A New Year's Resolution

"Just because everything is different, doesn't mean anything has changed..."

I have remarked constantly in blog posts, and in general, about how different so much of my life has become over the course of this past year.

New stuff is all around me...
new schedules,
new challenges,
new surroundings.
Everything.

However as I sat here thinking about what to write, I came across that quote above and it struck me. I finally realized, on New Year's Eve, that regardless of everything that has transpired in 2011... nothing really has 'changed'.

Am I a different person then I was a year ago...? No, I don't think so, not really anyway. I laugh at the same things, I eat the same foods (sometimes to my detriment... OK most of the time it is to my detriment)... and I love the same people. My thoughts and feelings remain fairly consistent to who I believe myself to be. Some of my opinions may have softened throughout the course of the year, but the core of who I am and how I respond to others, is as it has always been. Nothing has changed.

All that has happened is that I have made a year's worth of mistakes while learning a year's worth of knowledge. Some of it I have always understood, even if only in an abstract way. This past year I have had the opportunity to fully experience the truth of it all.

I've learned that:

* Happiness really does have more value then any amount of money.
* Change is far scarier in your imagination then it is in your reality.
* If you don't stand up for your own feelings, you loose all respect for yourself, and so will everyone else.
* How much I enjoy an activity depends about 95% on the people that I choose to do it with.
* Not everyone thinks before they speak, which makes it even more important for me to think before I act.
* The happiness of those I love is more important than my own, but if I'm not happy... they won't be either.
* Creating something myself means more to me then spending money on it.
* Sometimes the most surprising friendships are the most rewarding.
* Listening to someone talk is different then just hearing the words come out of their mouth.

All I have to do to be satisfied with the course my life has taken, is to stop thinking about what I want it to be and start looking at what it is. It's a life filled with equal parts of frustration and laughter. One with high points, and low valleys - but mostly, it is a life that consists of middle ground, ordinary, routine days.

Average days, in which not much really changes. I'm OK with that, in fact... I'm more than OK with it. I am going to make it a point, a goal, to embrace my 'everydays'. To find joy and serenity in the little pieces that would normally get overlooked - walking the dog, pizza dinners, skinned knees and even...yes... buying snow pants. I think that is going to be my New Year's Resolution - to have as many ordinary, frustrating, laugh-filled days as 2012 can handle.

Let that be my wish for you as well....

that your mornings be greeted with bedhead hair and cereal with milk...
afternoons filled with a 9-5 grind, but a happy place to drive home too...
nights of favorite TV re-runs and bedtime kisses from those you love most...

and a year full of different happenings and altered paths... where very little really changes.

Holidays 2011 Style

Hey everyone - time for a holiday update and 'end of year' wrap-up.

What a crazy freaking year it's been... new job for Nathan, new school for Hailey, new house for everyone. So many changes (most of them for the better) I can't even wrap my head around them all.

Nathan's job, while far from being ideal, is settling into a rhythm. However, we are still keeping our eyes open for something which will uses his skills a little better and be a little more fulfilling.
for the moment, it is working out OK... much better then the roller coaster that his old job was (it's nice to have him home before 10:00 pm).

Hailey is doing great in her new school. We learned from our first parent/teacher conference that she is mastering the skills she should be and only has a few that are 'developing skills' **ahem... listening..cough cough**. Her new sitter, Miss Karen, is also working out fine...a little more activity then at Miss Emmy's house, but she has settled into a routine there as well.

The holidays were really good. The Yost clan all came over for an early Thanksgiving, and I am proud to say that the meal was great! The kitchen was completely set up and organized, so things went rather smoothly. We spent the actual day of Thanksgiving at my parents house - another great meal. A very relaxing weekend made nicer because we didn't have to drive 20 minutes to get to my parents.

Christmas was just this past Sunday and we had a house full of guests. Brian, Laura and Mom and Dad Yost stayed Friday night, then...

** sorry - had to take a break to put together a Lego Harry Potter set that was a Christmas gift from Uncle Ken **

Brian and Laura left for her family's celebration on Saturday night and we had our company through Monday morning. The house was great - it was big enough that we weren't tripping over each other, but I could be in the kitchen and not feel totally left out.

My Christmas decorations were a little on the sparse side this year... but I have plans next year for that gigantic mantle in the family room. On the plus side, while our Christmas took up a large part of the living room, we still had the family room to relax in. I'm loving having more space.

It's a good thing too... Hailey got so many gifts this year, I don't' know what we are going to do with all of them. Cool clothes and dolls, the previously mentioned Lego set, a reading game for her Leapster a kaleidoscope which she loves and...a great big dollhouse from Santa. This thing is HUGE!! It came unfurnished, but my mom quickly took care of that problem with 6 sets of furniture! Only child spoiled syndrome...? No, not my kid.

Nathan got a Playstation 3 and has been playing it when he gets home at night. It reminds of the days early in our marriage when I used to fall asleep on the couch while watching him play video games. Ah yes... life was so much more exciting for us before we had our kid...um...yeah.

As for me, I have this week off and I have decided to wage war on my bathroom floor. I'm thinking that will be a blog post all its own, as I am learning as I clean. This floor has become, not just my continuing household nemesis, but something of a guide to self discovery. That is a story for another time.