2010!

I don't make "New Year's Resolutions"...but I do try to be constantly looking for things to improve myself. I would like to make "New Month's Resolutions" this year. For the month of January, I would like to:

1. Reorganize and de-clutter my filing cabinets. I have at least four places I keep "important" papers in file folders and they are all full, so I need to make room NOT by buying more file boxes, but by cleaning out the stuff I have. I have a paper hording problem...I just found old bill stubs from 10 years ago! How do you all file stuff? Do I really need to keep the stubs from bills I pay (like the water and cable bills) after they are paid? I know I need to keep some things for taxes, but I don't know when to quit! Do you have a filing system that works?
2. Read the lessons for Sunday School and Relief Society BEFORE Sunday. I have wanted to do this every year, but have failed miserably. I made a goal in December (that I didn't write down, because I knew that if I did, I wouldn't do it) to read an article from the General Conference issue of the Ensign magazine everyday for one week, and you know what... I DID IT! It was an amazing feeling, and I learned a lot. =) So there are five Sundays in January, and we are studying the Old Testament in Sunday School and the Gospel Principals manual in Relief Society. I want to read the assigned chapters for those classes before class each week, and I can't do it on Sunday afternoon anymore, because church starts at 9am now!
3. Finish a quilt for my bed. Darwin bought me some black and white jelly rolls (40 two and a half inch strips of 20 different fabrics rolled up and tied with a ribbon...they look like a cinnamon roll) for Christmas, and I have started a quilt that will fit on our bed. I am already a third of the way done with the squares and I have decided to pay someone to quilt it for me. I have never desired to make a giant quilt because the thought of trying to hand or machine quilt it stops those thoughts in their tracks. I always felt like paying someone to do something I technically could do was a waste of money, but I have decided to just do it. I really don't have time at this point in my life to learn how to machine quilt (and when I say that, I mean those fancy free hand quilt patterns) and I definitely don't have time to quilt it by hand! I do have time to piece together squares and a backing fabric...and even to hand stitch the binding down when it is done being quilted, so I asked my friend who she sends her quilts to and there is a lady here in Juneau who will do them for a penny per square inch. This quilt I am piecing is going to be about 86" x 92", so it will cost me about $80 to have it quilted, but I am ok with that right now. =)

Those are my goals for January. I start school on the 19th, so I am hoping to get the filing and the quilt top done before then. We had a great Christmas and I may post some pictures of that later...maybe....hehe.