It’s the end of the school year (one week left with kids; seven staff days), and half of 2005 is over. Both are hard to believe. In January I was inspired by a project in Scrapbooks, Etc.  to make a little New Year’s Resolution book.

I thought it might be appropriate to reflect on how I’m doing. There were four categories:

Self: I stole a phrase from the Paper Source website (and one of my favorite stores): Do Something Creative Everyday. Then I wrote “work on a scrapbook every week” (not doing so well on that). I scrap in spurts, but I DO have the April vacation put in the Kiawah scrapbook, and I did a simple 8 X 8 album two weeks ago in one night.

I’ve finished two paperbag albums and an 8 X 8 albums of my favorite photographs from the last 25 years. This week I’ve made 10 cards despite summer school chaos, summer school parent meetings, and attending four concerts at the Rochester International Jazz Festival. Writing this all out says to me: not so bad, Karen. My job is very time-consuming and for the last two months I’ve essentially had two jobs-my regular classroom teaching job and the elementary summer school coordinator job. I also wanted to Journal Every Day-I’ve kept up with a very simple journal of activities almost every day. I’m doing pretty well on this one.

Enjoy:  Work less, Prioritize, Keep a Positive Attitude. I’m doing better on working less. I stop grading papers/planning at 9:00 and give myself an hour almost every night to blog or read message boards, read, or make a card or two. I’m doing a good job of prioritizing and making sure I get some Me time, and it’s been pretty easy this year to have a positive attitude. Check my gratitude list.

Money: Budget and Stick to It, No Impulse Buying (24 hour rule), New Item In, Old Item Out. Not so hot on the first. I still spend too much money on paper stuff, books, and clothes. But…better on thinking through the purchases. I walk out of Joanne’s and Michael’s empty-handed as often as I purchase. Even when I have a great coupon. And I’ve gotten rid of an item of clothing or a pair of shoes for just about everything I’ve brought in. This is an area that still needs work!

Health: Workout at the Gym 3 Days a Week, Watch Portion Control, Limit Nighttime Snacks. Like scrapbooking this goes in spurts. The best I do is 2 days a week at the gym. The eating part has been really bad recently, but it’s usually fair. This is an area that really needs attention as soon as school is out.

Overall, not as bad as I thought. It does pay to put it down in writing. Then you can see what’s what. Hopefully I’ll give more attention to the Health and Money goals between now and December. Projects to work on. That’s a good thing.

I thought I was starting a very quiet blog. I knew my daughter and her boyfriend would check in on me, but I wasn’t ready to share it with the bigger world quite yet. Then a friend at work called me with great excitement:  Sarah’s got a link to your blog! I made her promise she wouldn’t look until Monday. When I got home that night I discovered that Sarah had not only a link, but a post about my blog (and others). So I was forced to upgrade the site much more quickly than I might have. It’s great to have support….but there’s been a lot of pressure the last two days!

Gratitude has been on my mind a lot recently. So much bad news floods the airways and covers the newspapers, and I feel truly blessed. I do my gratitude thing in the car on my way to work, but I thought it might be nice to share some of them:

• 32 years of being married to my best friend (in July)
• A daughter who is thoughtful, smart, funny, and thinks it’s OK for her mom to have a blog
• A son who has the best smile, the greatest dimples, and has finally proven to himself how smart he is (the rest of us have known it for years.)
• A job that I love. I’m just about to finish my 34th year of teaching school, and I’ve never lost the passion for it despite the increase in paperwork, pressure, and negativity
• My daughter’s new boyfriend. We just had the pleasure of meeting him last week although we’ve been reading his blog for several months now. You can read their love story here and here. (He’s responsible for Sarah’s blog and mine, too.) Read about his awesome journey to the Middle East this summer here.
• Good health. It’s nothing I take for granted. I just finished my 56th year; the same age my mother was when she died. Now that I’m a mother I can appreciate how awful being sick and dying must have been for her. She had such grace.
• The best class of fifth graders anyone could ever have the pleasure of spending a year with. They are positive, happy, interested, and interesting 10 and 11 year olds. There’s only two weeks of school left and I will miss them terribly next year
• Good friends. They make the good things in life better, and the terrible things in life bearable. Another thing I don’t take for granted.

There’s plenty more; lots of little things, but these are the big ones that come right to mind.