Looking Back... and Ahead

This New Year’s Eve, I went through my photo albums and reminisced about all the holidays, birthdays, weddings, and other events of 2007:

- My husband and I reached 41

- Our children turned 20, 9, 18 and 13 – lots of milestones!

- Three new babies joined our extended family.

- Two new pets came into our home.

- We celebrated the weddings of family and friends

- We saw our two oldest children dressed to the nines for prom...

If not for photos, I wouldn’t remember a thing! Fortunately, I do keep records of certain things, too. Heaven knows my memory needs a backup:

- My weight fluctuated from 175 pounds, down to 134, then back up to 149 by years’ end.

- I quit smoking – for one month. It was my longest smoke-free period in 26 years, and provided lots of insight for my eventual, final, once-and-for-all quit. (Which WILL happen!)

- I completed 13 quilts, five were rescued from my UFO (unfinished objects) pile, another two, for charity – and I finally have a homemade quilt on my own bed!

- I got somewhat fired up about my writing at the end of summer 2007, submitting a query to a major market, working on a memoir, revising a middle-grade chapter book, and submitting a few reprints here and there.

Looking ahead, I pray for the blessings to continue in 2008. We await the birth of a great-niece or nephew this April (another quilt to make!), look forward to our daughter’s graduation in June, and to the mixed emotions of sending her off to college next fall. There will be more birthdays, more holidays, more celebrations.

And it’ll all happen in a flash.

Time marches on. Actually, it’s more like sprinting these days. So I think, more and more, about how I spend that time. I would love to look back at 2008 and see that I’ve really squeezed the potential out of every day. That I’ve finally reached certain personal goals and can move on from the same old resolutions. That I’m doing meaningful things with my life. I’m proud of what I did achieve in 2007 – but of course, there’s still lots of room for improvement:

- This year, I will FINALLY reach my goal weight of 125 pounds. I’m starting out strong, logging 10.5 miles on the treadmill in these first three days of the new year (plus another 3.5 on New Year’s Eve!). I managed to lose 40 pounds last year, so I know I can lose 24.

- As stupid as it sounds, I still haven’t committed to quitting smoking, but I do want to start making mental changes to that end. This year, I will commit to regular visits at my favorite quit-smoking website, whyquit.com. A constant flow of good, no-nonsense information on the dangers (and stupidity) of smoking goes a long way toward taking that final step, and I tend to avoid that information when I’m not actively trying to quit.

- My quilting goals are all about organization. I’m preparing to make a major change, moving everything from my basement to an upstairs bedroom. Once the move is complete, and everything in its place, I’ll focus on finishing or getting rid of my unfinished craft/sewing/quilting projects.

- There’s a definite lack of focus on the writing front, so I need to do some serious thinking, decide what I want to achieve with my writing, and create a Business Plan, including some concrete goals that are yet to be determined. It’s a start.

- I will also track our household spending this year, and come up with a realistic budget, including a small amount set aside each week for next year’s Christmas shopping. How nice would it be to actually have money at Christmas time????

So… that’s it.

Resolutions.

In writing.

Accountability.

Stay tuned…