New Year.....resolutions

It has been a looong time since I have visited here.  So much so that I forgot the password....(or the combo of numbers and letters I regularly use)

It's a new year.  I don't know why I find January 1 so reflective and forward thinking at the same time.  It's really just another day.  But maybe it's because I have packed up the Christmas tree, and started my yearly chuck out rampage through the house that I think about what has gone and what will come.

2015 for me was great.  I even ticked a few of the New Year's resolution boxes - something I have never really done.
- I read War and Peace - long but good and much as the title suggests - a tale of war and peace.  Now all my history knowledge of the Napoleonic war in Russia in the 1800s comes from that book.
- I didn't buy any new clothes for most of the year (fell short by three days in Melbourne!) - after being convicted about trying to do my small part about the clothing industry and workers making cheap clothes
- I lost more than twelve kilos through the crazy strategy of 'Move More Eat Less'.  Although with my cheese consumption pretty high over the festive period I've taken a couple of steps backwards
- I swam a kilometre consistently for about 3-4 times a week all year, even in winter!
- I completed a mini-triathlon

2015 also contained some great memories - visiting Tonga on a short term mission trip, conducting a choir again for church carols, great holidays with friends in Stanthorpe, seeing kids blossom at work after patient and consistent input, performing with choir in some really interesting concerts, doing heaps of puppet shows, family weddings and going to the Boxing Day test in Melbourne.

But I think relationships, as they always are, are the best life can hold.  Deepening relationships and friendships, children growing up (BREAKING NEWS: ONE GIRL CHILD THROUGH GRADE NINE), families growing, new sisters in Christ, and ticking over 20 years of marriage to the most excellent Chris.  Sometimes they have been hard work, and I can always get better at them - more time, more attention, more love - but I know that furthering my relationship with God will spill into making my people relationships hum.

hmmmmm, goals for 2016
- blog at least twice a week
- continue on the downward weight path
- be able to slowly jog all of Park Run (5 km!)
- do another couple of triathlons
- read all of the books in book club
- continue to shop ethically

- and set my heart for forgiveness