(this picture is totally from the year behind...but it makes me think of anticipation, of looking forward, of that sort of wistful "what's out there?" feeling)

The Year Ahead

Looking forward to...

1. Serving at a weekend-long spiritual retreat in February. I'll be part of the team leading the retreat and will be speaking to a group of women. I am incredibly stoked about this, and just in awe of how God allows me to do things for Him. (If you're interested in what it's all about...the Emmaus Walk).

2. Team-teaching a writing class at the University of Alabama this Spring. I love to teach...and some extra coolness about the class is that my book is the textbook.

3. That's about as far ahead as I've planned...but I just know there will be all sorts of wonderful-ness to pop up as the year goes along. Things like our annual anniversary trip (where we will go? what adventures will we have?), our family summer vacation (not sure if it will involve softball or not, but either way, it's always an adventure when it involves the Five of Us and a plane or car!), and who knows what else. That's what makes Life so great, don't you think? That you never know what smiles are around the corner?

(And, well..."Lost" is coming back very, very soon and the 6th Harry Potter movie will be out this Summer. How could I forget those? Life's not all about grand adventures...it's also about the joy of seeing How in the Heck The Island got Moved, and reliving the Potter stories with the aid of very buttery movie popcorn.)

Resolving to...

1. Cook more homemade meals for the family. I love to cook and bake and I'm resolving to do a lot more of it in 2009. And, even though making cakes and cupcakes are some of my greatest joys, items with frosting don't count entirely. I'm thinking more pastas and casseroles and vegetables. (I started off well tonight with chicken spaghetti from Pioneer Woman's blog. Oh yeah, it was goooood.)

2. Teach McKenna how to maneuver around a kitchen. She told someone the other day that she couldn't cook anything--that she even burned water--and I sadly realized that I have not instructed her as well as I should have (although I do think exaggeration was part of her conversation with her friend). She (aargh!) will be going away to college in about a year and a half, so she needs to know how to make stuff like chicken spaghetti and cupcakes too.

3. Do my best to keep up with my read-the-Bible-through-in-a-year-plan. Our church's youth minister has my girls motivated to do this, and I want to keep up with them. Although I know pretty assuredly that Lamentations will probably be the death of me, I'm gonna do my best to plug on through. (I resolve to read my Bible more every year and I pray that God understands my honorable intentions. Perhaps this will be the year that my actual reading keeps up with my intentions).

4. Read more in general. Gary and I both read more in 2008 than we have in a long time, and I want to keep the trend going. One of my favorite goals last year was to read three classics that were "new to me" (they were On the Road, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Crime and Punishment) and I want to read more such books this next year (along with the page-turning cozy mysteries that are sorta like cupcakes for my mind!).

5. Take my canvas bag/s with me every time I go to the grocery store, Walmart, etc. I'm getting better about remembering, but I still feel like an anti-earth slob when I leave the store with ten plastic bags in my buggy. I'll be better this year.

6. Drink more water and juice (and a little less sweet tea and Diet Dr. Pepper, although it pains me to even write that sentence).

7. Collect and write family stories. One of the things I was most proud of doing over Christmas was "interviewing" Gary's grandmother and putting together a little book of her remembrances for family members on that side of the family. It reiterated what I already know...that stories won't be remembered unless someone writes them down...and I want to do the same thing this year with my own grandmothers and parents.

8. Find more time to scrap. I love to scrapbook, but I'm already falling behind this year; I need to get more books organized from last year and then find some creative, easy ways to collect my memories for the year to come.

9. Have more date nights with Gary. Have more girls-nights-out with my girlfriends. Have more in-the-moment moments with my girls.

10. Be as good as I can be, although I will invariably want to be impatient, or snippy, or un-good.

11. Smile. Act Silly. Laugh. Enjoy. Repeat.

January is always one of my favorite times of year, because of the freshness and anticipation and promise that is inherent in its days. It's a good month. And I, for one, can't wait to experience everything it--and the rest of the year--has to offer.