No more resolutions!

I often wonder why people make New Year's resolutions.  I don't know of anyone who has been able to keep a resolution.  Myself included.  I used to try to make resolutions, but it seemed that I'd only last a couple of weeks before all my good intentions went in the toilet.  I finally gave up on making resolutions and wrote them off as a fruitless endeavour.  What I've been doing instead is I making a list of things I want to do during the year.  This isn't always successful either (I can count on one hand the number of goals from this past year that I actually accomplished).  But for some reason approaching my year's goals this way seems to take some of the pressure off me.  At the end of the year, if I haven't done everything I want, then it's only because of my own lack of effort.  I've been giving my 2011 to-do list a lot of thought over the last few days, and so here is a sampling of some of the things I want to do this year.
1.  Take a creative writing course.  This is something I've always wanted to do, but I've always been afraid that my work won't measure up to what the others in the class are doing.  I've decided that this year I'm going to bite the bullet and just do it  for my sake alone, and not for anyone else.
2.  Purge, purge, purge! I've got so much STUFF that I feel sometimes like it's taking over my life.  I started this process last year by going through my CD collection and getting rid of a whole bunch of CD's that I don't listen to.  This year I want to go through my books, my tapes and my scrapbooking stuff and get rid of some more of the stuff that I'm not using anymore.
3.  Start and finish at least 1 scrapbook.  I'm really good at starting things but not so good at finishing them, as my collection of UFO's (Un-Finished Objects) will attest to.  This year I want to finish something I start.
4.  Do good for others.  I've been wanting to sponsor a child through WorldVision for a couple of years now, and this year I'm finally going to do it.  I also want to do more to support some of the organizations like the SPCA and my local Bible camp that I believe strongly in.
5.  Spend more time nurtuing my faith.  This is one aspect of my life that I think gets neglected the most, so this year I want to make my faith a priority.

And there you have it...some of what I have planned for the coming year.

Until next time,
J.

Here's Hoping...

Another year is about to come to an end, and looking back on it (especially the last few months), I've gotta tell you...2010 really kind of sucked.  There's the ongoing chest infection I've had since the summer that I can't get rid of.  There's the IV treatments I've been having to go for because my immune system has started producing antibodies against my kidney.  There's the side effects from the IV treatments I've been dealing with.  There's having to give up teaching Sunday School because of the chest infection and the side effects from the IV treatments.  The kicker was having to put my Sammy-Cat to sleep a week before Christmas.  At this point I can't wait for this year to be over (only a few hours to go!).

Of course, it wasn't all bad.  I celebrated the 10-year anniversary of my transplant in April.  I got to go on a little road trip to see James and then go with him to our cousin Dave's wedding in July.  I won tickets to the Grey Cup in November and got to go cheer on my favourite team and be part of the half-time show.  And we just came back from a wonderful Christmas visit to James's house.  But over the last few months especially, it seems that the lows have outnumbered the highs.

One of my favourite Christmas gifts from my mom and dad (actually the credit for this one goes to my mom because she found it and picked it out...dad just agreeed that it was very fitting) is a Precious Moments Christmas ornament of a little girl holding a start that says "hope" on it.  So here's hoping that 2011 is going to turn around and be much better than 2010 was.

Until next time,
J.