Anniversay trips and more New Year's resolutions...

Hello ALL! I'm back from from a weekend away with my super cute hubby, and so I'm in very good spirits. Our anniversary was yesterday (12 years! *heart*) and the past three years we've a weekend to go away by ourselves on a small road trip, without the kids. It's LOVELY. We really miss the kids, but the time together is invaluable. And my husband? STILL SO STINKIN' CUTE. In fact, I swear he's gotten *cuter* as he's aged.

Anniversary breakfast

I'm as in love with him as ever, and grateful to God everyday for bringing us together.

And so this weekend, as I dwelt in my contentedness, I was thinking about happiness and New Year's resolutions. I've been talking about New Year's resolutions a lot, but it's because I find them so valuable. I'm a tenacious sort of person - which is both good, and bad, trust me. ;-) Sometimes, I *should* let things go, and don't (many bad previous relationships come to mind), which has its own set of problems. But I find New Year's resolutions important because I tend to really want to stick to them, and thus I put a lot of thought into what I want to do better or differently each year. This year I have officially set my resolutions as:

• Make wellness a priority in three realms: physical fitness, emotional/psychological, and spiritual.
• Don't worry so much!
• Try to be more amenable to change.
• Be more positive about work.

Last year, one of my resolutions was to try new things in physical fitness, and that led to me signing up for the group fitness class pass here at work, and that has worked out MARVELOUSLY. I already have a winter fitness pass, and even attended Zumba today for the first time in awhile. 😇 Physical fitness really ties into healthy mental and emotional health for me as well. And as for spiritual realm, I started a rosary on the commute in, also for the first time in awhile. I realized that I don't need to put pressure on myself to finish the rosary each day, or I could even pray a chaplet instead if I was really feeling that, it's just important to keep up with daily prayer in some form. That made me feel a lot better.

Worry has been a lifelong battle for me, but hope springs eternal! And change? It's not always bad. Sometimes a new way of doing something may require an initial investment of time or skills that does not appeal to me, but the end result can be much more convenient or time-saving. I need to allow myself to try new things for different, more pleasing results sometimes. I really, really hope that I stick to this.

Besides that, I've been working quite hard to improve my spirits about my day job. So far so good, and after a fantastic team conversation, I'm feeling a lot more hopeful about our future teaching direction and load. Overall though, I need to cease the negative thoughts and complaints about how challenging it has been. It *has* been challenging (as in, major s*$!fest :0) but dwelling on that is not helping me. I'm going to focus on the positive changes we're making, and remain hopeful that things will be better. I'm also going to focus on the multitude of SUPER FUN things I have coming up this winter and spring: dance classes, performance and workshops, cute things with Mike and the kids, Lent and Easter approaching, enjoyable blogging and writing projects...in fact, I even have a *belly dance road trip* this spring. :0 That's some good blog fodder, right there!

In that vein, let's start thinking about collaborative projects here on the blog. Anybody up for a Lenten book club or read-along? If you have ideas for titles, please do leave them in the comments!