Thank God another January is behind us

I always feel better once we close the time out on January.  Though February is still cool here, I know we’re through the worst part of winter now and on the slide toward spring and summer, my two favorite seasons of the year.

So hurray, January is over for a while again. We can look forward to Groundhog Day or Candlemas, whichever you celebrate.  Both are early spring celebrations.  We don’t have a long while to wait now until new green shoots appear on plants and flowers.  This means more work but it’s so much better than shivering in the cold amidst brown twisted branches.

I’m always thankful the worst of winter is behind us.  Soon we’ll be off making summer plans, or fulfilling some of those resolutions, if it’s been too cold to do them. 

We continue to have the most beautiful sunsets.  I was out running errands and rushed home to grab the camera and capture some of the colors.  It was one of those evenings that started out all gold and then turned orange and pink and spread all over the sky.  I never get tired of the sunsets.

I've also received a new printer from HP finally.  I've been talking with them for a month about this as my printer doesn't work and it's not even a year old.  So I got the new one today but haven't hooked it up yet.  I wasted two hours driving to the airport and back trying to track down the places where the citizen's police academy will be held.  I'd rather know ahead of time.  So what a day.  I got nothing accomplished.

My class starts a week from yesterday, so I’ll be posting about that soon.

Resolution time

From my house to yours...Happy New Year everyone.  

Raven

We have a blank page again to start new adventures.  What fun.  I haven't made any resolutions yet.  I just hope this will be a better year than 2015, although last year did have some nice moments in it.  

Let's face it, most of the resolutions we make are broken before the month of January is over. What is called for is being more thoughtful and realistic about the goals we set for ourselves.  As we all know, life gets in the way of many things as the days go by.  

This year, I'm taking my time to think this over.  I think the usual items on the list, losing weight, eating healthier and exercising more are hard to keep because we need to be resolved to change our habits.  That isn't an easy thing to do, but it can be done.  I'm happy with myself in those areas anyway because I changed my habits long time ago where weight, diet and exercise are concerned.  

This year I think my goals will be smaller and more attainable. When I reach them I can make more, even if it isn't New Years.  Remember, you can do this too and may be happier with yourself if you take baby steps.  There's nothing at all wrong with that.  As we look to the future, it's time to get serious with ourselves about the things important to us.  What do we really really want to accomplish?  If you're yearning for it, the resolution will be easier to keep.

Think about that as you make your list.  Until next time...

Happy New Year!

A big thank you to all of you have followed me and read my blog posts over the last year.  I love all your comments and try to reciprocate by visiting your blogs as well.  As a result, I’ve met a lot of nice people out there and read some interesting posts.  I hope to do better about dropping by more often, but I always run out of time.

Many of my followers have come from participating in the A to Z challenge every April.  The idea for this challenge started with Lee Bird at this link.  The idea is to blog every day for the month of April (with Sundays off).  It’s quite a test to blog daily with all that goes on in life at any given time, but you should think about putting this on your calendar for 2015.  It’s a lot of fun.

I’m not a big one for making new year’s resolutions because it’s hard to keep any resolution and I don’t like to commit to something I probably won’t do consistently, however, I will say that I’m trying to do better with that way of thinking.

I do what I can daily whether it’s cleaning house, writing, cooking, exercising, reading, watching wildlife and taking pictures, or a combination of all of them.  My days fly by.  I don’t have as much time to read or sew as I used to.

So here goes with something I think I can manage (maybe). 

I will stop emailing myself things to read later.  I’m very bad about doing this.  It fills my inbox so fast because I do it daily several dozen times.  We’ll see how long this lasts.

I’m going to try to eat better and exercise more.  It’s not that I don’t do that already, but I’m not getting any younger and I could also do better in almost any area of my life.

I’m going to try to write more than I do now.  I’d like to finish the three books I have started and get one of them published this year.  It seems I’m always writing now, if you could hear my husband talk, but sometimes it’s just email and blog posts.

I will be doing the ABNA again in Jan or Feb, the A to Z Challenge in April and the NaNo in November because I can’t let any writing challenge pass me by without giving it a go.

I’m going to try and do better about organizing things as I go because in the end I have a big mess to take care of and I have to organize it anyway.  I’ve been doing that with my pictures for the last six months and it sure helps to label them and file them as soon as I download my camera card.  It saves time when I want to find things later, even though it takes time to do all the work in the beginning.  Of course I still have 20,000+ pics on my computer that I took before I started this practice that I have to deal with eventually.

I’m going to try and live a quieter and more peaceful life, but I don’t know if that will ever happen in my house.

I’m going to read more books.  I love to read but have really drifted far from reading my sixty books a year.

I would like to learn to do something new once a month.  I love learning.  There are many things about Photoshop I still need to learn.  Other things on the net catch my interest all the time.  I could probably set a record for my daily use of Google because I have a curious mind and will research things of interest.

I hope to see my family more if I’m able to move closer once we sell the house.  Time flies so fast and all of us are getting older.  It would be nice to do some things with my sisters while all of us can still get around.

I want to find a PT job somehow someway so I can make a little extra money; however, this would ideally be an afternoon or night shift, as anything before noon just isn’t me at this stage of my life.  This one might not happen either, unless I want to be a greeter at Walmart.

I’d like to live like a cat, sleep when I’m tired and eat when I’m hungry, but this will never happen in my house either where everything has to be on a schedule.

The following are things that will never happen:

I’ll never stop taking in stray cats.  I can’t help myself if I see a poor little fur darling that some careless person abandoned outside all alone, starving and perhaps hurt.  I’ll at least make sure it gets to a no-kill shelter, or an organization like PAWS.  Right now, I have three and that’s probably my limit.

I will probably never stop drinking a glass of wine now and then in the evening when I need to relax and chill out.

Please don’t ask me to ever get to bed before midnight.  I’m a born night owl and this is just not going to happen, no matter how hard I try.  It causes constant friction in my house, but I hate to stop writing if I’m on a role.  I also hate to stop reading when I have two pages left to finish the book, or finish the chapter.  Or to stop sewing when all I left is the hem.  This stuff really burns my butt.

I will never be a clock watcher.  It drives me crazy and I look forward to the day I can throw all the clocks out the window.

I wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.  Keep that positive attitude and be realistic about your goals.  It’s easier to find satisfaction that way and not disappoint yourself because you will get there eventually.

If you’re celebrating, be careful on the road and get a designated driver if you’re drinking.  Have fun and make merry with friends and family.  Tomorrow’s a brand new day.  Happy New Year from me and the cats.