I'm not normally a goal-oriented person and, despite appearances, I'm not a New Year's resolution kind of person either. But I do think about what I want from my life periodically and how I think I might get there. This blog is the result of that and just happened to coincide with a New Year.
Anyway, here's my version of 2012 from a January perspective:
What a huge year!!! So many changes, big and small, so many ups and downs!
January started out with my happiness project, including a blog (which I never thought I'd do), and learning Spanish and Japanese from phone apps. The project was hard work some days, but the overall effect has been almost miraculous. I'm slower to get angry, I feel like a valid part of the community, I'm much nicer and more fun for the Little Big Fella, and the Big Fella has noticed the change in a myriad of ways.
We also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in January. The Big Fella was able to come home for the weekend closest to it and we had a lovely candle-lit dinner and several romantic moments while he was home. We decided to delay our presents to each other and went hunting through the gem fields later in the year. I had a beautiful ring made for me from the rubies we found and I had a Celtic-style band made for the Big Fella, which he loves.
We finally moved into the same house with the Big Fella in March! We'd been living 7 hours apart for almost 5 months, and it is absolutely wonderful to be sharing our lives again! Our marriage is growing stronger and more delightful and I can honestly say I'm more in love with this man than I was when we first got married almost 11 years ago.
Starting all over again in a new, smaller town has been really tough, and definitely challenged the happiness project on many occasions. The little things are the biggest challenge; like having to collect mail from the Post Office, sorting out the supermarket/bakery/fruit shop/butcher shopping, new rubbish bin days. It's not that it's hard, but that you have to think about it, and normally you don't!
And then there's making friends! That's a challenge! But the happiness project helped encourage me to make opportunities to meet people and spend time getting to know them. I have a couple of great friends as well as lots of acquaintances and I'm looking forward to these friendships growing even stronger.
The Little Big Fella is getting so big! I look at the photos of him from last Christmas and I'm blown away that he could grow that much in such a short time. And not only has he grown in stature, for his age his vocabulary continues to be phenomenal, his physical skills are incredible (especially sports-related skills) and he is such a delight to be around. His manners are just awesome and he makes me so proud so often.
After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, I decided to go back to work in June. The Little Big Fella settled in really well at his Family Day Carer's house so I felt okay about going back to the workforce and helping us meet our financial goal of buying a house. I love my job! It has it's boring bits of course (all jobs do), and the first few months were a BIG learning curve, but I love contributing in that environment and interacting with adults on a daily basis again. And I really love being around my colleagues. We have a ball and work together so well!
I'm exceptionally thankful that, once again, health has not been an issue this year. The Big Fella was able to get a specialist in the major town 2 hours away that he's really happy with. I'm so glad he doesn't have to fly to the capital for his 6 monthly check-ups. Amazingly, given the motorbike riding, pushbike riding, bushwalking (running?) and so on, the Little Big Fella has not yet broken any bones. I'm sure it'll happen one day and we'll deal with it just fine, but I'm glad it wasn't this year. And, yay!, no Dengue fever for us! Mozzies (mosquitoes for any non-Australian readers) love me and the Little Big Fella and Dengue fever can be a bit of a problem around here, especially if there's big floods. But no big floods, so fewer mozzies and no fevers! Woo hoo!
We got to fly to see our family interstate later in the year and had such a wonderful time! It was especially good to catch up with the Big Fella's sister and her partner because we haven't seen them in a few years. We also got to enjoy the multi-cultural aspect of that city, especially the food! The Big Fella is SO into food and it's so much fun to enjoy good food with people you love. The Little Big Fella loved catching up with his grandparents and aunts and uncle again, and he really enjoyed the Aquarium. The Big Fella and I have been trying to go there for about 6 years so it was great to finally see it.
But the best thing about the year is that I really DO feel happier and more content than I did this time last year. What a wonderful project this has been! It's taken me to places I never thought it would, I've met so many precious people, and has helped me to recognise what a wonderful life I already had. Now, the project for 2013 is...
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