No resolutions, Plenty of Love, Blessings & a List.

[autumngal]

Happy New Year!

Yes, a new year has begun.  By the way, are you calling it (2010) by "Twenty-Ten" or "TwoThousand and Ten"?  Just points to ponder.  I think I'm leaning towards twenty-ten.  Another thing?  Do you have resolutions?  I really don't think I do.  I actually "resolve" every day...or I try to.  My own little goal system that I implement when I count my blessings each day.  I often thrwo in a few things like "I resolve to be a kinder person or I resolve to smile more or be more charitable."  It's a daily thing not a new year thing.  Much easier, in my opinion, than creating some crazy 48lb weight loss by March thing.  Hmmmm, weight loss, let's not go there.:(  I do resolve to take these extra pounds off.  Between last Spring and through Summer I had lost 26 nagging pounds and I was feeling amazing....still had about 10-15 to go but still feeling great.  Wham, December hit and so did the pounds of holidays.  On to a new challenge.

This coming year will begin a new chapter with each day signalling a new adventure, new life, new challenges and more moments of joy.  Even through those tougher times, there is always a learning experience, a moment of recognition, reflection and certainly there for a reason.  It can be difficult to focus on these things during a trying moment but as long as you do see them as learning opportunities or necessary for your spiritual growth, it's all good.  Everything God and the Universe gives us is  a blessing....even those that are appearing in diguise. :)  Be well, be strong and know that you are always loved....always....and you are never alone.  There is always love.

A multitude of blessings come to mind tonight as I sit here and a large amount of goofiness, as well.  My blessings, to some, may be insignificant but I try to count them as important as the rest.  One such silly blessing is my "squirrel" experience today.  I live in the country...kind of the boonies as we like to describe it.  We are surrounded by farm land, quiet, peaceful and lots of wildlife.  I've never seen a squirrel out here though.  It's been my experience that they are more prevalent in town or wooded areas....not corn fields.  Today I had a squirrel racing around my yard in the freezing snow and at one point, when I went out on the porch to check him out, he stopped, perched himself on his hind legs and just stared at me.  He twitched his nose and looked at me, as if to say, "What?  Haven't you ever seen a squirrel before?  Stupid lady!"  I just stood there and laughed and watched him race across my yard.  Laughter, my crazy little squirrel and love....beautiful blessings on this New Year's Day.

Normally on the 1st day of the new year, we, as a family, sit down and create our "List".  Well, actually we will be doing this tomorrow since my oldest was not home today and is working tonight.  We will all gather tomorrow to create our 'wish list for 2010' and our 'uglies of 2009'  With the wish list we try to come up with 100 things to place on the list as goals, dreams, ideas, fun things to do, etc.  Some are extravagent, some are simple, some are silly.  At the end of the year we go through the list to see what we had accomplished or completed throughout that year.  It's fun to see how much we had actually done towards our list.  Trust me, it is hard to actually come up with 100 things....try it.  You don't want to make them all crazy things like winning a yacht and sailing around the world.  How much fun would that be at the end of the year....nope we didn't do that, or that, or that.   In 2009 we accomplished things like:

Trevor:  winning 4 tournaments in golf, making the honor roll, getting his driver's license, etc.

Nikolas:  making more friends in school, learning how to swim and going to camp and getting presents for his birthday.

Mine:  going rafting, moving up in my job, planting a successful garden.

You get the picture.....it's just a fun thing to do and gives each of us some goals and something to look forward to.

So, the new year brings freshness, new perspective, and plenty more goals, and always love and blessings.  On my list this year?????spending more time here, doing this, with you.  So, ready, set go, let's skip through Twenty-Ten, holding hands, laughing, loving and counting my blessings.