So, overall resolutions for this year:
1. Read the Bible through. Its been a couple years since I've done this and since I can't go to church on Sundays due to work and I still have not been able to find a good Bible study to attend, I've really slacked off on my Bible reading. I really want to make a habit of reading my Bible everyday and this has really worked for me in the past, so I'm excited to try it again. And since tomorrow is the first of January I better find our chronological one year Bible today which is hidden somewhere in the house. Oy!
2. Find a good Bible study and start going to church again. One of my best friends invited me to her church's evening service a couple months ago and I really liked it. It was much shorter than a morning service, but it was still good and the people there were quite friendly. Due to other commitments and things in life, I was unable to go for a couple weeks and then I just kind of spaced about and never made it back. So I'd like to try making it at least every other week. I would also like to find a Bible study, something more in depth. I've tried a number of different ones in Albuquerque and generally found that either the teaching wasn't very strong or was a bit off or the people just weren't very friendly. I've kind of given up looking over the last month or so, but I really want to find something so I plan to start looking again. Any suggestions are welcome!
3. Start journaling again. Since my best friend/little brother got me an awesome journal for Christmas I really want to start journaling again and get back in the habit of doing that. When I read through the Bible last time, which thinking about was longer ago than I thought, I would journal about my reading and include various events of my days. I really like the idea of doing that again. Really wish I hadn't thrown that journal out now just because it chronicled my relationship with my ex. Oh, well, it just means I get to start anew!
4. Read some more edifying books. I love to read, but when it comes to reading good Christian books, I tend to ditch those for my fiction books despite having an entire shelf dedicated to those edifying books. So what I would like to do is read two books a month or so, one edifying, one fun, that way I get the best of both worlds. In order to keep myself on track and to make sure I don't read the fun book more than the other, I'll only read one book a day and alternate days. So I'll read the edifying book one day and the fun book the next. Hopefully that'll help keep me on track!
5. Get a new job. Despite the fact that my job overall pays pretty well and is reasonable flexible, its not a job that I want to be at much longer. Its not a difficult job physically, but it certainly is emotionally and mentally. And while I think I could handle the actual job reasonably well if everything else about work wasn't crazy and stressful, that's not the case. In addition to dealing with people with broken down cars who can be quite hostile, its also dealing with co-workers, probably about 90% of whom drink, smoke, party, swear, and sleep around or have a boyfriend/girlfriend they live with. Hearing those things or hearing about them five days a week, some in vivid detail, for eight hours a day makes it very difficult to keep a pure mind. The swearing in particular is hard because I used to have an issue with that myself years ago and hearing it so much brings back bad habits that are hard to fight. So I'd like to find a job that's more professional or at least where there's less of all this.
6. Go back to school. I've been out of school for what now, a year, year and a half? Something like that. At the time I was dealing with some personal things and as a result I really did not do very well in any of my classes other than my theatre classes where I managed to get A's and B's. I was quite proud of myself actually. As I mentioned in my post last night, I'd like to take some culinary classes and potentially seek a degree in that, but it doesn't look like things are going to work out for me to be able to take classes this spring. I'm still waiting to see what might happen there, but if that doesn't work then I do plan on taking classes in the summer and/or fall. I'm actually really looking forward to it!
7. Cook! Yes, I would like to try cooking some more. Generally when my parents and I get off work we're too tired to cook to more than just a simple meal. But since I usually work an earlier shift and get off work earlier than they do, I'd like to try cooking some more and start working through the many recipes I've saved on Pinterest that look so good!
8. Lose weight and work out. I probably should have posted this more towards the top since it is a priority. I'm overweight, have been for years now and I've dug myself into a rut with a combination of my thoughts that I would always be this way and others words that I let have way too much control over me. So my goal for this year is to be healthier and lose weight. I'm not going to set a specific number goal or anything because I think that just causes more stress. With all that I want to start eating healthier which means its time to bust out all those healthy recipes I've collected over the years and I want to start working out. Just at home, mind you, the last time I tried walking into a gym I promptly turned around and walked right back out because I was so intimidated by all the muscular men and toned women who looked like they'd walked straight out of a fitness magazine. To help with that I'd kind of like to find a workout partner to help me keep on track, but I'm not sure how likely that is to happen, so I'll probably just have to be my stubborn self and kick my own butt.
9. Sponsor a child with Compassion International. I did this once a couple years ago but sadly had to stop because I simply didn't have the funds to continue, but I would really like to do it again and potentially sponsor two children instead of just one. I think its such a rewarding experience.
10. Finish writing my book. I'm really bad about being consistent in my writing. I have flashes of inspiration where I'll write for an hour or so and sometimes it'll continue for a few days, but then I get busy with other things or something comes up and I don't write for weeks. I'd like to come up with some kind of schedule of something to help me write consistently. The idea are all there, its just the timing and the desire that I have trouble with. Hopefully if I set aside a couple hours a week to writing, I'll actually get this thing done!!
11. Take a dance class and go dancing. I love to dance, always have, but I haven't been dancing pretty much since I took a ballroom dance class at UNM. This would probably be a goal for towards the end of the year after I've lost some weight. I found the hard way when I used to go out swing dancing on Tuesday nights that no guy wants to dance with the fat girl even if she is a decent dancer and its just depressing sitting out every song. And in a class, it helps to be at least moderately fit and again, it helps if your dance partner isn't cringing because he doesn't want to be dancing with you.
12. Go on a road or camping trip with friends. My closest friends and I have talked about doing this a couple times over the last year and we all think it would be fun, its just the execution that's a little bit more complicated. Having never traveled with friends before on anything like a road trip or camping trip, this is something I'd really like to do this year. So hopefully we'll be able to get our schedules and everything worked out so we can do this.
I might add more to this as the year goes by, but we'll see.
So, now onto my goals for January of 2014!
1. Start reading the Bible and journaling. Like I said, I want to start reading through the Bible again and chronicling what I read and my thoughts about it and what's going on in my life.
2. Make it to Sunday evening church service every week and keep looking for a Bible study. I want to make it to church every week for this month, so hopefully my work schedule will cooperate. I'm also hoping to find a Bible study this month that I can start attending regularly.
3. Read two books. I went back to my childhood and started rereading Harry Potter earlier this month, but I think I'll put that on hold once I finish the first book probably either today or tomorrow. My choices for books this month are going to be Because He Loves Me by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick as my edifying book and The Gospel According to Tolkien by Ralph C. Wood as my fun book. Both are books that I started reading at one point and never finished. For more personal reasons I think Because He Loves Me will help address some personal issues I've had in the past couple years and I want to read The Gospel According to Tolkien because the blog that I wrote about a couple weeks ago still bothers me and I want to remind myself again how deeply Christian Tolkien's works are.
4. Job hunting. I want to start seriously job hunting and seeking a job that will be better for me. While doing that though, I also want to start working towards potentially becoming a dispatcher at work since the people there seem to be more professional, not to mention the pay raise would be nice as well. I want to keep cultivating options so that I have several places I can turn to instead of just one or none.
5. Start cooking more and working to lose weight. I feel that these two go hand in hand so I want to start cooking more instead of eating out and work at eating healthier. I also want to start working out at least three days a week. I know that doesn't seem like much, but I'd rather start out easier rather than go all out immediately and burn myself out or discourage myself.
6. Start looking into sponsoring a child. I don't want to rush into this so I'm not sure if I'll start sponsoring a child this month or if I'll go ahead and just work at gathering information and seeing which children are available to sponsor for now. I'll just have to see what the Lord lays on my heart.
7. Start writing. Like I said, I really want to figure out a schedule for me to write a little bit each week so I'm going to start figuring that out and hopefully get to writing!
There we are, my resolutions for January. I'll post the results at the beginning of February and then list my resolutions for that month. So, here we go! Tomorrow's the new year. I hope you've had a blessed 2013 and hope 2014 is even better!
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