Bringing in the new year was good. 

Sledding excitement was had, and the Wildes, Coopers, Miles, Curtis, Heather & myself had a generally cold, but good time. I guess that Heather said she had heard Bill say that it was -9 degrees outside. Brrr…

Gorgeous night though, with the stars and all, and surprisingly my camera worked pretty well. I think my favorite shot was of Paxton flying through the air on his sled. 

Pre-sledding, I stopped by Tommy’s place to say hi. Pat, Gabe, Alan (palmer), of course tommy, and a guy named corey were there. Pretty low key. We played a bit of RockBand on the Wii, which was much hilarity because I really don’t have much skill with drumming despite my interest in tapping along sometimes. 

Post-sledding, Heather & I took to watching a movie. In this case it was a particularly bad movie, followed by two other better ones. Started with Weather Man (with Nicholas Cage) and frankly, it really sucked. We watched the preview after the feature and realized we had been duped. It was a downer movie sold by a exciting trailer. Next we watched the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and it was cool to see some of the special effects come to life. Also, as I understand it, CS Lewis who wrote the narnia series had placed an immense amount of christianity in the sub-text. I’m pretty sure it’s there, but it’s definitely SUBtext. Aslan is presumed to be God, but I’m not really sure of any other details. 

Lastly we watched Pursuit of Happyness in an effort to stay up for the Sunrise (at 8:45). The last thing I recall was looking at the clock at around 6:30, and thinking that Heather had better wake me up in order to go see any sunrise together. 🙂

Today is a new day, a new year, and absolutely beautiful outside. Heather had departed the couch and is upstairs sleeping. Me, I ponder my 2009 and wonder what it has in store. 

As I was booting my computer to write this, I was thinking that of all the blessings I could receive in 2009, the ability to live beyond my fears would be the one thing that would make the most impact. It would mean committing to Heather, Being willing to be active with my business, it means the most for the most significant parts of my life… My relational and financial future. 

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And a moment from that comment I found myself downloading the Genesis book in an effort to read the bible in a year. 

Bible in a year

At least one book per month

faithful to heather

willingness to open my mouth or make a call 

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woah, i’m off surfing the web and I find myself nearly out of battery. I guess it’s time to sign off for now with intent to check in again sometime soon. Perhaps I’ll go do some reading, and after that, snuggle in with Heather. A great way to start a new year.

I’ve got 5 minutes left on the timer for the last batch of chocolate chip cookies. I’ve been cooking over the last few days and it’s been fun. I don’t often do much baking, ever. In fact, this might be the only stretch where I’ve baked during the entire 2008. 

Tonight I’ll be headed off to Tommy’s house for a new years eve party, and then to do some sledding with Heather & co. at the Mendenhall Glacier. It should prove to be a good time. 

Earlier today Heather & I went and checked out some freecycle stuff, and since then (I dropped her off) I cut my hair (though I’m not sure it’s well done in the back), baked some cookies, and cleaned up a bit around my house. 

In the new year, I think it will be my goal to make an effort towards being more confident with making calls in my business, and to get to a place of confidence with my relationship with Heather. It will mean saying no to the opportunities I’m presented for extra-relational encounters, but I know it’s worth it. I suppose that I’ll include a concerted effort to be better about personal development (core) and reading scripture. I think that’ll help me towards being better in the other areas too. 

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perhaps I’ll do some more posting later on this evening, but for now, it’s off to deliver cookies to Tommy’s!

Well, it is January first and today has been a good one. Last night I went to bed early (3:00 am) so that I could get up this morning and do some serious thinking on my mission & values. It was a good time.

I followed the PlanPlus tools through the process of creating a mission statement and a mission journey and a value statement, and then went to brunch at Mi Casa to look over my notes and have some quiet time eating food. It turned out that I was easily distracted from my efforts because of the next booth’s comments. It seemed that two older women were talking about the implications of alcohol in youth today, and not in a “that’s not so good” perspective either – they were talking about how their alcohol habits had been strong, but they were able to stay out of bad situations like date rape, and that girls these days (as well as boys) to some extent are at fault for the challenges that they both endure. It was interesting to overhear.

After brunch, I came back home to find that someone had purchased the WMP-11 (wireless equipt.) through ebay, so I got that packaged and dropped in the mail, stopped by Tommy’s to give him his gift of Wild at Heart and The Dream Giver, and then came home for a nap. After the nap, I listened to Brad Duncan’s Leadership talk while looking through dream photo cutouts in my binders.

Next, onto reading.

I plan to read the entirety of the bible this year, so I’ll be making notes as I go. Today’s reading will be Gen 1-2, & Matthew 1.

Also, I read Chapter 5 of Travelling Light – it talked about getting rest as part of life to be more productive.

Finally, I read the first (of 40) day/chapter of The Purpose Driven Life. It talked about how my purpose is not so much mine, as it is God’s, bestowed to me. He has already created it, and it is up to me to have it revealed to me, and then to apply it.

Verse to remember: “Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” Colossians 1:16b (Msg)