A New Year 2011

A new year brings a fresh start it seems. So many people are figuring out their new years resolutions, promising themselves that this year really will be different and they really will stick with their goals. I decided that I was NOT going to make a new years resolution this year. However, since the start of the year I have been pondering several things that I would really like to see change this new year. I guess the newness of a new year really does naturally make you want to make some changes.

1. Being a full time Graduate student was a new thing for me last year. It was a lot of hard work last semester having 18 credit hours. There was barely time for anything else. So many evenings I was deep into my school work trying to meet deadlines. So many evenings it would be dinner time and my poor husband would be scrambling in the kitchen trying to put something together for dinner...or just running to grab some fast food.

Before this semester starts with it's 15 credit hours, I have started meal planning for the next month. I have my daily dinners planned right down to the recipe page number. I even have the two week shopping list for these meals planned out for the next month as well. All this thanks to my friend Sunny telling me about "The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner" cookbook and meal planning that she has been using! I ordered my book on Tuesday from Amazon and had it the next day! So Wed when I got home from AWANA I sat down and started planning out our dinners for the next month. The Food Nanny makes it so easy! I will be sharing more about that in future blog posts because.......

2. I want to be better about journaling this year. I have been so concerned about my memory. It seems that I can't remember anything these days. I am not getting any younger, but jeesh I just celebrated my 36th birthday in December...am I really old enough to be forgetting so much all the time? Some peoople say it is due to having so much on my plate with graduate schoool and raising three kids. Well at any rate, I hope to take a few minutes a day to try and journal a little here on my blog. Not only will it help me to remember, it will be a recording of some of the things going on in my life which is why I originally began this blog to begin with, another thing my friend Sunny inspired me to do! I hope this will also help our long distant family stay a little better in tune with the things going on in our family.

3. Bible Study. I go to church every Sunday Morning, Sun Evening and Wednesday night....but that isn't enough. I like to do bible study every day. This past couple of years with me working at the preschool and then starting graduate schoo,l my bible study has been lacking. So this year I am determined to get back to daily bible study. I have started the Providence 365 challenge at Faithsisters. My goal is to complete at the very least, the bible study and journaling for this challenge each week this year. If I am lucky I will also be able to keep up with making a page each week so I can get it bound in a book at the end of the year. I taught myself to digital scrapbook earlier this week while I have some time off between semesters. I did some digital tutorials that my friend Karma recommended. It was pretty time consuming but I have completed my first two pages for Providence 365 using photoshop elements!






For someone who wasn't planning to make new years resolutions this year, I sure have quite a few! As the Spring semester begins next week, we shall see how it goes. There will be no more of these lazy days sitting and relaxing that is for sure! But only this semester and then the summer semester and then I will have my Masters in Reading!

Happy New Year! I hope we all have a very blessed 2011!