2011

Usually, when New Year's Eve rolls around, I have two, maybe three 'resolutions' that I attempt to work on for the new year. But, of course, those resolutions are forgotten by February or March.

By the time December comes, I can hardly remember what those resolutions were in the first place, let alone have them implemented in my life.

So this New Year's, while I have many more 'resolutions' than on average, I'm determined to try my best to keep them.

First and foremost, I want to stop blogging so much. 

Blogger - and indeed, graphic design as well - is nothing more than pixels on a screen, yet I spend hours each day online and on the computer. And at the end of each day, I look up and think, what has spending so much time on the laptop given me? What have I accomplished today? The answer - usually - amounts to absolutely nothing. Blogging only takes away from my real life and my relationship with my friends, my family, and, most importantly, God.

I want to become stronger in my faith as a Catholic. 

I want to read my Bible every day and listen to the sermon in church without having my thoughts wander to other subjects. I want this blog to glorify God, even if I lose a few followers along the way, because blogging is about being myself and expressing who I am without caring that somebody out there on a computer doesn't want to read this.

I want to try out a new recipe each month.

I love to bake, but I'm usually too lazy to do so. When I'm not, I stick to the same-old, same-old recipes that I always use. This year, I want to make at least one new dessert each month that I've never made before, and try recipes from different cultures.

I want to write more often.

Maybe I won't be able to do that every day, but I want to keep working on poems and short stories and have a final draft of my NaNoWriMo novel finished by the end of 2011 (and, of course, do NaNo '11 as well).

I need to be content with myself and who I am.

Rather than wishing and praying I could be different, I want to be able to embrace myself as the person I am - even if I'm too skinny, even if I look too young for my age, even if I'm not that pretty. For the last few years, I've been praying that I won't be as skinny and look so young and be so (I'll be blunt here) flat. Now, I've begun to pray instead that I can love myself as who I am, as that skinny little kid who's really almost 14.

I want to find time just enjoying the simple things life has to offer.

 I want to be with my family and with my friends more often.  

Read more often and take more photos (maybe even start a business to sell my photos).

Keep knitting, drawing, and papier-mache-ing (but do it more often).

I want to keep training Kusy and teach him to reliably obey the basic commands. 

Study harder for school and keep up my good grades.

Give gifts generously, be grateful for even the smallest things, and love.