New Year's Resolutions

I know we are already a few days into 2010, but the holidays (and my birthday!) are a bit crazy, so I never have time to sit and think about what I really want to accomplish the next year until a few days after the whole shebang calms down.  This year I have a lot of going back to the basics to do.  Last year I didn't even attempt to make New Year's Resolutions because there were so many unknowns--would Dr. C find a job?  Would Miss B be living?  How would T-Man and Fearless handle a big move? How would they handle a new sibling?  How would they handle starting school?  What would daily life be like after our child with Down syndrome is born?  It as really just too overwhelming (plus I was pregnant and hormonal!) so my goal for last year was just to survive.  Just ride out the waves and crawl to the finish line.  And that's pretty much what I did.

I'm done with that though--just surviving gets pretty boring after awhile and I feel the urge to move upward and have those Hallelujah! times and to THRIVE.  I've been thinking a lot lately about the things to do to feel happy--and I keep remembering a talk I heard by Dieter F. Uchtdorf called Happiness, Your Heritage.   I specifically like the part where he talks about our need to create, he says:

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.
Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.

You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.

With that in mind, I wrote my list of New Year's Resolutions.  I'm sharing them with you all because I do much better with following through if I know other people are keeping tabs on me.  Someday I hope to have better internal motivation, but until then, ask me how I'm doing. :)  Some of them I have already been working on and I just need to tweak or be more consistent about, some of them I used to do but just couldn't over the past year, and some of them are totally new to me. 

Here they are, in no particular order:

• Read the scriptures every day
• Say personal morning and evening prayers every day
• Write in my journal at least once a week
• Run consistently again, complete a 1/2 marathon and a full marathon
• Go to bed by 10:30PM (this is probably going to be harder than finishing a marathon!)
• Be five minutes early for all appointments, meetings, church, etc. (also harder than a marathon!)
• Complete one sewing project per month (I finally got a sewing machine for my b-day and Christmas--I'll post on my new little love later!)
• Complete one craft project per month
• Write down one thing I love about my husband and one thing I am thankful for everyday
• Perform one act of service for someone else everyday
• Laugh more, scold less
  

I think they should all be attainable, but it is going to require work and effort on my part.  Wish me luck!

What about you?  What are your goals for 2010?  What are you going to do to make 2010 the best year ever?  Let me know and we can help keep each other motivated!

P.S. In the "create" mode, I'm also adding a new blog list of blogs that inspire me to create something--and that have instructions on how to do it.  Let me know your favorite blogs that inspire you to create so I can add them to the list!