Just me. Need I say more?
Here’s where you come in.
All 5 of you that read here regularly.
Wait, is it even 5?
Anyway, now is the time to help me out with curing my Writer’s Block.
INTERVIEW ME!
Leave me a question or two (or more) in the comments and I will start answering them next week. Nothing’s off limits!
Ready? GO!
Maybe I should just ignore it.
Did you know that close to 80% of the New Years resolutions made are not kept?
Every year, people say they are SERIOUS about it “this time”, and yet– we all still fail. Need I remind you of my post from December 30, 2010? How many of you are YOUR own worst enemy?
The one thing I did accomplish in 2011 is that I became a READER again. I found a new love for books after reading close to SEVENTY of them this past year.
So, for 2012, reading will still remain in my list of goals. I won’t even call them resolutions… they will just be called GOALS.
Here we go:
1. Join Weight Watchers – Long term goal is to lose 50 pounds. Short term goal is to lose 20 pounds before July 1st.
2. Read 52 books – I feel since I managed to do it in 2011, I can do it again in 2012. A book a week isn’t too shabby, either.
3. Find a church we like and start going again. Still have to figure out if we want a large church, small church, what denomination we prefer…
4. Start budgeting again via the Dave Ramsey plan. We really only do it halfway right now, which I guess means we really don’t do it all… 
What are your New Year’s resolutions GOALS?
1. What did you do in 2011 that you’ve never done before?
I read a lot of books! I didn’t reach my goal, but I got sooo close!
2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I think I have had the same New Year’s resolutions every year for the last 5 years. Lose weight, read more, find a church, be more organized… you know, the usual. (Make sure to check out tomorrow’s post. More resolutions!)
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?No, but my sisterin-law is having her first baby in April. I can’t wait!
4. Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully, NO.
5. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?Another child. We’re working on it!
6. What countries did you visit? None. Just this one!
7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why: 12/20/2011. The day we graduated from foster/adoptive licensing classes.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? See #7. We completed 30 hours of training classes, and 3 home visits. Licensing will be approved in January or February of 2012.
9. What was your biggest failure? I don’t really think I had any failures this year. Hoping to keep it that way!
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Just those darn kidney stones!
11. What was the best thing you bought? New bedroom furniture for our spare room. Hoping to have a child to use it very soon!
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? I’m going to say my husband. He works almost 60 hours a week, goes to college part-time and still makes time for me and the kids. I’m so very proud of him.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I’m going to say the Republican candiates for President. The phone calls, junk mail and face time on television is really getting old.
14. Where did most of your money go? Kids’ sports and concession stand food!
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? If you’ve been reading my blog, I think you know the answer to this one. We are very excited about adopting a child!
16. What song will always remind you of 2011? This is lame. I can’t really think of one, I guess.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? fatter
iii. richer or poorer? poorer
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Watching our money, saved more.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Having a negative attitude, Eating out, impulse spending, and worrying about things that I shouldn’t worry about.
20. How did you spend Christmas? W e went to my parents’ house in Omaha.
21. Did you fall in love in 2011? Maybe this will sound corny or sappy, but every single day I fall in love with my husband and kids all over again. They are all just amazing.
22. What was your favorite TV program? I have two favorites: Glee and Modern Family!
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? None that I can think of.
24. What was the best book you read? The Help and Heaven is For Real.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Pandora. We can’t get radio reception in our office building where I work, so thank goodness for Pandora!
26. What did you want and get? My husband, kids and parents enjoyed another year of good health and happiness.
27. What did you want and not get? To be able to adopt in 2011 and take advantage of the great tax credit. 2012′s tax credit is not nearly as good. Disappointing!
28. What was your favorite film of this year? I didn’t really see too many movies this year. Can’t think of one that stands out.
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 38 this year, and I have absolutely no recollection of what we did. Probably went to dinner somewhere??
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I really want my husband to be finished with school!
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? Plus-size is NOT the department I want to be shopping in. This needs to change.
32. What kept you sane? Every day is a new day.
33. What political issue stirred you the most? The whole campaign process is making me crazy this year, and I suspect in 2012 I will have same answer to this.
34. Who did you miss? I still very much miss my grandfather, who passed away in 2001. So many things happen in my life and in my childrens’ lives that make me stop and think that I wish my grandpa was still around for me to share these things with him.
35. Who was the best new person you met? All of the people in our adoption classes. We made some great friends !
36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all ways, He will direct your path. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
37. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: “The rest is still unwritten.”
How about you?
My Christmas music is playing, I have my gifts wrapped, my trees are decorated, school is almost out for Christmas break.
But I’m not feeling it this year. I can’t put my finger on it, but things are different. Maybe it’s the lack of snow, the prospect of knowing we won’t have a White Christmas. Heck, we might not even have a White New Year’s. While I certainly love the dry roads and lack of white stuff, things aren’t the same.
I didn’t get excited about Christmas shopping this year like I usually do, either. The items on my children’s Christmas lists are getting more expensive each year, so there are far fewer gifts under the tree than usual.
I opted not to send out Christmas cards this year, and I haven’t baked one single treat– no cookies, no fudge, no almond-bark pretzels, nothing.
What is it going to take to get me in the Christmas spirit?
Sometimes I write notes to myself.
Now before you go calling me crazy, hear me out. I am not a patient person. I think I’ve made that abundantly clear on several occasions. I don’t like waiting for things to happen.
So, sometimes I like to write myself notes and put them places where I will see them several months into the future just to remind myself that waiting is ok. Or to remind myself that maybe the wait wasn’t all that bad.
A few years ago, when we lived in Des Moines, we lived in a neighborhood and school district we were desperately trying to get out of. We had some troubles trying to sell our house, and I thought we would never get out of there. I remember being so down on myself, so desperate, so upset and just royally pissed off that we were spending yet another holiday season in a place we didn’t want to be. Houses we had looked at were selling to other people, and there we sat– in a house we couldn’t give away.
We spent the holidays in that house, and as I put away the Christmas decorations that year, I remember writing myself a note on a sheet of paper. I have no idea even WHY I did this. I got out a sheet of notebook paper, and wrote on it:
January 1, 2007
Dear Jenni, Hopefully by the time you read this, you will be putting your Christmas tree up in a new home. Hang in there. Things will get better.
And you know what? That very next Christmas, I opened up my Christmas tree box IN MY NEW HOME and read that letter with a big smile on my face. You see, in May 2007, our house sold, and we were off to a new town, new school district– which happens to be the one we are in now. And all that waiting and sadness and frustration and impatience that I struggled with? I sit back and think about the fact that it was over FOUR YEARS AGO now, and I can’t believe I was so worried about it.
Maybe it seems corny, but I now have notes to myself stuck in my planner on several different dates in the future. March 1st theres a note to myself (“Dear Jenni, How’s the adoption going? Hang in there, lady!”) just with a little pep talk, because I need that motivational fuel to keep me going.
There’s other notes just like them on June 1st and September 1st… encouraging me to stay positive, reminding how far I’ve come, and showing me that it’s worth the wait.
What things do you do in your life to keep yourself motivated?
