Resolutions for 2007

I've never been one who feels the big push for change with the turning of the year, but this year is a bit different. I think that it is the confluence of several events: Princess Pea's First Birthday, the Holidays, and the one-year anniversary of our move here to Daegu. Each of these has forced me to look back over the past year-ish block of time and ask myself where I want to be next year, and what would I like to say that I have accomplished by this time next year.

When I recently set out to lose the last 15 of my pregnancy pounds, I posted my goals on the bulletin board for the program that I was on, and I noticed a special pull to keep up with those goals because, let's face it, people were watching. Accountability helps me overcome procrastination. So here we go:

1. Finish my Masters. I have been working on this since 2002. Moving away from the campus (and I mean AWAY by about 8000 miles) has not helped me get this accomplished. To complete the degree, I have to finish my graduate project and present it to my advisory committee. I've made contact with the department and will do this the week of 23 April 2007.

2. Stay in contact with people. I have been sporadic in personal correspondence since arriving here in Korea. To help me out, I have gone through my personal weekly calendar and written the names of two people that I will email or write each week. I did this all the way through December 2007. I'm happy to report that I sent emails to the two people written on my calendar for the week that ends today. The Blogs fit in nicely here. I hope they will help with the effort to keep folks tied into what we are doing over here on the far edge of the world.

3. Transfer the current system of financial management to a single-source system like Quicken. For those of you who have done this, you'll know that this is a big task. I'm currently working with 4 different spreadsheets, and I'm ready to have this all in one place. The challenge is that I'm a PC user, while DH uses a Mac. Mac personal finance software is pretty limited, and I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to keep the laptop past the summer (It's getting really old...). So, if anyone has any suggestions, I'm still considering my options here.

4. Grow Spiritually. This one actually has three subgoals: commit to a bible study (which I did, it started this past Friday), write and share my testimony (mostly so that I can clearly understand it myself), and prepare for the annullment process through prayer (this one will take some explanation, but not today.)

5. Be healthier. Drink more water, eat less, spend more time outside, shut off the TV. Do a small step each day, and realize that I need to treat my body as a friend.

6. Say "No." 2006 was a year where I overcommitted, especially during the holidays. I need to take a step back and reprioritize. I am especially going to say "No" at Christmastime next year. Yes, that's right -- NO committments after the 15th of December -- no parties, no fundraisers, nothing.

Okay, there they are for all to read. Please help me meet these through suggestions or loving reminders this year.

P.S. For those of you who want resolutions of your own, I found this great New Year's Resolution suggestion page you can visit.