WHEW! Christmas is over and the New Year is upon us...

Crazy fast year -- Crazy YEAR, in general.

I love this time of year...the hustle and bustle of the holiday and the mounting anticipation of the upcoming year. It usually throws me into nostalgia -- about the year that passed and then, of course, to a more simple time with people I love (several which are gone now -- permanently or figuratively.)

But in this post, I want to write about next year.

1-1-11 will bring a promise of a peaceful year. I pray that my family and friends stay healthy and that worries are few. I tend to dream big and wish large (and those that know me well know I wish OFTEN!!) but for 2011, I want to keep it simple. In order for me to achieve this, I have a few personal goals:

I want my children to be happy and safe. Most of all, I want more smiles than stress and sunshine than strife. I want to start making happy new memories. I want to be able to reflect on 2010 as an unbelievably difficult year that we conquered. My boys need to understand I wouldn't be the PERSON I am without them. I am a mother. I am a nurse. I am a happy, God-loving strong survivor because they gave me reason to be. There is nothing in this world I want more; I want them to know how very special each of them are and how blessed I feel to be their Mom.

I want to be happy and surround myself with happy people. People come into your life for a reason or a season. I am planning on making certain "reason" people, "season" people. I vow to tell my friends and family how much I love and appreciate them. I plan to do right by all of them. Also, to a degree, I have to try and be a little selfish. I need to learn to say "no" and take time for myself, too. I want to focus on having a smile on my face when I go to bed and a thankful prayer in my heart daily.

I want to brush away negativity. For this to be successful, I need to get rid of a lot of the "noise." When reflecting on 2010, most of my tension and tears came in lieu of my ex-husband, aka: Mr. Sunshine. Hear me well, oh blog land of mine, it will be a hope of mine to get along with this man in the year to come. It likely means that I will have to ignore him, but it also means that I will breathe cleaner air. For it has come to my attention, front and center, that he is surrounded by negative thoughts, a lot of ugly people and has a miserable cheap ass dead-beat existence. So, who needs it? (hey, it's still 2010 - I can say that still.)

And, I digress....