Welcome 2007!

Well, I took about a week off from blogging to just breathe. The holidays were rough on me--more stressful than they should have been. I am beginning to understand why my FIL doesn't want to celebrate Christmas anymore.

Santa was pretty good to me, though. A new toaster oven that I really needed, a bottle of Beautiful by Estee Lauder, new slippers, 5 different salsas from my son and DIL(yum!), and cash from my MIL and my DH that I used to buy myself Electric Quilt 6 software. I'm looking forward to playing with it. It designs quilts and quilt blocks of all types on the computer, then allows you to print out the patterns and instructions. I was psyching myself up to buy EQ5, then realized that usually when I spend a lot on a software program, they'll put out the upgrade the next week. So I did a search for EQ6, and sure enough, it had just come out.

I also received some really nice magnets that my granddaughters customized for me. The photo is above. Aren't they beautiful? What a cool idea! I just love them--every time I open the fridge I think of them.

I wasn't going to make a list of resolutions, but maybe by publishing them here, I'll have more incentive to keep them. So here goes:
1. I will continue to lose weight, no matter how small the loss or how long it takes to lose each pound. Seeing the scale go down is worth it. I have lost 22 pounds during the last 4 months and have kept it off, even through the holidays (I can't promise that it didn't bounce up and down a pound or two.)
2. I will practice painting more often, trying to get to the point that I can make some extra spending cash with it by next Christmas.
3. I will get more involved with some of my outside groups. I'd like to host at least two Red Hat Society meetings this year. I may not be as involved in my quilt group as I had been, mainly because the meetings are at night. With my DH having been ill, and probably more to come, I don't like being away from home at night anymore. Besides, my eyes are starting to show their age, and driving at night is a little more stressful than it used to be.
4. I would like to do some traveling with DH this year. Just short trips over a weekend, according to what our health will allow. We've reached a point where all the things we were going to do "someday" better get done soon, or we won't be able to do them. My siblings will have a reunion next year sometime (2008,) and I'd like to be there this time. I've missed too many, mostly due to budget constraints.
5. I will keep up this blog, although I may go a few days without posting; I think it is a good way to express my feelings, and my family can get to know the "inside me."
6. I will do as much as I can toward making the kitchen/dining area work for me. It needs new flooring, more cabinets, more pantry space, and maybe a dishwasher. Then maybe I can finally get a dining table and chairs! Oh, if only!

I think 6 is enough. They all seem do-able, and not too difficult to keep up with. #6 may be the most difficult to accomplish, but worth a try.