2013 vs Goals: How'd I Do?

A couple of weeks after 2013 began, I posted some thoughts on how this year would be different.  Before it ends, a quick check on how well those plans came about:

• Item 1, get a puppy: Huge Furry Check.  As you know, Fergie has been brightening our home since early February.
• Item 2, renovate the master bath and/or kitchen: Kinda Check.  After all the back and forth and side distractions, the contracts have been signed, and work begins next month on our new master bathroom.  The kitchen will have to wait.
• Item 3, redo living room etc.: Kinda Check.  The scrapbooking materials have indeed been moved downstairs, and David has chosen to make it part of his Family Life merit badge for Scouts to (a) clear out the train stuff and make a space for Mary's scrapping downstairs, and then (b) help us paint the living room a new color.  He's taken apart one of the now-extraneous train sets; we need to finish with the others and then move onto the painting (once Mary selects a color).
• Item 4, drumming: Big Check.  Not only have I my own kit now, but I've had several more opportunities to play, both with my home church but now also with Burke UMC's LifeSign service,the latter of which I never would have anticipated at the start of the year.  As 2014 begins, I'm sharing lead drum duties in both places, it would appear….
• Item 5, writing projects: Ummm….  In reality I've begun collecting materials for two projects, one of which is further along than the other, but neither is done this year, and if I'm honest with myself, I'll be lucky to finish by the time I'm 50.

Isn't that always how it seems to go with my goals? Some things done completely, some things under way and moving in the right direction, and some other things I just haven't been able to move the ball on as much as I had hoped.  Candidly, I doubt 2014 will be much different: some things I may deeply want to accomplish, I will probably look back in 365 days and say, Well, that didn't work out.  That doesn't mean we don't keep trying: which, if anything, is probably the best or even the only lesson I can take from any New Year's resolutions.

New Year's Eve 2012

Random thoughts as 2012 has but hours to go on the East Coast of the United States...

• Goodbye and good riddance.  This has not been one of my favorite years, with burglary, death, and generally depressing things far too commonplace.
• On the other hand, I am enjoying the new job I got, officially, last January.  And...let's see, there should be something else good here...  (Editor, please add something warm and cheery here...thanks!)
• In 2013 we have a Disney Cruise to look forward to.  I've already got seven books piled up on my reading table, ready to go with us.  I plan to sit.  Yes, I will explore places I've never seen before, but I also plan to just...ahhh...
• Last night we were up late; tonight we're up late; by 6:45am Wednesday the boy needs to be rested and out the door for school to resume.  Who came up with this schedule?
• The older I get, the less New Year's means to me.  Or, perhaps more accurately, the more melancholy I get about the whole turning-the-calendar exercise.  As Lou commented recently, each year it's getting harder and harder to pretend I still have half my life or more in front of me.
• Who had the idea to make shrimp a part of New Year's Eve?  Is it because they used to be so fancy and decadent?  On the same rant: why did the Pennsylvania Dutch decide it had to be pork served on New Year's Day?  Apart from some bacon at breakfast tomorrow I don't plan a giant pork menu.
• Say what you will, I still miss Pat Summerall calling the Cotton Bowl games...that was always something that meant "New Year's" to me.  Somehow I don't miss Dick Clark quite the same.  Guess if I were part of the "Bandstand" generation it might have meant more.

Whatever 2013 holds, may it be a better and brighter year for us all, and may God preserve us all until we can bid it farewell also.