I don't know why I set News Years Resolutions.... I don't know that I've every really KEPT any of them. Like EVER.

But every year at this time I get excited for that perceived "fresh start".  And each year I get honestly deep-down excited to think that this is "THE YEAR" that I'm going to achieve perfection. 

I do have to laugh when I see the graphics like the one above that basically outline every single resolution that I set every year.  But rather than making me discouraged it just makes me realize that I'm human... and that real change is difficult.

I have many roles in my life right now.  Here are some of them:

ROLES
Mother
Wife
Mother
Daughter
Sister
Friend
Lifelong learner
Community Member/Citizen
Ward member
Visiting teacher
Family Historian
Daughter of God

I record these on every page of my planner to help me try and stay on track. The days seem to go so swiftly. It is easy for the weeks and months to just slip away.  And frankly, I'm getting older.  I obviously should have more time now that I don't have babies to change and little ones to closely watch. It is strange to me that I don't accomplish more than I do.  Part of it is that my priorities have shifted.  But another part is that my energy simply isn't what it used to be.

HERE ARE MY GOALS/PROJECTS/DESIRES FOR THE YEAR:

GOAL:  Regain control of my finances. This year was a tough one. We went backwards rather than forwards. It was a huge cause of stress.  I have made a strict budget and I'm sticking to it.
REWARD:  A family cruise in October

GOAL: Make exercise a part of my life. Eat better - not only am I chubby, my blood pressure is getting too high. Time to do better.
SPECIFICS: Exercise 3X per week minimum for the entire year. Keep a food diary.  Prepare to run a 5K.
REWARD: Feeling great on our family trip in October

PROJECT:  Index 5200 names on FamilySearch.org
PROJECT: Start collecting verifying records on ancestors
PROJECT: Complete another year of Project Life and post it on family blog
PROJECT: Make every recipe in the 2nd/5th Ward cookbook and blog it
PROJECT: Read the Book of Mormon in one sitting.
PROJECT: Help E2 earn her Young Womanhood award
PROJECT: Deep clean and refresh every wall, light fixture, baseboard, drawer, surface in the entire house
PROJECT: Purchase Photoshop and learn to use it.
PROJECT: Get control of all our documents. Get them scanned, filed, backed up,
PROJECT: Help N earn every Webelos activity badge and all of the Activity belt loops by November

DESIRES:  Stay in better contact with my sisters and friends
DESIRES:  Increase the amount of service I give
. 
Wish me luck!

1) The Kingmaker's Daughter (The Cousins' War) by Philippa Gregory / A / ***1/2
I love historical fiction.... in fact I think one of the main reasons I got such a good grade in my college history classes was because I'd read so much of it.  Philippa Gregory does a great job thoroughly researching a time in history and then making it come alive.  After reading this book I went right to the internet to find out what else I could read about "The War of the Roses". This story is about the lives of the two daughters of Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick.  He is the most powerful man in England, and has just succeeded in getting the young and moldable Edward IV crowned as King.  Richard does not have an heir, but he does have a thirst for power.  His primary goal in life is to get both of his daugthers on thrones, no matter the cost.  What follows is the true story of intrigue, espionage, betrayal, and the testing of all family ties.  I can't wait to read the next book in the series.
2)
The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom / A / **
A wealthy southern plantation owner and sea-captain brings home an orphaned Irish girl from his latest voyage. Her parents had died during the crossing, and he indentures the girl as their passage had not been paid in full. She is raised by his kitchen slave, who also happens to be his illegitimate daughter.  The story starts out fairly straightfoward as it tells of the childhood of a little Irish girl being raised as a slave, but gets fairly convoluted as she ends up marrying the Sea-Captain's son and becomes mistress of the house.  The book is not very well written... at times the main character is empathetic and resilient while the next hundred pages she is an opium addict abandoning her own child.  It make the story rather unsatisfying.
3) Gone by Michael Grant / YA / ***
This is a Sci-Fi story of a town built near a nuclear power plant.  Several of the children start developing abnormal powers, which they hide from those around them.  One fall day the adults of the town (everyone over age 14) suddenly disappear.  The town is enclosed by a inpenetratable force field.  The resulting story is a little "Lord of the Flies"-ish as the surviving children work to establish a new society.  This story was just so-so but really had a the potential of being awesome and a great future movie, especially with today's interest in dystopian literature. There were too many underlying themes that distracted from the story. That being said, I do plan on reading the others.

4) The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling / A / *
I really really wanted to like this book.  In fact the only reason I kept slogging through each un-engaging page is due to the deep respect I have for J.K.Rowling.  It took me forever to read this book. It was bogged down with unneccesary details and made ugly by needless foul language.  To me this is another example of an editor out there being to afraid to tell the most famous living author in the world that the book really isn't that good.  If I look at the book as a character sketch ( a very detailed character sketch) of a group of people living in a town in England, that is great, but I ended up not caring about a single one of them.  Maybe that is talent in and of itself....  it has to actually be pretty difficult to write every single character in a way that makes you not like them.
5) Hunger: A Gone Novel by Michael Grant / YA / ***
This is the next book after "Gone".  Food is running out.  Children are dying from accidents, negligence, and now malnourishment.  The tenuous society that has been established is breaking down.   Several different  groups are fighting for power of the food supply. In the meantime, more mutant powers are manifesting and a dark evil force is attempting to gain power.  Once again, not an exceptionally written book but I still want to find out what happens next.
6) Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock / YA / ****
Wowzer. This book threw me for a loop. It is told from the point of view of Carrie, an eight year old girl living in extreme poverty in North Carolina.  Her mother is mentally ill and her step-father regulary abuses Carrie and her little sister, Emma.  They are regularly dirty, hungry, and seen as outcasts by their school mates.  The book also hints of sexual abuse of Emma.  This may sound like another heart-wrenching gut-jerker, but this story is different in the way it concludes.  This review from Amazon says it best: "Me & Emma differentiates itself with a spectacular finish, shocking the reader and turning the entire story on its head. Through several twists and turns the reader learns that things are not quite the way our narrator led us to believe and everything crescendos in a way that (like all good thrillers) immediately makes you want to go back and read the whole book again from the start".
7) Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard / A / **
This book has been chosen for our book-group read for February.  I am excited as our hubbies are invited.  As the title suggests, it tells the events leading up to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. I learned a lot and found it quite interesting. It wasn't really well written but was engaging.
8) .

The Shoemaker's Wife: A Novel by Adriana Trigiani / A / **

This story has the unique honor of being the first book I read on my new Kindle that my sweetheart got me for Christmas.  Ironically it is likely the last book I'll read on my new Kindle that my sweetheart got me for Christmas because I've already lost the power cord so I cannot recharge it.  I checked this book out for free from pioneer.utah.gov.  Very cool.
The book was just ho-hum. I like this author as her stories are fresh, witty, and meaningful. I was not far into this book when I started to realize that this must be a story about some of the author's relatives as there was absolutely no plot other than following two people over the course of several years.    It was sweet.... but I wouldn't recommend it.