Faith, Family, Finance, Fitness

So, its January 1st. Again. Every year a chance to start a new...to wipe the slate clean....and to try, once more, to be a better person. Every year I declare I will lose weight and drink more water. I swear I will quit cussing. I promise to be a better mother and read the Bible more. Mostly, these resolutions are forgotten within days of New Years.

This year I am going to copy something my pastor talked about a few weeks ago. He said instead of making specific resolutions he was going to focus on four things: Faith, Family, Finance, Fitness. In exactly that order. I think that sounds like a wonderful idea. Nothing specific, just more focus on those areas.

I feel bittersweet about 2009 ending. Most would think it should be the greatest year of my life and I would hate to see it go, but I have very mixed emotions. 2009 started out with a BANG!! On January 4th, Geoff proposed to me in the top of the Hyatt in downtown Kansas City. The most perfect fairytale proposal one has ever heard of. (When I tell people the story, I still get teary) In June, my brother adopted a son.....the most perfect little angel, Benjamin. Then in July we were married and travelled to Hawaii for our honeymoon. In August two of my children were baptized on the same day as myself. We also found out were going to have a new family member! Geoff's sister is pregnant and we are anxiously awaiting meeting our new neice. Lastly, in September I was declared a match to donate a kidney to my little brother. WHAT A YEAR!!

Now for the reasons I am happy to see 2009 go. I know a lot of people who had a horrible, horrible year. When other people are having a rough time, I tend to carry their burdens. A very dear friend of mine lost her husband in '09. Watching her agony and watching her slowly lose weight and wither makes my heart ache. Also, the economy is devistating. I deal with customers everyday that have lost their jobs and don't have enough money to make ends meet. The pain in theirs eyes as they come to ask for loans and forgivness is heart wrenching. My hands are tied with what I can do to help them at the bank. I think about these families A LOT. Sometimes I even dream about them and it SUCKS! But the biggest reason '09 sucked is that after being declared a match for a kidney for my little brother, and after being admitted to the hospital we found out that he isn't healthy enough for the surgery so it was called off. And in the midst of cancelling the surgery, the doctors discovered that I, too, carry the Leidens Factor V that my little brother has. This means that even if he gets healthy again, they won't let me be a donor. This also means that at any time I could also start clotting like he does. This ALSO means that my children could have the mutated gene. It changes a lot of things in my life.

With all that being said, I toast to a new year! I toast to focusing on my Faith and my walk with the Lord. This will only lead to me being a better wife, a better mother, a better friend, a better sister, and ultimately, a better person. I toast to focusing more on my family and spending well deserved time with them doing meaningful things. I will take more trips to Emporia and to Great Bend. I will call my granny more and I will be a better big sister. I toast to budgeting better. I will take less trips to Maurices and more trips to the Goodwill. I will do more coupon clipping and I will shop the sales. I toast to making time to exercise. I will use that dusty treadmill in the basement and I will quit using the weight lifting bench to lay my clothes on that are drying. I will go for more walks and eventually learn to run. In fact, I'll do that with my daughter, combining family time with fitness! Whatever this year hold in store, I'm sure it will make for some good blogging!

~peace out friends! oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!