Looking ahead to 2012…

So it’s back to the grindstone…

A new year…new possibilities…new adventures…new challenges…new lessons to learn…

2011 was a good year… sure, it had some lows – it marked the end of our third year of trying to get pregnant, and was filled with related challenges, some good friends left for new adventures in distant states…but boy did it also have some highs – it marked 4 years of wedded bliss, getting to know the ladies in my bible study better, growing closer to my Lord and Savior, I got to take my hubby “home” and got to see my family again after many years, and I learned how to let go and let God (it’s a constant battle, but it’s getting easier every day)!

As I look ahead to 2012 I do so with a sense of excitement and trepidation…. Rather than making a list of resolutions, I will share my hopes for the year…

At the end of 2012 I hope to have:

• successfully completed student teaching and made some professional connections that could potentially land me a job at the beginning of next year!
• graduated with my bachelors degree in Elementary Education, with honors
• an inkling of an idea of how to be an effective teacher 😉
• shown people God’s glory or somehow played a role in the salvation of the lost
• successfully mastered saving and sticking to our monthly budget
• worked out or done some form of exercise at least 52 times! (that’s only once a week…should be doable)
• found time to take more photos, craft more, bake more, read God’s word more, volunteer more, blog more, and laugh more.

Notice how falling pregnant is NOT on that list… we are officially no longer trying to get pregnant… with everything that this year holds in store, it would not be good timing for us. Also, I need a break – a clean, there is no way we could be pregnant so no need to hope or imagine and feel disappointed every month, break.

Something special I am doing this year is writing something about every day… I have a pretty box and a bunch of index cards, each of which I have stamped a date (without the year) on the top… now, every day I will write/stamp the year on one of the lines and write something…

Something significant that happened that day…a prayer…something I am thankful for that day…etc

I read about it on a blog I follow…but of course – I cannot for the life of me remember which one… if you google “date stamp index cards” a bunch of examples will come up of what I’m going on about…

You’d be surprised how difficult it is to come up with something every day…makes me really try to appreciate the day and pay attention to what happens, what I learn, what makes the day special, God’s hand in my life…

It’s something special to be able to look back on – I’m sure it will/would be made extra special by documenting a pregnancy or a child’s milestones…just saying! 😉

Speaking/writing of reflecting back…I came back from my trip to South Africa/home with all my personal possessions… none of my belongings or childhood mementos are at my mom’s nor my dad’s house any longer…I feel very grown up. I had to throw out a lot of stuff…old shirts from church camps….diaries…journals…homework books (which documented all kinds of crazy stuff from highschool…we used to write everything in there – what we did on the weekends… they were like scrapbooks too, full of magazine pictures…doodles…the works)….

But, I did come back with the stuff that I couldn’t part with – year books, childhood letters, school report cards, photos, CDs, etc. It’s been fun reading some of my journals and listening to some of the music I grew up to… (hip hop, techno dance music, heavy Christian rock and rap, worship music…. What can I say, I was/am a complicated women with diverse interests?)

Anyway…

I am afraid I will be rather absent from my blog indefinitely…I am doubling up my classes in order to complete them in time to student teach in the fall…so I am taking two 5 week classes at once…let’s just say it’s not a walk in the park… I feel very overwhelmed with the amount of school work I need to do, but I know I can manage if I stay focused. But, please forgive me – I am already behind on reading blogs, commenting, etc…and I can’t see it getting much better anytime soon…

Before I bid you farewell (for now) I’d like to thank ‘Relaxed no more’ for giving me the ‘Liebster* Blog Award’ in Novemeber… it is my first award and I am so grateful and excited! A little about the award (stolen directly from ‘Relaxed no more’s’ blog):

Liebster Blog can be given to any blog you like with less than 200 followers. By giving this award, you help the awardee get more readers by directing the attention of your readers to the blog.

The rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

So..my top 5 picks (it’s very difficult to determine how many followers some bloggers have…so I’m just going to pick an assortment of my fav’s – written by women who are in the process of adoption, celebrating a baby’s birth after infertility, inspiring crafters, women of God, or dealing with infertility – some may fall into one or more of those categories):

1.  Miss OhKay over at the missadventures of missohkay
2. Andrea over at Tales From A Locked Womb
3. Jen over at with grace & lace
4. Rachel over at Eggs In A Row
5. Carrie Anne over at two week worship

* (also stolen directly from Relaxed No More’s blog:

“liebster [a german word] is the masculine superlative form of the adjective lieb (meaning nice, dear, endearing, beloved) and means “dearest”, “most beloved” or “favorite”. It’s the masculine form, because in German, Blog is a masculine noun… So, Liebster Blog is a favorite or most beloved blog.”

Tags: 2011, blog award, hopes, new year

• January 11, 2012
• Life
• 4 Comments