New Year, New Beginning

Happy New Year!

I love new beginnings. I love Mondays, fresh mornings, new months, and definitely new years. I love that every day holds the possibility for new opportunities and change.

I love that I can change…I love how dynamic people are. We aren’t ever who we were a minute before.

I love choosing. It is comforting to me that we are allowed to choose. I can weigh the options, look at the potential consequences, and I then I can choose. And if I mess up, then at least I’ve learned something, I know I can make it right and it goes into the library of choosing so that I can pick something different next time.

I like being happy. Everyone has challenges and trials but I feel like I’ve had a life of mostly happy. I celebrate that gift as often as I can.

And so it is time for a new beginning. A friend shared with me the “New Year’s” scripture in Luke 2:52. I have always been so enraptured with the Christmas story told at the beginning of the chapter that I failed to read all the way to the end and appreciate the opportunity for change and growth and new beginnings that it offers at the end. It says:

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man”.

I’m not always quick on the draw so my friend had to elaborate a little more for me.

Luke 2:52 “And Jesus increased in wisdom (academic goals) and stature (physical goals) and in favour with God (spiritual goals) and man (social goals).”

And suddenly it seemed so obvious. So we planned a Family Home Evening and set some goals.

We talked about setting goals and how big goals are best reached by setting small goals. So each member of our family set a BIG goal in each of the 4 areas for the year. Then we determined what the first step toward reaching that goal would be and wrote it in the boxes for January. During father’s interviews, Chris will follow up with the kids on how they are doing with their goals. And at the start of each month, during Family Home Evening, we will review our goals, how the previous month went and what we want to focus on during the next month. I’m so excited about the process. I feel like not only are we teaching our children an important lesson about goal-setting and how to reach those goals but we are on the brink of making some wonderful changes in our lives. And because they are broken down into baby steps and I have the support of my whole family on my side, they seem so obtainable. I love it. I love the new beginning.

So grab your favorite people and get ready to see some amazing things happen.

This is going to be such a fantastic year. I can feel it!

P.S. Thank you Chip and ML for another fabulous New Year’s Eve. We celebrated Ethan…happy birthday sweet boy!

We ate delicious food.

Carrie wore a fantastic party dress with coordinated top hat/sequin headband...

We sang and played on the Wii...

And at midnight we kissed...

 and played with sparklers.

 It was fabulous and fun…I look forward to it all year long!!!

Merci!

P.S.S. I am SO far behind on my daily documenting...wait until you hear about my trip to Portland! It was fabulous...and I'm working on the blog right now...stay tuned.