a fresh start--Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year! With the holidays and lots of family time, it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated. Obviously my other blogging friends have been busy too---because you all need to update as well!!

We had a wonderful Christmas. The pure joy of the season and excitement from a 3 year old and almost 9 month old was priceless! I can't believe the Christmas season is already over though and a new year has begun. I get excited at the beginning of a new year--thinking about what's in store for us. I finally bought my new planner/agenda today and spent some time logging in birthdays for the year and already filling up January with appts., etc. As I looked back at 2008, I noticed my dr. appts. for our Charlie to be and the big DUE DATE in April. What a fun year it was! We definitely won't be having a DUE DATE circled in 2009 (well I guess technically we could---but it's NOT in our plan anyway), but there are still fun things ahead.

As always, when I get a fresh start to something, I want to get organized. So, that's one of my goals at the beginning of 2009. My sweet mother/father in law gave me a gift card to the Container Store for Christmas, and though we don't have a store in Memphis, I've been perusing the catalog for a jump start to getting organized. My husband even forwarded me an article about bringing order to our home in 2009. It definitely helps to have people supporting my goal!

I also have a LOT of books I want to read this year. I wonder how I will do that with all of the Spring shows coming on (24, American Idol, Scrubs, etc)?? Our minister, Sandy Willson, encouraged us today to dive into The Word this year. Start somewhere in the Bible and dig deeper than we have before----instead of wasting time on mindless garbage such as some of the shows we watch on TV. Truly convicting! I definitely want to dig deeper this year!

I also want to be a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, sister in law, daughter in law, friend, etc. I know I cannot do this on my own. However, I am encouraged to know that if I live to serve the Lord, then these things should fall into place. This is not to say I won't fail, I will---we all will, but how wondeful to know that the Lord still LOVES us even when we do fail. He picks us up everytime!!

Oh, and I have a million other things I want to do this year. . .finish Charlie's scrapbook, cook more, start running again (I haven't run since the half-marathon), take vacations, etc. I know by February this exciting, momentum of a fresh start will begin fading, but feel free to keep me accountable! Ask me how I'm doing on any number of the things I've listed and tell me what your goals are for the New Year too!!