Sunday, January 12, 2014

Press Forward and Carry On

On the morning of January 1, 2014, I was the first one in the household up and about. I sat down in the quiet of the living room with my journal and wrote a bit about my hopes and dreams, what I want to accomplish, to do, and to be in the year 2014. Here are the things I want for the coming year:

Temple – Attend more often, weekly if possible

Quilting – Finish the quilts I have started

Promptness -- Get to work and church meetings early and on time

Order – Sort, organize, and dispose of our stuff and clutter

Save and Prepare -- Money and food storage

Service and Love -- Work, church, community, parents, and family

Scriptures and Prayers – Keep on keeping on

Family – Support them in being successful and healthy and happy

Finish the draft of my book

I then set up a plan of when I would try to work on each of these areas each day or each week. And then I remembered that I have signed up to take an evening class this semester. I’m not sure how well my plan will work. I know it’s a lot to do. But these are things that I want to do this year. So, I will set my mantra for the year to be Press Forward and Carry On. Setbacks may come along, but I will try to regroup, and make some progress in these areas.

And, just because I like to, I went back to my New Year’s post from last year to see how well I did at reaching my goals in 2013. I had set some goals to be more balanced and creative in my life, and here’s what I found:

• Painting or Drawing . . . try a portrait.

This did not happen. I may have thought about it again once or twice. I really don’t think this one is on the list for 2014.

• Reading . . . . read 52 books during the year.

According to Goodreads, I only finished 48 books this past year. I may have read a few others that didn’t get posted on Goodreads, but they weren’t worth mentioning. I started quite a few others and never finished them. At any rate, it was a much smaller number than the 74 books I read in 2012. I have decided to keep my goal at 52 books in 2014. I know I will read something, no matter what.

• Quilting . . . . finish two quilts.

I didn’t work on either of them. But I did start two more.  Think I can finish all four this year? Oh, and I assisted DD4 in creating a quilt to take to college. We did finish that one!

• Writing . . . complete the draft of my book.

Still haven’t finished it, but I did add 21,219 words to the manuscript during November’s NaNoWriMo. At different times throughout the year I did a bit more revising/editing/combining of the multitudes of drafts I have put together over the past four or five years, but it is still a project that needs time and attention. It is still a goal.

Blogging is also still a goal, especially keeping a daily gratitude blog on Random Thoughts and Tender Mercies. I did pretty well all through the year, until December when I totally lost my umph. For sure. But, I am determined to get back into the habit. I know it is good for me. I did participate in Blogging from A to Z back in April on Creation and Compassion, and was quite successful there. I even pushed myself to sew some new quilt blocks in the process. I don’t think I’ll have time for that this year. If I do, they will be simple gratitude blogs.

• Lose some weight . . . somewhere between 10 to 25 pounds.

Last year was the first time in my life that I ever have set a weight loss goal. It is completely against my nature, and I probably would not have met it had it not been for the fact that I was without a car from May through December. I have been walking almost every day, trying to eat reasonably, and I did lose at least 10 pounds. I think it was actually closer to 15, but I can’t be sure since I lost the planner that I was using at the first of the year and can’t find a record of my weight at the beginning of 2013. What can I say? I know that I lost weight, I definitely do not want to gain the weight back, and I will try to lose another 5 or 10 during the coming year.

So, Marcy, it’s all there in black and white for the world to see and read. Press Forward and Carry On!





1 comment:

  1. I like your goals -- I don't know if I actually sat down and set some this year, but I should! One of them should be to actually start a blog, like I've been talking about doing for awhile! What book are you writing? That's one of my goals this year, to work some more on Grandpa Willie's book that's been stagnating for awhile...Love you; you're an inspiration! <3

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