Last 9:00 am church day...YAY!

When you have church on Sunday mornings at 9, there is a special celebration on the last Sunday of the year. That would be today. Woot! Woot!! We do a little dance, throw rice in the air (or pretend to), and take one last long nap in the afternoon. Next Sunday begins our favorite schedule, 11:00. Plenty of sleeping-in time, but still some of the day left after church for doing family things. Hooray!

Tomorrow also begins the "clean up the old, contemplate the new, make new plans" week. It is a time for us to clean up and put away the Christmas things, get an organizational plan for the house again (a month of Christmas stuff crowding things puts me in crazy land), and start to think about our goals and resolutions for the new year. Things I'm contemplating: a total re-do of my kitchen, one cupboard and drawer at a time; a total re-do of me, by beginning my diet and exercise plan for my second degree black belt, which I will hopefully be able to take sometime this summer (that's quite ambitious, and I don't even have the final say, but I'm planning for it anyway); and some other personal and yet-to-be-determined important things.

I like this time of the year. I like feeling organized, though I am far from it, and this seems like a natural time to make some changes. It happens every year, and were it not for this, my house and life would probably be one non-stop mess! At least once a year, I get the incentive to go through things and try to make them better. One problem is that we are all... grown. Big people, and a lot of people, have a lot of stuff. Lots of stuff + small space = lots of crowding. I realize that my children are growing and will be gone soon, and I am not anxious for them to leave. I will miss them terribly! But while we are all here, we need to find some solutions for where all the stuff goes. Maybe more to the storage shed? Becki gave me a book for room-by-room organization, so I'll peruse it for ideas. In the meantime, if anyone has any great ideas, I'm open!

Also, the picture is of Kelle on Christmas morning. I couldn't add it to the Christmas day post for some reason. Now tell me...what 13 year old GIRL would be so excited to be receiving a SWORD for Christmas? Only a world-champion weapons martial artist! Love ya, Kelle!