Seven Days Late

It's seven days into this new year and I'm not wanting to make resolutions for this year, but rather goals - Things I'd like to accomplish before this year is over.  So, I've been doing lots of thinking and pondering and mulling over what I hope will be realistic goals.  Maybe when this year ends I'll be able to wipe a few things off my "I did it" list?

Before I could even get to this point to begin listing these goals, I had to do some major straightening up so that I could even see my desk.  (And, the bishop was coming over to hook up my router and he needed some work room).

During the course of the cleaning, I discovered a little notebook I had started with Joe back in 2010.  It was where we sat and discussed things we'd like to do for that year - places we'd like to visit, etc.

Some of the things we listed for that year included:

• Visit Stan Clark in Rexburg, Idaho;
• Visit Joe's niece, Sherri Ayers in Indiana;
• Go to Lusk and Chadron:
• Visit North Dakota:
• Revisit Mesa Verde;
• Float down the Wind River Canyon;
• Take the scenic train ride in Durgango, Colorado through the mountains and walk across a suspension bridge in the area;
• Go see Mt. Rushmore;
• Explore the Big Horn/Red Gulch Scenic Backway again;
• Visit Glacier National Forest;
• Attend the temple at least twice during the year;
• Have a missionary reunion in Utah;
• Attend a cow-branding; and
• Watch the buffalo roundup in Custer State Park.

When Joe and I revisited this list at the beginning of 2011, we discovered that we'd only accomplished one thing - floating down the river for our anniversary.  Two days later, he had his first heart attack and that changed a great deal of our plans for the rest of 2010.  Some things have since been accomplished in later years.

This is a new year with new goals to be acknowledged and hopefully many of them accomplished.  It's kinda nice to have a clean slate and a new year.  There is a quote I found several months ago that I think goes well with all this which is...

"There are moments which mark your life.  Moments when you realize nothing will ever be the same and time is divided into two parts, before this and after this."  I'm in the "after this" part of my life.