2015 – Ready or Not, Here I Come!

HELLO!!!!! I don’t know if you have missed me, but I have certainly missed you! Although I indulged in an extended Christmas/New Year break from publishing on my blog, I certainly haven’t neglected blogging. Have you noticed the address? Welcome to my new blog!!! My very own .com! I feel so grown up!

The lovely Tanya at Blogelina did a wonderful job helping me out. I highly recommend her Blogger to WordPress transfer and design transfer. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but I barely have time to write this blog let alone to learn how to do all this behind the scenes technical stuff. Everywhere I had searched previously told me that to do this would cost more money than our family budget could stretch. It was such a blessing that Blogelina had such affordable prices.

So 2015 has begun with the same blog under a new domain name. I’m still learning how to work in WordPress, but as I do, I am quietly hopeful that my dreams for this blog continue to come true. Firstly I’m hoping that I can find set times and become more regular in my contributions. I still have ideas whirring in my mind on how this blog can be an encouragement, inspiration and help to you. Please don’t be shy, let me know what you love and what you would like to hear more of on this space. Maybe we can both help one another!

Don’t you love a new year? It is bright and shiny and just beckoning for you to enter and soar to new heights.

I am feeling very optimistic about 2015. After all it’s my 40th year of life, that certainly is momentous! I should add that I will not turn 40 until the end of November so I for most of this year I am certainly still in my 30’s! However, I love a party, and when you are a grown up it takes a decade before you are justified kicking your heels up and having a great shing ding. I’m already speculating what we will do, I’ve got ideas but no plans yet. Plenty of time for that.

I have resolutions racing around in my head. I want to get them down onto paper. To make them real. And include an action plan. So that they will happen.

I have started the process. I didn’t want to write it all out on January 1. I want to be careful and considered so that my goals are realistic and achievable. We were away on holidays at Bargara. I had been getting up early and walking along the coastline, at the end of the walk I sat down at a picnic bench and while the sea breeze blew I started writing my plan. It felt good. I need to continue because the storm clouds gathered and as the rain started to spill I raced back to my family eating their breakfast and bickering over who got to sit in the ‘best’ seat.

Some years I don’t write resolutions because it feels so cliche and I don’t want to write something I will fail at. Because that’s what you keep hearing, that most people don’t follow through with their resolutions. To be truthful, I do succeed sometimes, and then there are failures. This year I’m setting many goals, but I want them to make differences in my life and for those I love. Many of my goals are the simple things. Because there are plenty of simple things I can improve on that will make a huge difference in my life and for my family. I have goals for my family, organising my home, my spiritual walk and my blog.

We welcomed the New Year with friends. We sat on the balcony across from the ocean (we couldn’t quite see the sea) and ate seafood and sipped champagne. Earlier we had cooked fish and chips for the children. It had taken a bit too long doing this, so we missed watching the fireworks on the beach like we had planned, but the kids watched them from the car as we drove closer to them. Whoops! We then turned around and let them play with the sparklers on the deck before getting tucked in for bed.

Then we sat on the deck and chatted until midnight. After midnight we said a prayer blessing the New Year before heading to bed.

We thoroughly enjoyed our holiday.  Cycling by the seaside (Alex and the kids cycled, I walked the dog!).  Ice cream breaks and hanging out with friends.  Sunshine and swimming in the beach.

 

And all too soon, it’s back to reality. Although there is something about returning home from holidays in a new year. That sense that the holiday is over and the anticipation that real stuff is about to begin. Somehow the new year has brought a feeling of restoration. 2014 was a challenging year for us and contained hurt from people we trusted and heartache from things beyond our control. I felt disheveled and limped over the finish line. I was praying for this New Year and felt my word for this year is “New Beginnings”. I am believing that God can make all things new again and can sense there is fresh hope in this New Year so I am taking a deep breath in and looking forward with optimism. I don’t think that it is going to be an easy year. Already there are dark shapes looming in the distance that I know will take courage and perseverance to pass them by. But come the end of 2015, I know I will be a stronger person (even though I will be 40. Sigh.) and have learnt lessons that will continue shape my impact on my corner of the globe.

Anyway, I’m getting deep and philosophical. Enough about me. So tell me, how was your Christmas and New Year? I would really love to know? How are you feeling about the new year that stretches before you? Do have goals, words or impressions of what this will be for you?

Today I’m linking with

 

Talking of which, I love Grace’s post about her Year of Small Things. Make sure you check it out. Kind of sums up life for me now. Because small things are often the big things in life.