Hopes for the new year.

In 2010, I became a professional procrastinator. That's not a good thing. I think that I've been spending a little too much time writing posts for my blog lately. I love blogging, but I need to be spending some of that time on more important things. Don't panic- I'm not going to stop blogging. :) I'm only going to step back a little. Maybe narrow my posting down to once a week, maybe a little more often if I have more time (once a week is sometimes all I've been managing during classes, anyway). But I'm still planning a few posts for this coming week before I go back to school.

I usually fail miserably at resolutions. So instead of "resolutions," I like to call them hopes. The major things, attitude wise, that I need to focus on are contentment and joy. And when I came across these two challenges, they seemed to fit perfectly with that.

The first one is the Contentment Reading Challenge. It's hosted by Amber at Seasons of Humility. This challenge involves rereading books that we already own. There are different levels, ranging from rereading five books to rereading twenty. I'm going to go for the diving goal, which is rereading at least twenty books that I own/have already read. I figured that since I reread 16 books in 2010 without even realizing it, surely I can do twenty this new year. :) Here are some that I'm hoping to reread:

-Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
-Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
-Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
-Beauty, by Robin McKinley
-Just Between You and Me, by Jenny B. Jones
-Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie

I'm also joining the Craft Book Challenge, hosted by Liesl at Liesl Made. Here's the goal of this challenge: To make at least one item from a craft book you already have in your library every month. It doesn't matter how big or small the project is. I own quite a few craft books but never really make much from them.

You see...I sort of have a problem with books. And movies. I buy a lot of them. Most of the time they're on sale, but still. This week, I bought another bookcase to accommodate my growing book collection and a wire organizer for my DVDs. While I was rearranging everything, I realized just how much stuff I have. I have classic movies, on VHS and in boxed sets, that I've never even seen before. I have books that I haven't read, and others that I dearly love but haven't read in a year or two.

So, this year, my goal is to be content with what I have. To stop buying books or movies just because I like them or because they're on sale. I'm not saying that I'm not going to buy any this year. :) But I am going to try to cut back. I also want to...

-Stop procrastinating and wasting time.
-Survive public speaking class.
-Finish my college classes and graduate!
-Be able to work on my Etsy shop full time and be successful with it.
-Learn all of the homemaking skills that I am desperately lacking. :)

The verse at the top of my sidebar pretty much summarizes what I want to do this year:

"Clothed with strength and dignity, she can laugh at the days to come." -Proverbs 31:25

I always worry, stress, and fret about the future. Right now, the public speaking class I will start a week from Monday is looming over me. Public speaking is one of the most terrifying things I can imagine. But I'm trying to change. Instead of being afraid of the future, I want to learn to laugh at it.

Because a year from now, even six months from now, the public speaking class will be over. It won't matter at all. I'll be laughing at how nervous I was about it. So maybe I'll just start laughing now. :)

Another version says, "She looks forward to the future with joy." But I like the idea of laughing at it better. It makes it less frightening.

So...what are your goals for 2011?

Until next time,