Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017

As I listen to others talk about 2016, I see that people struggled...families were torn apart, friends got mad at one another, jobs were lost, children made bad choices, sickness happened, loved ones died...I see life just stunk for some people...and I'm sorry.  I truly am sorry.  I've had those years where I wish we could fast forward through the entire year and never speak of it again.  Years were you looked back at it and ask yourself "how in the world did I make it".

We've had job lose.

We've had fertility issues.

We've had deaths.

We've had our children make bad choices.

We've had cancer.

We've had family members that we want to punch in the stomach.

We've had friends that we want to say "WHAT IN THE WORLD".

We've had bad years...did you notice that I said yearS...not singular...we've had bad YEARS!  Being a human/Christian/man/woman/old/young/black/white doesn't make us prone to more bad things or less...it makes us...relatable.  And yes, it stinks.  Alright, it downright sucks.  There are times I don't want to be relatable.  There are times that I don't want to use a family issue as part of my testimony.  There are times I've told God "hey...you've got a lot more faith in me than I do, so stop it".  I've gotten frustrated...heck, I've sat in the den and yelled at God...and also my family.  When I look back on the stuff we've gone through, I see a silver lining in each of them...though hindsight is 20/20 and so badly I wish I had seen that silver lining during the entire issue that we were going through.  I also see how incredibly bad I've dealt with things in the past...and I see how tense I was am...and how anxious I could be am...and how I don't always learn the lesson until way later...sometimes much later...

And I'm sure someone will say "what about the politics in 2016"?  I mean, if your person won, you're on cloud nine. If your person lost, you think the world is coming to an end.  Either way, surely you can look at 2017 as a fresh, new start?  And if not, it's going to be a rough year for you and it hasn't even started...not really a way I would want to start.  I mean, let's at least let the people who were elected do something stupid before you name them as losers...and looking back, I'm pretty sure I could come up with a thing or two about anybody in politics that did something I disagree with educationally, financially, spiritually, physically, mentally...

So why did I write this?  Is this another "let's start off the new year right" blog?  Well, yes...but for me.  Maybe I need to be accountable and this is the best way for me to do it...let everybody know so they can ask how it's going...or tell me that I'm not really following what I wanted to do.  Maybe I just need to see in writing what I want to do...need to do...have to do...in 2017.

I'm not saying that 2017 is going to be a bed of roses.  I know that there will be deaths and there will be heartbreaks.  There will be times I want to scream and there will be times that I will give the death stare to my children that will dare them to try whatever they are doing one more time.  I will be frustrated.  I will be scared.  I will have to make decisions with Hubby that could change our entire lives.  Nobody said that life is easy.

So what do I want to do in 2017?  Well, here's my list...I'm sure there will be more added to it.  I'm sure I will fail at some of these.  I'm hoping I succeed at some.  I will make mistakes.  I will take steps back.  There are things on here that I know I won't be able to guarantee, but I want to start off with 2017 being a positive year for our family....

1.  I want to put God first.  I want to think about how God wants me to do things.  I want to take a step back and think and pray before making decisions.  I want God first...in everything.  I want to continue reading my Bible and writing in my prayer/praise journal, but I want to dig deeper into it.  I want to melt on the words that God has given me and use them in my life.

2.  I want to be the best wife for Hubby.  I want to support him in his decisions and career.  I want to be the one he confides in and laughs with.  I want him to know that I appreciate what he does for me and our family.  I want to be his best friend!

3.  I want to be the mom that takes care of her children and is a good example.  I want to help them in life, but don't do everything for them.  I want to strive to be the Proverbs 31 woman...though that's a lot of expectations and I can already tell you, I won't live up to that one...but I can strive to be like her.  ;)

4.  I want to be the teacher that shows Jesus in all of my actions and words.  I want my class to be fun, creative, educational, and different.

5.  I want to teach the kiddos at Crossland Morgantown about having a relationship with Jesus.  I want to build relationships with their parents so we can be a force to reckon with when it comes to sharing the news about Jesus in Morgantown.

6.  I want to listen to the guiding of God...cuz there's a lot of talking that goes on in our relationship and it's mostly me doing it.

7.  I want to be healthy...not to be a model (cuz let's face it, I'm not), but to keep up with all the things we do in life and help with my heart and blood pressure.  So I'm going to continue my smoothies for breakfast and salads for lunch...but now I need to get back to exercising.

8.  I want to write a book.  Is that gonna happen?  No.  But I've always wanted to write a book about being a mom and what's another year of putting it on my "to do" list...

9.  I want to use less hand sanitizer...maybe hug more...okay, let's not push it.  I'm pretty sure that less hand sanitizer is more of a goal I can meet.

10.  I want to worry less about money and get out of debt.  We've made stupid decisions in our life and we're still paying them off (and then I had to add graduate school to that).  I would love for someone to just leave me some money in unmarked bills and let me pay off things...but since that isn't going to happen, I hope that Hubby and I work our plan this year and really focus on getting out of debt.

11.  On the flip side, I want to take the family on vacation.

12.  I want to learn how to cook.  Let's not kid ourselves.

13.  I wanna be more open when I need help.  Yeah...that's probably not going to happen either.

14.  I want to clean out the garage and be able to park in it.

15.  I want to be able to use the remotes ANY time that I sit on the couch to watch TV without yelling at the remotes.

16.  I want to make sure that we have nights when it's just the five of us...and we have nothing to do.

17.  I want to not yank out my teenager's smart aleck tongue...this one is iffy on the hopes of succeeding.

18.  I want to evolve a MagiKarp on Pokemon Go.

19.  I want to pick up my prescriptions on time at the pharmacy...because I know they are sick of me waiting the 10 days and then re-shelving it only for me to come on day 11 needing it.

20.  I want to wipe the ceiling fans and vacuum the stairs more than I do...trust me, it's embarrassing.

21.  I want to find something that will build someone up and help them in life.

So...there it is.  I'm sure there are a million other things I need to do, but these are my top ones.  I can already look at this list and realize that if I was basing my entire 2017 on these, then it's going to be a rough year...but I'm going to do the best I can.  I'm going to try to let things roll...as a friend keeps telling me, I'm going to start bending like a pretzel.  I know I'll see crumbs...and I might even break into pieces, but I'm going to be the best pretzel I can be in Our Life By Numbers!