Back in the Saddle Again

Welcome January! 

Nathan has started classes again, I am back to my to-do list, and it's still raining--and snowing! It is peculiar to me that we celebrate the New Year's arrival within the middle, or even just before the peak, of winter. While we establish new goals and hope for good fortune to come in the next twelve months, there is very little to our surroundings to make us feel like anything has changed...I suppose our days are again getting longer, but who would know when some of the worst cold weather storms are still ahead? 

I do not think I am the only one to feel hopeful yet still doubtful in beginning the new year...we wave sparklers and shout, trying to ignore that we're actually freezing and crazy for standing out in the snow at midnight on January 1st. But I suppose the reality of the New Year is better once we acknowledge that it really is freezing. It is a time to be reinvigorated, if not in spite of but also because there are still harsh months in front of us, and losing momentum in the middle does us no good. For all of you with resolutions (I'm still configuring mine...let's say they're more like guidelines) this little allegory may make sense. The New Year allows us to hope for change and something new, but the hard stuff, getting it done, is still ahead. The New Year is possibility!

1. I'm pulling up my boots and still trying for good work...I don't love job hunting but it's my number one resolve.

2. This year I will attempt French by osmosis, kind of. Not sleeping on dictionaries but finding the words for as much around me as I can....I'm a noun and verby kind of speaker, so labeling dishes and doorknobs will give me a good start. 

3. Health, fitness, I don't have a plan for this but ideally I'll work on this. (What are you guys doing for this one? (Dad, I already know.))

4. Doesn't everyone hope for more happiness in the following year? 

Oh! And making a little money, and then saving it.

That's a start. What are you working on this year, this January? Will you keep to it? Best wishes that you do and that you love 2009. I miss you guys already and still.