Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all and any of you out there who may read my blog.  I am not one to make New Year's resolutions, I never have been.  Instead, I tend to reflect on the year past and see where I have come and what I would still like to accomplish or try to improve on.  I am sure there are others of you out there like me.  I look back at 2012 and I we had some pretty major changes take place.  We are a military family and for us, that meant a move to somewhere completely new and different to us.  We now live in an area that is way more busy than I ever imagined and traffic and driving that I never pictured myself dealing with.  We have continued another chapter in this military journey in a different house with different neighbors (well actually, I should say with good, friendly neighbors for a change), and a different work location for Pat along with a commute on the metro for Pat and a new school for Corey (and of course, not only a new school for Corey, but also moving from a special ed class room to a regular class room with a para assigned to him).  A lot of changes, yes.  Good changes, yes.  Challenging changes, yes.  Changes that grow us more and build our character, yes.  Some of it has been quite easy, some of it has been quite challenging.  I would say the more challenging aspects are the traffic and driving in this area, Pat's commute to work, and getting Corey in his new school routine. We have adapted to all of these things and more.  There will be more in 2013 as far as challenges and changes I am sure.  What they are, I don't know.  But my hope is that we move forward, growing in our relationships with our Lord Jesus Christ and rely on him to help us through the challenges and to continue to grow and strengthen us.

I look back at 2012 and I think of how much different we eat now and I am really quite surprised!  We used to go eat out at least 2 or 3 times a week when we lived in Kansas and our drives to restaurants were short and Pat was home from work early every day.  Now we only eat out once every couple of weeks (except for holiday times).  This is a good thing.  It didn't really happen out of us wanting to make the change, more out of circumstances.  Pat gets home later and he is tired enough that eating out isn't desirable to him.  The traffic here is not worth the effort to go fight it to eat out for the most part.  It is a challenge we would rather not face most of the time.  I cook more now than I did earlier in 2012 that is for sure.  That also brings me to another part of 2012.  We don't eat nearly as much processed food as we used to.  I am cooking most of the time, so I can control what we eat most of the time.  I would say we are about 70-80% real food and only 20-30% processed foods now.  You might wonder why we still linger at the small percentage of processed foods, but the simple fact that I will not make my husband give up things he really enjoys and I will not tell Corey he can't have pop tarts if his dad is eating them, or I will not make a loaf of bread every week to have it only last a couple of days before it spoils and throwing most of it away because we are a small family of 3.  Yes, it can be done.  Wives have made their husbands give up pop tarts and other treats they like to have and some of these wives will not buy bread from the grocery store shelf.  I personally see the progress we have made as a huge success and the changes we have made as permanent and not just a fad.  The main reason is, I haven't gone crazy and expected anyone to give up the few certain items they really like and cherish and want to have in the house.  Corey still drinks juice pouches in his lunch and I still buy a small amount of packaged snacks as he has to take 2 snacks a day to school and he takes his lunch every day.  I don't buy anything that is prepared from a box mix, it just doesn't happen here.  It doesn't taste good to us and we don't like those kinds of things.  I don't buy frozen meatballs, they aren't hard to make and freeze ahead. I can't take my family away from Kraft macaroni and cheese, that would be cruel, they love it.  So we find a balance that works for us.  It is great to look back and see that 2012 was full of those kinds of changes.  Good changes!  No soda pop in this house any longer, we don't eat boxed cereal, I make granola that Corey and I put on our yogurt and we eat oatmeal for breakfast occasionally.  I do occasionally buy a frozen dinner entree at Trader Joe's, but I always put the disclaimer out there, that this is from Trader Joe's and I did not make this - lol.  If it doesn't turn out tasting good, all I did was pop it in the oven.

In 2013 I hope to continue our healthy eating changes.  It has come a long ways and we have made a lot of progress.  I also plan to be more intentional.  More intentional about growing in my relationship with God, spending time reading my bible and praying.  More intentional about spending time with friends, and that also means keeping in better contact with friends who we don't live close to.  I hope to procrastinate less and enjoy life more.  Procrastination is something I do quite well, so this will be a tough one for me.  I am also starting a bible study this month, the first bible study I have signed up for since moving here.

So here is to 2013!  I hope it is as great of a year as 2012 if not better!