cannot stop to see the sunset, or build a snowman with their kids, or go on a walk--because they have 3 dishes in the sink. And, since there is ALWAYS more work, they never get to the living part.

Sigh, finding the balance is the hard part!


**Sorry, dear heart, I hope you have finally caught up on your sleep!

+Gratuitious Monty Python Quote: "Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! HELP! HELP! I'm bein' repressed! I'm bein' repressed!"