2008 was a great year. While 2007 was full of changes (new parents [baby], new city, new house, new jobs, new friends, and new community), 2008 was about enjoying our new place with the knowledge that we’d finally settled down for the long haul. It was great to spend a summer knowing that we’d see all the same kids running around next summer. Making friends knowing that we weren’t going to pack up and move the following year. It was good to know that we were staying.

2009 will be our first time we’ll be in the same home for a second year in a row (and many more to come).  I’m very excited about how much we’ve learned and become involved in our community in just the past year. And though we’ve gotten involved, we’ve also sat back, soaked it up, opened our ears, and had patience to learn from others and become a part of the community we’ve joined. We’ve probably got a few more years before we are truly a part of things, but we are excited for that day too.

I tend to make goals for myself anyways, and since January 1st is a good time to set yearly goals, I know I’ll find myself making a few. Have you made any Resolutions this year? I’d love to hear them. One of my big goals last year was to read 1 book a week through the entire year. If you’ve been reading my book reviews you saw I was pretty much right on track (I’ve still got half of book 52 left).  This year I plan on focusing on writing.  I’ll spare you the details, but I’ll probably try and share a bit of what I’m writing on this blog, rather then doing double duty. The first goal is to write some sort of finance/stewardship type book. hopefully you’ll enjoy that.

I also want to try and interact more in the comments section of posts. I’m not always good at dialogging with people’s comments after I post on a topic. My goal is to make an effort to dialog more, so do come back and converse please! We’ll see how it works out.

Alright, all done for now. Happy New Year!

[photo credit]