Another Year!
It is now December 4th (or 5th or 6th, depending on how long it takes me to organize my thoughts), and it's always about this time of year that I pause to think, "What in the world happened to this past year?!?!?" It seems that the pages of the calendar have flown off at record speed, and the past January seems only a few weeks ago. But here we are, once again, with another year of our lives gone. Completely GONE!!! This is time we will never get back to relive or make better use of. What's gone is gone and there are no do-overs.
I've heard a lot of people mention that time seems to go faster as you get older. In reality, an hour is still and hour and a day is still a day, so time is not truly going faster, it's all in the perception. In my case, I believe that time is the same, I am just moving so much slower. I'm like the rancher who told me one day "I'm so far behind I'm about to catch up." Yes, life is lapping me!
So what did you do in 2017? We attended about a dozen different shoots, each one occupying an entire weekend plus usually a Friday for travel. And one shoot involved an entire week! So there was where a good chunk of time and energy went. I still have a job and that took up a lot of time. We made several weekend visits to the kids' houses and tried to take in some of the grandkids' activities. Each Thursday night we drove to Valentine for Fast Draw, plus attended several fund-raisers and promotions for Fast Draw. We hosted family several times throughout the year which usually involved more than just the weekend by the time I prepared food and the house for company. It was a busy year!
I think it's always good to stop and reflect on progress, and there seems to be no better time that at the end of a year. Ideally, we will examine the progress...or lack thereof...and make a plan that would get the upcoming year to a better start. December is always a good time to do this.
I had grand expectations and great plans to make it a productive year. I was going to completely revolutionize my life and become the person I have always wanted to be...slender, organized, financially secure, fit and healthy, someone I would admire! What actually happened falls incredibly short of what I had imagined for this year!
One area I had hoped to improve upon was in the area of weight management. I don't remember exactly how much weight I had resolved to lose, but I know that I now have an additional 10 pounds to lose in order to achieve that goal. I'm pretty sure that my resolve was revived on the first day of each month only to evaporate into nothingness by about the 2nd or 3rd. It was a busy year full of social activities and, in true Midwest fashion, most of those social activities revolved around food. So, once again, I am pledging to lose weight. My dilemma is: Do I shoot for the stars and make a plan to lose 70 lbs. or do I make it an easy goal and pledge to lose 20 lbs, not that 20 lbs is an easy goal since I obviously didn't achieve it! I guess I'm leaning toward the big goal. I was once told that we should shoot for the stars because you will likely fall short, but at least you might hit the moon! So if I fail to lose that 70 lbs and only lose 20, that's better than I did this year!
We all experience financial ups and downs, and for us 2017 was a down year. Nothing catastrophic, just a lot of things that took more money than we expected and some financial disappointments. So, instead of being in a better financial position, we are now worse. But we still have a roof over our head and food in our bellies (see previous paragraph to see that food hasn't been in short supply). And this is still on my new year's resolution list to improve our financial position. So that plan is the same one as last year, we just are hoping it will pan out better this year!
My house is always on my list of things to improve in our lives. It's not terrible, but the clutter tends to pile up and the dust and grime tend to collect. My plan for this is to keep on keeping on as best I can and realize that there will be years in the future to dig deep into the closets and the basement and sort out the undesirable stuff in our lives and to dig under the couch and eradicate the dust bunnies. I tell myself that housework is overrated, and to a point I believe that, but there is a level of cleanliness and neatness that is a necessity in my life. I'm not there yet but in time!
As I address this list of last year's new year's resolutions, I am thinking of making a few new resolutions.
I will resolve to put my phone down more often. Modern technology in the form of smart phones is awesome. But it's also a detriment to good relationships. Mike complains that I pull out my phone the minute we get in the car, and he's right. I don't exactly ignore him, but I am only half listening. He deserves more of my undivided attention. And who knows, I might just see something other than my phone screen and get inspired if I look around. One thing I noticed this year is that a lot of people our age have become widowed, and the specter of life alone feels more real all the time. So I resolve to spend less time on my phone and more time with the people I love.
I will take ownership of my home, which means the house doesn't control me, I control it. If someone comes to my house and the floors are gritty, I won't feel embarrassed. I know that each and every person has dirt in their house. Some people just have more time and energy to eradicate it than I have right now. I will be better at setting priorities and not get distracted by the things that don't really mean as much. I once read that the priorities for housekeeping belong to dishes and laundry (and I might add sorting mail to that). So there's my priorities for now, and everything else can just wait its turn.
Last of all, and this one is totally selfish, I will spend more time doing the things I want to do and less time on commitments that I don't want to do anyway. I suppose this will require that I learn to use the word "NO!" more frequently, but if that's what it takes, then so be it. I will spend time at the piano because I love that. I will read more. I will spend more time in God's word and in prayer. Selfish, but everyone will be happier for it.
So as we finish out this year (after only a couple weeks it seems) , I encourage you to stop and reflect. Is your life really headed the way you want it to? And if not, what can you change to make it better? Obviously there are many things that can't be changed, but there are many that can be changed or at least tweaked to make life more enjoyable. You owe it to yourself to make your life as good as possible.
Happy 2018...a month early!
I've heard a lot of people mention that time seems to go faster as you get older. In reality, an hour is still and hour and a day is still a day, so time is not truly going faster, it's all in the perception. In my case, I believe that time is the same, I am just moving so much slower. I'm like the rancher who told me one day "I'm so far behind I'm about to catch up." Yes, life is lapping me!
So what did you do in 2017? We attended about a dozen different shoots, each one occupying an entire weekend plus usually a Friday for travel. And one shoot involved an entire week! So there was where a good chunk of time and energy went. I still have a job and that took up a lot of time. We made several weekend visits to the kids' houses and tried to take in some of the grandkids' activities. Each Thursday night we drove to Valentine for Fast Draw, plus attended several fund-raisers and promotions for Fast Draw. We hosted family several times throughout the year which usually involved more than just the weekend by the time I prepared food and the house for company. It was a busy year!
I think it's always good to stop and reflect on progress, and there seems to be no better time that at the end of a year. Ideally, we will examine the progress...or lack thereof...and make a plan that would get the upcoming year to a better start. December is always a good time to do this.
I had grand expectations and great plans to make it a productive year. I was going to completely revolutionize my life and become the person I have always wanted to be...slender, organized, financially secure, fit and healthy, someone I would admire! What actually happened falls incredibly short of what I had imagined for this year!
One area I had hoped to improve upon was in the area of weight management. I don't remember exactly how much weight I had resolved to lose, but I know that I now have an additional 10 pounds to lose in order to achieve that goal. I'm pretty sure that my resolve was revived on the first day of each month only to evaporate into nothingness by about the 2nd or 3rd. It was a busy year full of social activities and, in true Midwest fashion, most of those social activities revolved around food. So, once again, I am pledging to lose weight. My dilemma is: Do I shoot for the stars and make a plan to lose 70 lbs. or do I make it an easy goal and pledge to lose 20 lbs, not that 20 lbs is an easy goal since I obviously didn't achieve it! I guess I'm leaning toward the big goal. I was once told that we should shoot for the stars because you will likely fall short, but at least you might hit the moon! So if I fail to lose that 70 lbs and only lose 20, that's better than I did this year!
We all experience financial ups and downs, and for us 2017 was a down year. Nothing catastrophic, just a lot of things that took more money than we expected and some financial disappointments. So, instead of being in a better financial position, we are now worse. But we still have a roof over our head and food in our bellies (see previous paragraph to see that food hasn't been in short supply). And this is still on my new year's resolution list to improve our financial position. So that plan is the same one as last year, we just are hoping it will pan out better this year!
My house is always on my list of things to improve in our lives. It's not terrible, but the clutter tends to pile up and the dust and grime tend to collect. My plan for this is to keep on keeping on as best I can and realize that there will be years in the future to dig deep into the closets and the basement and sort out the undesirable stuff in our lives and to dig under the couch and eradicate the dust bunnies. I tell myself that housework is overrated, and to a point I believe that, but there is a level of cleanliness and neatness that is a necessity in my life. I'm not there yet but in time!
As I address this list of last year's new year's resolutions, I am thinking of making a few new resolutions.
I will resolve to put my phone down more often. Modern technology in the form of smart phones is awesome. But it's also a detriment to good relationships. Mike complains that I pull out my phone the minute we get in the car, and he's right. I don't exactly ignore him, but I am only half listening. He deserves more of my undivided attention. And who knows, I might just see something other than my phone screen and get inspired if I look around. One thing I noticed this year is that a lot of people our age have become widowed, and the specter of life alone feels more real all the time. So I resolve to spend less time on my phone and more time with the people I love.
I will take ownership of my home, which means the house doesn't control me, I control it. If someone comes to my house and the floors are gritty, I won't feel embarrassed. I know that each and every person has dirt in their house. Some people just have more time and energy to eradicate it than I have right now. I will be better at setting priorities and not get distracted by the things that don't really mean as much. I once read that the priorities for housekeeping belong to dishes and laundry (and I might add sorting mail to that). So there's my priorities for now, and everything else can just wait its turn.
Last of all, and this one is totally selfish, I will spend more time doing the things I want to do and less time on commitments that I don't want to do anyway. I suppose this will require that I learn to use the word "NO!" more frequently, but if that's what it takes, then so be it. I will spend time at the piano because I love that. I will read more. I will spend more time in God's word and in prayer. Selfish, but everyone will be happier for it.
So as we finish out this year (after only a couple weeks it seems) , I encourage you to stop and reflect. Is your life really headed the way you want it to? And if not, what can you change to make it better? Obviously there are many things that can't be changed, but there are many that can be changed or at least tweaked to make life more enjoyable. You owe it to yourself to make your life as good as possible.
Happy 2018...a month early!
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