Well, obviously my goal of trying to catch up on blogging hasn’t gone so well yet. Right after I decided I was ready to dive into writing, the holidays arrived with all of the preparations and festivities involved. So, hopefully in early 2014 I’ll settle into a more regular blogging schedule.
Tonight we celebrated New Year’s Eve with the kids, which was so much fun. It was a little difficult explaining the end of one year and the beginning of another to youngsters, but they’re happy to celebrate anything even if they don’t understand it. We made some special food for dinner…Seven-layer bean dip, boiled shrimp, and Swiss fondue with bread and apples. We watched a movie with them, and then toasted each other with sparkling cider in champagne flutes. The kids used the plastic snap-on kind, which they thought was fun.
The kids went to bed, Kenny is paying bills, I’m blogging, and we’ll hopefully make it to midnight. We have more snacks and sparkling cider to finish up, so we’d better!
I’m hoping to take some time in the coming weeks to reflect on 2013 and look ahead to 2014. With the craziness of Christmas preparations in December, I never seem to have time to do this before January 1 hits. So, a few years back, I decided to ease into the New Year and quit stressing that I didn’t have some resolutions ready right away. I hope to take some time to reflect, journal about the previous year, think about some goals and ideas for 2014, and pray about what God would have me do. Resolutions never work for me anyway…by January 15th (or earlier) I seem to be failing already. Instead, thinking about goals I’d like to try in the New Year seems to work better. It takes me awhile to get the hang of something new, so I’m finally allowing myself the time and grace to do that. If I don’t have a new goal set in stone by Easter, who cares? I have the rest of the year to keep working at it. The point is that I’m trying something new…something that will bring added joy or peace to the day to day. God doesn’t want our lives to be stagnant and boring. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer in routine and I greatly dislike change. However, when we stay the same year after year and never take time to evaluate our lives and what we’re doing, we tend to get stuck in a rut. So instead, I’m planning to pray about one or two small areas where I can implement a change for the better. It’s not always easy, and I won’t always succeed, but giving it a fair shot is worth something, too. Just taking the time to think through all of this is worth something, too.
So, if you’ve never taken an end of the year evaluation on life, consider doing so this year. Take inventory, do some soul searching, and pray about where God is leading you in 2014. May your time looking back and forward be a blessing.