The holiday season has passed, the decorations are being packed away for another year, and things are getting back to the regular routine in the Olsen house. I loved all the hustle and bustle of the season, but I'll readily admit that I'm glad it only lasts about six weeks. With all the hosting and baking and traveling and gifting, it can be quite exhilarating while being just as exhausting. I've been surprised with how easily I neglected piles of laundry and mail in order to have more time to finish making Christmas presents and bake mounds of cookies. Would I have done it any differently? Not at all. Isn't that what January is for? Getting life back in order? After all, what's the fun of keeping things in order if we can't throw it all off every now and then?
So here we are, sitting at the beginning of a new year. We've all had a week to reconsider our New Year's resolutions, dive into them, tweak them a little or drop them entirely. Through the past few years I've leaned more toward goals than resolutions. They seem more achievable. In my late-20s, I've gotten better at making realistic goals and actually figuring out how to go about reaching them. I owe a lot of that to Pete. If you know him, you know that he's huge into setting goals - big goals - and doing anything necessary to reach them. It's helped me dream bigger and that's pretty exciting.
This year I had no idea what my biggest goal would be until sometime on New Year's Day. I hadn't really thought about it until then. It took a few days to completely evolve and become something more than just surfacy. (I may have just made up that word.) Through lots of prayer and thought, it simply boiled down to
love people. I think I could spend an entire year just learning what that means, but I also want to learn to live it out. Definitely a challenge I feel I'm ready to take on.
Besides that, we've had a great week. Pete's back at work and is also studying for the third step of the boards. He'll take the exam at the end of the month. As previously mentioned, we're catching up on laundry and the like. Ella is a great help. (My whole idea of "great help" has changed over the last year, as I'm sure it does for every parent.) Yesterday she even helped me paint my office! I can't wait to finish it and post pictures. I'm loving it even though I've still got lots of work to do before my classes start January 22.
(I am often inspired by art or great photos. I feel like I can see things around me in a fresh way. Today I was inspired by these prints by Sascalia out of the UK.)
Ella in her new sled from Grandma & Grandpa (with Pooh, too)
Faster, Daddy, faster!
Pete, Ella, Grandpa Olsen
