2009, you have big shoes to fill.

Sure, it’s January 7. A whole week of the New Year has passed and I’m just now getting around to updating my blog. Had more regular blog posts been one of my resolutions, this would be a sad reality. It wasn’t, even though I do plan to blog more. I’ll have plenty of time since I won’t be working on all those resolutions I didn’t make. Maybe this was a year of growth for me because I finally faced the reality that resolutions usually motivate me for about three months, before I remember that I like chocolate cake a whole lot more than rice cakes. It’s like every January I get New Year Amnesia and forget that yeah, I didn’t really keep that same resolution last year. I didn't lose 20 pounds, I didn't read through the entire Bible, and I still can't speak Spanish.

I’m not without some personal reflection as the New Year begins though. I have thought about how to grow spiritually and emotionally (growing physically is taken care of with the whole pregnancy thing). I’ve thought about how to be a better wife, a better friend, how to be a good mother… and how to love my family more in general. I’ve thought about how to enjoy life more- not in a “living it up” kind of way, but in a savoring the truly important things in life kind of way. How to value what is really important. I know that over the course of this next year, some of life’s priorities will change with the birth of our first child. There’s a new kind of love coming my way that I know nothing about- a new love that will consume me more than I know.

A lot happened this past year. My husband proposed in February, we planned a wedding, we bought a house in May, got married in July, and found out we were pregnant in September. All of life’s most stressful events were compressed into a few short months and we made it without one single argument. I consider that a successful year.