I am excited!

I am excited!

I am excited about the challenges of the upcoming year!

Let me tell you one of the reasons.  As I was shopping for Christmas presents for my niece at Target I was wondering the isles…What could I use?  What would I like?  What do I NEED?  Just a trip up the kitchen drawer isle (graters, peelers, juicers etc…) and I was in having a “new toy high”.  I will do this often.  Fill my cart with crap I think I need and then put half of it back.  I do the same thing online.  I put tons of things in my “cart” and then I just walk away from the site.  Sometimes I still think I should be expecting something, others I am relieved when I don’t.  I realize my relationship to things has taken over my life. 

I remember at one point someone had made the suggestion that our love of things can be seen as idolatry by our Lord and Savior.  At the time I found the idea distasteful.   After all God would not have put us on this earth with so much if he didn’t want us to have a good time with it all right?  Well, as I have been reviewing my attitude toward my earthly possessions I have had to reconsider.  There are times when I decide I want something and it becomes my central focus.  How can I get it?  Where can I get the best deal?  How is this new possession going to affect how others see me?  Now, I have no intention of living like a Monk and spending my days exalting the Lord, because that really isn’t in my personality, but I could stand to pray more, explore my faith a bit deeper, spend more time in contemplation of relationships and things that money can’t buy and, again, being grateful for the possessions I have. 

I am also nervous about the year to come.  My husband committed to join me in not buying anything new in the year 2012 and he said something about buying a new lamp for the cottage this summer.  I reminded him about the compact and he said “Oh, yeah”, but he said it in a way that said he had already forgotten it.  This could be my biggest struggle.  I am a pleaser.  I listen to what my husband says and I tend to think that I can make him happy by buying him that in which he has expressed interest.  Even he recognizes this as a problem and has taken to saying “I just think it’s cool, I don’t want it”  whenever he makes the mistake of saying he likes something in front of me.  It’s how we got the cottage, it’s how we got a new stereo system in his car (with Bluetooth), Heck, I think it’s how we got kids!  So in addition to using the last of things, decluttering, and being content with what I have I am adding daily meditation.  Now I work out about an hour a day and there may not be a ton of time to get the meditation in, especially when I am subbing all day, so I can’t commit to 20 minutes a day or anything.  Some days it may just be 5 minutes of quiet in the car, but every day, I need to meditate (which to me includes praying and quiet “listening” for God’s answers.)

I am looking to lose 20 lbs in the first 5 months of the year.  My husband  is hoping to lose 30.  When we focus on working out, eating well and avoiding physically harmful behaviors (such as eating out) we have a tendency to also naturally save money.  We don’t eat out a ton so it’s not that, but it’s a mindset.  We also have a tendency to police each other. 

Kids and I are off to the sled hill.  Free fun and some good exercise as well!  It’s a win/win.