Wasn't it just last night that we stayed up too late and ate too much and made way too much noise at the stroke of midnight? 

Where does the time go? 

We had homemade ice-cream sandwiches and homemade sparkling juice (very clever, juice and soda-water, yum!) and while the kiddos were getting ready to run out front with their pots and pans and bugles and drums and noisemakers of every sort to scare the living daylights out of the neighbors and all the pets...I was at the computer putting the finishing touches on my after-Christmas-hopefully-before-the-end-of-January family newsletter.

Whew.

At any rate, I finally got something done.  Now, I just have to send some by email, print some to mail, and ALSO mail all the packages still hanging around here waiting for me to either print off the postage and drive to the P.O. or go use the self-post (which I LOVE) or go through the line at the P.O. and wish I was back home because my sister is a postal clerk there. 

She's the only one I really love to do business with!

Let's see...one of the packages I need to mail was actually supposed to go out LAST year, but I never got to it and it STILL has last year's newsletter in an envelope all ready to go.  Heh heh.  Does anything like this every happen at your house?  Or is it just me?  (Just refer to the "Demented" post a few entries down.)  Oh well.  Sheesh.  Whatever!

It's late, I mean early, and hubby is sawing logs.  The kids are camping out since their room is in transition---we are finally getting around to painting it after living here for 14 years.  Boy, are we on top of it or what? 

Guess since we are on such a roll, we ought to make some New Years resolutions!

O.K.,  I resolve to learn some new html so I can revamp my blog.  There are a few things nagging me, like my friends list.  I want it all in a paragraph form.  I might have to sacrifice some brain cells, but it will be worth it. 

I resolve to take down the Christmas tree this next week, and actually try to find photos for all the little frame ornaments that Nana has made us for the last several years.  Really.

I resolve to make that Christmas scrapbook that I have been wanting to make.  Now that I have sorted through 8000 photos and found every last Christmas photo that I have taken since 1989, I will put them in a notebook, and journal about each one, and even embellish the pages.  Ha!

I resolve to actually cook one new recipe this year.  Since I own about 50 or so cookbooks, it should be easy to find something that sounds good that I can actually cook.  If not, I will just go to recipes.com and print off the first easy/healthy/no-nonsense recipe.  If I leave it laying around, someone here might cook it before I get to it.  I resolve to not let that bother me in the least.

I resolve to be a better wife/mother/friend.  In order to do these things, I resolve to always talk nicely, kind of like "Snow White," at least, how her voice sounded in that old Disney movie.  I will be consistent with everything with my children, and will not talk about my aches and pains with my friends no matter how much they encourage me to do so.  This should make me a much nicer person to be around.

I resolve to actually spend time teaching my 17 year old to drive.  Would you resolve to keep that in prayer with me?  :)

I resolve to actually finish the umpteen projects that are half done and taking up precious memory on my computer...before my precious memory of what they were supposed to be is gone. 

But most importantly (and seriously!) I resolve to focus more on the Lord, less on my circumstances, and less on what everyone else's problems are!  Twice recently, I came across some very good advice;  Stop focusing on the sins of other people!  OUCH.  Boy that one is so hard, especially being a mom. 

 Anyway, we are supposed to be focusing on God's goodness, not on ___________________(fill in the blank-everything that drives us crazy, all the injustices of the world, etc., etc., etc.) 

 Isn't that simple?  It should be anyway.  It's that old verse about getting the plank our of our OWN eye. 

No wonder I can't see straight!  I think I have some major surgery to do; oops, not supposed to talk about those aches and pains. 

Actually, I think I'll just leave it up to the Great Physician! 

Blessings on your New Year.  Keep Looking UP!

Nancy

P.S. by the way, Sharon Jeffus of Visual Manna is blogging!  Go say hello and read her posts.  She has some neat things to say over there.