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!