Welcome 2012

As I was running around doing my errands today (it being Thursday, my designated errand day), I just kept thinking "life is good" and marveling at how content I feel. I have felt forms of contentedness over the years, but never such a complete fullness and happiness. It's a marvelous feeling, to feel that life is good and know it is true.

Zara has reached an age where she's (for the most part) absolutely adorable and delightful to be around. She's independent enough to play on her own but still loving and affectionate. She babbles almost constantly (David and I take turns translating her baby talk), giggles gleefully, runs circles around the cat, practices somersaults with much laughter and self-applause (we still don't know where she even learned how to somersault), and is generally just a fun little person to be around. It's amazing to watch her personality emerge more and more each day.

I've been working at BYU for a month now and love it a little more each day. Not only is it great to be back at a university and in an academic environment, but I really enjoy my job and the flexibility and intellectual outlet it offers me. My position is a brand-new one so I really get to create the job as I go along and it's so fulfilling to see how quickly I've already been able to make a difference. Plus, I just love working with all the history professors and the students.

David and I were also called to be the Gospel Doctrine teachers. We rotate with another teacher, but since there's two of us, we teach two Sundays and then the other teacher does one Sunday. We've taught two classes so far and I think they went really well and have received many compliments about the lessons. I love teaching and I have prayed and prayed to receive a teaching calling and yet I've always been called to do some form of activity planning. (Though I did teach the Sunbeams (kids age 3-4) for a little while.) You can imagine how overjoyed I was to receive this calling and to feel like I finally get to use the talents I possess to serve in the church. (My talents do not lie in party planning although I've certainly improved in those after all these years on the Enrichment/Activities Committee.) I love to teach because it gives me the motivation to study and learn....and I love to learn. Plus, this year we're studying The Book of Mormon which is full of such amazing power and doctrine. What could be better?

More than that, David is happier now that he's on the path to having a career he can truly enjoy, we have a comfortable home, a nice car, plenty of food to eat, and a very sweet kitty. Not that we don't have everyday worries. We certainly have those too and our future is still very much up in the air, but all in all, we've been very blessed. So yes, life is good.

I don't typically set New Year's Resolutions. I never keep them and I hate feeling like a failure. Besides, they're always vague and overly general, like "Be more patient!" or "Lose weight!" that it's hard to quantify them. But in an effort to hold myself to something and to continue my general sense of contentedness, here are a few of the goals I'd like to achieve this year in order to foster happiness:

1.) Blog at least once or twice a week. (My goal is to have 90 blog posts this year, up from 85 from 2011.)

2.) Set aside time to sew at least once a week. This is harder now that I'm working but I have many projects I need to finish and/or work on, and I do gain so much enjoyment from sewing that I need to be more proactive in spending time doing what I love.

3.) Read the scriptures every day. This is made so much easier now that I'm teaching Sunday School and really have a reason to do it.

4.) Say yes to service. I challenged myself recently to say yes whenever I could to service opportunities. I'm not really good at this, but I do belief you are greatly blessed for serving others and so I want to make a more concerted effort to do what I can.

5.) Spend quality time with David and Zara.

6.) Delve back into the world of history. Since I graduated from GWU four years ago, I've been telling myself that I would revisit some of my research projects in the hopes of publishing some articles. Now that I'm working at BYU, I have absolutely no excuse not to do this. I have access to their wonderful library and online resources and am surrounded by history professors who can offer guidance and peer review should I need it. I just need to do it!

My One Year Quest to be Less Lazy

I'm not much for New Year's resolutions. I never keep them, I never even try. I think about them and they generally are always the same every year: be more diligent about reading my scriptures and praying, be cleaner, keep in better contact with friends, exercise. I've turned very lazy recently and I'm liking it less and less each day. I'm not going to pretend to make resolutions this year but there's a few things I'd like to do this year to make myself less lazy. And maybe if I write them down, it may actually come true.

Get Published
I still have visions of getting my Ph.D. and I know that if I get published in an academic journal, I'll have a much better shot of getting into a program. I wrote a research paper in grad school which was highly commended. I presented at a school symposium and received more positive feedback. I even submitted it to a larger conference held here in Hawaii each year and my submission was accepted but I couldn't afford the $400 registration fee. Plus I was just too lazy to make more of an effort. Before I can submit it for publication, though, I need to do some serious revisions. I've done a lot of the research and I can do more of it online through the Library of Congress's online archives, but I'm lazy. Maybe if I can work on it a little each week, I can get the revisions done that I need and submit the paper by the end of the year.

Read More
I already read a lot. I love reading. And I've got plenty to read. But I want to start interspersing more non-fiction historical books and classics of literature into my fun reading. There's so much I haven't read and so much I want to learn.

Clean More
I went through this period my last year of grad school when I was obsessive about keeping things clean. It was a really weird compulsion that I've never had before or since. I've lost it now. David and I aren't dirty people but we both have the habit of putting things down and not putting them in their right places and then the house starts to feel a little cluttered. I know if I don't fix this now, it'll be worse once we have kids. So my goal is to clean for at least half an hour each day. Starting with the mountain of laundry threatening to take over our bedroom.

Spend Less Time on the Internet
I'll admit it...I'm an internet junkie. I spend way too much time online. Like right now. I'm watching an episode of Buffy on www.hulu.com on my laptop while writing this message on our desktop. How's that for an internet addiction? It's spreads to two computers. At one time. So, in order to be more productive, I need to be glued less to my computer. For a start.

Learn Korean
So I figure that if I'm going to live in Korea for two years, I should at least be able to ask where the bathroom is and know how to order food. David has been trying to teach me but I've been a reluctant student. Time to get cracking on the alphabet.

Commit More Time to My Job
I have a part-time job which allows me to mostly work from home for 17 hours a week. Only problem is, I don't keep constant hours and I don't often meet those 17 hours (not that I'm required to). But it would be nice to, you know, get a consistent paycheck, so I figure I should try to work a little every day so that I start clocking in 17 hours. There's a lot I could be doing that I'm not.

Find a Job in Korea
We'll be moving there in about 6 months time (give or take a month or two) and I should probably start looking soon if I'm going to find a job there. I'd most like to find a teaching position in an American school there.

Use the Wii Fit More
So I was way into using our Wii Fit for like a week but I haven't been on that thing in two weeks. But then I weighed myself today and got a pretty rude awakening. I want to get in better shape and maintain my weight so that I can continue to eat cake and cookies. To that end, I want to use the Wii Fit for at least 30 minutes every day.

Visit More of the Island(s)
Often, we just sit around, doing nothing. Well, David does homework. I do nothing. But I don't want to miss anything while I live here, so I'd like to visit the other islands. Go snorkeling or to the beach more. Visit the sights. I don't want to sit around all day anymore.

So okay, these do sound like resolutions. Whoops. Now that means that I won't keep them. But maybe I can at least try to be a little less lazy. Starting....now.