New Beginnings

A new year brings reminders of new beginnings. A time to start doing things right, learn something new, kick old habits, change things around a bit. Change is something that has never bothered me, and in fact, I have to admit that for the most part, I like change. So the changes brought by the new beginnings of a new year are always welcomed with open arms. 2011 was a year of major changes in both my immediate and extended family. We began 2011 with the anticipation of our first child who was due to be born in August (we found out we were expecting the day before Christmas Eve so hadn't lived with the idea long in 2010). Then, just a few days later, my grandfather on my mom's side of the family passed away. The hope of a new baby helped to ease our pain and that of our family members. In July, my grandfather on my dad's side of the family also passed away, more suddenly. My dad is an only child, so my sister and I are the only grandchildren on that side, which made that side of the family very tight-knit. In six short months, I went from having four living grandparents to two. My dad lost his job in March, and in this economy, was blessed to find another one just a few weeks later. Two weeks ago, he was laid off again. In August, Caleb was born and after such grieving and adjusting earlier in the year, there was so much joy and more adjusting. So needless to say, 2011 was a pretty big year for us. I am looking forward to many firsts for Caleb in 2012, but hopefully fewer BIG changes. And maybe it will mean that I can blog more.

On to the obligatory resolutions. Change that. GOALS.

I've never been very good at sticking with any of my "new year's resolutions" but maybe by thinking of them as goals instead of resolutions, they'll stick.

Learn how to play my guitar. Last year, Rob taught himself how to play my guitar and consequentially, he was gifted a new acoustic for Christmas (from his parents, but it was my idea!). I got my guitar for Christmas when I was a teenager and was never able to teach myself how to play. Rob's parents and siblings can all play, so he had some good and free lessons. So, now two guitars reside at our house, and it is much easier to learn by playing while watching someone else also play, so one of my goals this year is to learn from Rob! So far, I am pretty good at E Minor. I've got a ways to go...

Blog more. I do enjoy writing and keeping an account of what is going on in our life, projects we have and complete (or don't complete), places we visit and just thoughts of mine in general. I just really need to make more of a point to actually get my thoughts into a post.

Organize the basement and garage. We have so much JUNK. :) Clutter accumulates easily at our house. It's pretty embarrassing. People give us things they think we might need and we say, sure, we could use it. But never do. Time to weed through and donate what we don't use. After all, one person's trash is another's treasure. Why not share the love?

I have other things that I also want to accomplish this year, but I want to be able to actually meet some of my goals. Maybe a monthly "projects" list would help. So maybe another goal is making those to ensure that some things get done - things that I need to do, but also things that I want to do... like going to market and sewing and making/freezing a bunch of baby food for when Caleb's ready to eat his veggies & fruits and reading the Anne of Green Gables series (1912 pages on my Kindle - so far I'm 2% of the way through).