Christmas is over?!

Christmas is so different as an adult...as a child it's so...magical I guess. As an adult...I don't know how to explain it, except that it seems to be a huge dividing line between the "haves" and the "have nots." I'm blessed to have always fallen into the "haves" category, but as I get older the line becomes more and more apparent. And it seems that there are so many out there who "have not." I generally enjoy the anticipation of Christmas, but I'm not too sad to see it gone for another year.

So now we're on to New Year's...a time to take stock and make resolutions...not too crazy about that tradition either, but I've been working on my list. My goals for 2008 include (but are certainly not limited to):

- I either need to improve my organizational skills or find some new ones! I have so many things going on from day to day that I feel like I spend most of my time trying to figure out what the hell to do next. I have a daily/weekly planner to I'm going to do my best to keep up to date.

- In keeping with my need for organization, I'm also going to do a better job of saying, "NO!" I'm rotating off my homeowner's association's board of directors this year and I will NOT pick up any activity/function/committment to take it's place. The world will not stop turning if I decline an invitation every now and then. Plus, that's fewer things to write in my day planner ;-)

- I'm going to make more time for my OWN dogs. I spend so much time transporting and fostering that sometimes my own dogs (and their awful manners) fall thru the cracks. I'm scheduling several new classes and will spend more time actively training my dogs rather than relying on damange control once things get out of hand (and things always get out of hand at our house!).

- This falls under both the "organizational skills" and the "dog" category: before the end of 2008 I want to have our life insurance policies squared away and start the foundation work for our trust (the purpose of which will be to care for our dogs should something happen to both Brandon and myself). Go ahead and laugh, but my dogs will be wealthier at the time of my demise than most people will be when they retire (and the remainder of the trust will be donated)! Now, I bet you all want to put your name on the list to get one of my dogs, don't you??

- I either need to increase my dedication to my job (the real one that pays the bills and has nothing to do with dogs) or find a new one. I'm always complaining about being bored at work but I'm doing nothing to make a change. Thing is, I'm positive I can't find the money and flexibility I have here...so it looks like I need to start taking on more responsibility and finding myself more work to do. NOT excited about this one!

- Speaking of "work", I need to decide how far I want to take my side business (sewing, embroidery, monogramming). I've been pretty swamped with orders since Halloween so right now I don't really want to think about it at all...but I'm working on some new dog collars and leashes...hopefully that will make things exciting again.

- Debt. Gross. But I will say that we're more than 3/4 of the way thru my Iron Fist Budget Plan and we're only about 12 months from being totally debt free (except for our one mortgage payment - no cars, no student loans, no credit cards, nothing!). I don't even want to talk numbers but I will say that the first few years of our repationship was lived WAY beyond our means...and we're certainly paying for it. I'll also add that this will be year FOUR that we've not used a credit card. For anything. At all. We're cash only and I plan to be that way until I die (which takes us back to my life insurance resolution).

I'm sure the list will grow but hopefully this time next year I can look back and be pretty pleased with the results!