2007 was good to me

Happy New Year! I always like New Year's; it's like a little extension of the festivities of Christmas, and then it's another year and it seems okay to have to get back to work and get back to normal. The only bad thing about it is this persistent need for people to eat cabbage. According to this grocery store chain website, people eat cabbage on New Year's because cabbage leaves are a symbol of good luck. I assume they got that info somewhere, but I confess to a very quick and not too enthusiastic Google search, and it's good enough for me. However, I hate cooked cabbage passionately, so even if it is good luck, I'm not eating it. This New Year's, I had leftovers from an Italian restaurant. Mmm, yummy!

Anyway, I didn't eat any cooked cabbage in 2007 (avoiding cooked cabbage is not just a New Year's resolution; it's a goal for my entire life), and I still had a pretty great year. In fact, I loved 2007. My family stayed pretty healthy. My dad's surgery was a complete success. I went back to school. I got a new car. We got a new floor in the house (even though that killed a bunch of appliances...a down note). I had jury duty and got sequestered, which was awful, but it was also an experience that I think made me more appreciative of our judicial system and how hard that "jury of your peers" really works. (I know that last sentence was cheesy, but it's true, so too bad.) I had a good year at work. My daughter is turning into a pretty fantastic person and even says please and thank you most of the time, if you remind her. My husband loves me. My cats are great. I got my thyroid medication straightened out. I did the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer AND I learned that I love cardio kickboxing, ending years of a self-imposed ban on exercise. I finally got the bedroom re-painted. Life's good.

I'm not bragging. I'm just being publicly thankful for the good year I had.

So, with all that in mind, here are some things I'm going to attempt to do in 2008. I don't think of these as resolutions. There's not a lot I want to change about my life. It's more like my proposed "to do" list for the year:

• Give more to charity. Our charity giving is pretty unstructured...I'm sure we could do more.
• As an addendum to the above, I would like to find a good place to donate Hannah's used toys. They're in great shape, and we wanted to give them to a toy drive this Christmas, but most of them only take new toys. I would rather just give them to a place or organization that could really use them than sell them...I'm open to ideas.
• Get more organized. This would not take much. I used to be organized, but that's over now. So working a little harder on organization is probably a good idea.
• Try to cook from scratch a little more often. Not always, because that's just unreasonable. My life would be infinitely more complicated without frozen chicken nuggets.
  
• Encourage more of my faraway friends to start blogs. This is the easiest way on earth to keep up with what people are doing. If all my friends from college had blogs, life would be much simpler.
• Try not to be so snarky. While sarcasm makes me who I am, it's the snarkiness that I never say that's really the problem. I guess what I'm saying is that I would like to "think nicer."
• Try to finish praying before I actually fall asleep at night. But I've been falling asleep during prayers for years and years, so I am left to simply hope the good Lord understands. Somehow, I think he probably does.
  
• Remember to use my new reusable grocery bag.
• Remember to use our new cloth napkins.
• Remember to water my plants (when it's actually summer, that is).
  
• Potty train Hannah. (This is a given. This will happen this year. Period.)
• Take another family vacation.
• Try not to freak out too much about turning 30.
• Actually join LinkedIn. I've blown off two invitations now because I'm just being lazy about it.
  
• Figure out a really great birthday or Christmas present to get for Brock. He always totally trumps me in gift-giving; maybe this is my year to come up with something really special.
• Continue not eating cabbage. Or carrots. Or haggis.
  
• Eat more dark chocolate. It's good for me!
• Enjoy the knowledge that this will, without question, be the last year we have to endure George W. Bush in office.
• Vote well in the presidential election.
• Hope others vote well in the presidential election (pssst...no Rudy, please!!)
  
• Listen, and laugh, and love...a lot. :)