And Another New Year

These years are just flying by! I swear they didn't go this fast when I was younger. And we're already ten days in...

So, let's talk resolutions and plans. Shout out to my girl, Kayla Lemmon, who wrote an awesome post on resolutions and making small daily goals and doing something today instead of huge yearly ones. You can read her post here :) Although my attempt last year broke the larger goals down into smaller, daily or weekly ones, it was still too much to handle. Too much to take on at once, and once again failing the idea of New Year Resolutions.

However, a new year does bring with it a feeling of a fresh start, a chance for changes and new plans. Sometimes we are forced to make new plans, but whatever ;) It's a nice feeling that comes with the new year, and I think we should take that for all it's worth. If you can make several resolutions and stick to them, go for it! If you're like me and can only handle one per year, stick to it and relish in the progress! So I've made one single goal for the year - no Coke. Less to focus on since my focus is already pulled in several different directions on a daily basis!

As for planning and making new plans... Well, let's just say I was recently reminded of why I went through a "no planning" phase. They never seems to work out the way you want them to.

Case Study 1: For almost a year we have been planning on doing a surgery that should help keep babies baking a little longer in my oven. I had it scheduled for January 9th (yesterday) for about a month. I was getting super excited!! And then I got sick :( Lucas got pneumonia this week, and I mush have caught it or part of it or something. The day before the planned surgery I just went downhill from cough to chills to body aches to congestion to more coughing to crap. While I'm glad that we called off the surgery for this week because I feel like poo, I was super discouraged to have to push it back. I had a bit of a meltdown. At work. Because I'm a loser. But I cried it out and got back to work. I figured it all out (Levi taking work off, someone to cover me at work, etc.) to do it next week, and that's what we're shooting for.

Case Study 2: I'd been thinking for a while about going back to school and *retaking a class online in preparation to apply to the nursing program at BYU-I. I finally got around to (calling and reseting my password because apparently it went wacko when I graduated) reapplying and researching nursing program requirements and found that I really need 3 classes before I have a good chance of getting in :/ This pushes my plan back a semester. Gah. Oh, well. At least it's the first step to my overall plan for nursing and eventually some kind of provider. I haven't decided yet. Probably because there's something else Heavenly Father has in mind to change mine.

These were the biggest things of recent. I think they hit me so hard because I had finally felt like we were stabilizing, like things were falling into place and we had at least some semi-solid (Jello) plans for the future. No more wondering where we were going to be the next month, and although we still have that, I guess I just expected all of our other plans to work out the way we wanted them to. But as I was interviewing with the Stake Presidency counselor (for ecclesiastical endorsement in order to apply to church schools) I mentioned something about plans changing and that's why I was **reapplying. He reminded me that it's not our plans that really matter, it's God's plans for us. His plans for us will always work out as long as we are living the way we should. That's it. Plain and simple. Donezo. So what does that say if my plans are always falling through? I'm sure you've heard the adage "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." Yeah, that's me.

Really, though, we may think we know what's best for us, but we don't always. Our Heavenly Father is omniscient; He knows what is best for us and will guide us in numerous ways to help us succeed in all things as long as we are willing to let Him. I'm a big believer in all things happening for a reason... Maybe there was some hidden reason why I pushing my school plans back a semester or why I wasn't supposed to have surgery yesterday. I dunno. But I do know that I trust my Father in Heaven to bring me to what is best for me.

Well, we will go on planning because I learned a long time ago that you can't really go through life without one, but hopefully I will get better at aligning my plans with God's so I don't lose my mind every time mine fail ;)

So, as long as our plans don't change (which I'm sure they will), in 2014 we are looking forward to....

Welcoming a new full-term baby to the family
Celebrating 5 years of marriage (that had better not change!)
Moving to Idaho Falls so Levi doesn't have to commute anymore
A trip to Texas
Acing my classes

*I have to retake the first part of Anat & Phys since apparently I sucked at going to school while pregnant!

**I applied for graduation with my Associate's in anticipation of us moving somewhere far away wherever Levi got a job. I didn't want to hold him back while I finished school. I never guessed that he would end up with a job in Idaho Falls!