Happy December!

The last month of the year is upon us! Cue the obligatory gasps of "I can't believe it's already [insert month here]!"

In a couple of weeks, everyone will start thinking of their New Year's resolutions. But let's think about it... is that really the most effective method of getting things done? I once had a good conversation with our last associate pastor about this. He said that if you really want to make progress, you can't just assess your goals once a year. If your boss only sits down with you to evaluate annually, it won't really help you to do your job better. More likely, you'll just feel bad about the mistakes you made 5 months ago that can't be fixed anymore, and you'll get excited and make a lot of grand goals for the upcoming year... which will last for about 2 weeks, because you have no follow-up or accountability.

I've decided that I'm going to bring this nugget of wisdom into my personal life as well. And so I give you: my life goals for the month of December! Please feel free to hold me accountable for them:

1) Practice barre chords every day; get good at them!
2) Read "Murder on the Orient Express" (a dear friend gave it to me a while back, and I still haven't gotten to it).
3) Clean my house thoroughly.
4) Make a Christmasy, crafty sort of surprise (I won't tell what it is or who it's for!).
6) Reply to the letters that I've been sent and return phone calls that I haven't (sorry friends!).
7) Make 3 new recipes from Pinterest (instead of just finding them and never actually making them)!
8) Pray (from the heart) every day.

What are your hopes and plans this month?