New Year's Resolutions

Okay, so I've not written for my blog very often in the last year.  I blame it on Facebook.  To post info on both places take too much time and effort.  I'm not as interested in Facebook as I once was.  It is very interesting to read about friends from long ago and what they're up to, but if you have even 100 friends, the amount of time to read all their comments/goings on takes too much time.  SO is it my New Year's Resolution to blog more often?  I really haven't decided.  In fact, at this time, I have no definite resolutions. I'm working on them.  In general, my New Year's Resolutions have always begun on Jan 14.  Why such an arbitrary date?  Because it's the day after Hubby's birthday.  Christmas stuff (decorations and such) gets put away the week after Epiphany (that's this week) and usually by Jan 13 we've consumed or tossed the tons (literally) of home-baked goodies.  So we enjoy the birthday celebration of Hubby and begin our resolutions on the 14th.
When my resolutions for each of the last 5-10 years are all sadly similar, I wanted a new approach to resolutions.  And last year, Hubby and I developed (verbalized) our Rule of Life as recommended by our couples' prayer group, Teams of Our Lady.  A Rule of Life is not stagnant and should be revisited and should guide the actions of your life, so it's like having resolutions constantly in front of you.  Then yesterday, I came across this blog about resolutions and loved it.  Jeff Cavins is an incredibly intelligent man who has developed some extremely engaging Bible Studies.  I really like his description:
One of the big mistakes that we make when we make New Year's resolutions is that we cut away the branches, when the root is really the problem. For example, the person who makes a New Year's resolution to lose 25 pounds oftentimes is missing the real problem of gluttony. Rather than making the resolution to lose 25 pounds, a better resolution may be to pray before every meal and ask God for the strength to eat moderately and to see your eating as a way of giving God thanks.
He then goes on to give 8 recommendations to consider when making resolutions.  So today I'm spending some time thoughtfully pondering my New Years' Resolutions.


This past Saturday I was honored to be invited to a former student's Eagle Scout Ceremony.  I taught Lee in my homeschool class.  He graduated last May.  Lee has some learning disabilities but was/is one of my favorite students.  What a testimony to his determination and the support of his adoptive family that he was able to achieve this.  Only 2% of Boy Scouts earn the rank of Eagle Scout.  In addition to being awed by his achievement I was impressed with the turnout of friends and family.  Obviously, most of his troop was there, and many families that are part of the homeschool coop were there, too.  It was a true celebration about Lee and it strengthened my faith in people.  If you ever have the opportunity to go to an Eagle Scout celebration, go.  It's worth it.