New years resolutions and upcoming projects.

UPDATE: We nixed the move out of the country idea and decided to save for a vacation home in Ireland instead. Figured it would be too hard on the kids to do homeschooling in another country, etc.

New years resolutions. I don't like New Year's Resolutions. I think they are for people who can't make and keep goals. Anyone who can make and keep goals does so on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and doesn't need the new year to tell them to do it. In short, I have no resolutions except those I have already been working on. Here are a few of them:

1) I've been exercising a lot. I feel stronger and better when my joints don't fall out :) I am running a ragnar relay with my high school friend, Adam, in June. I am feeling ready, though I hear it's one of the more difficult relays. We are also running a family 5k at Disneyland next week :) Hoping to teach my children not to let EDS get them down. And we have a four year plan. We would like to do a family hike in the alps. We've picked an 8 day trek in the alps and are giving ourselves 4 years to prepare. haha! Don't underestimate me. It sounds like a long time away and like it might never happen, but don't underestimate me. I think I've come through on just about everything I've said I'd do up to now :)

1a) eat better.  . . this one's a struggle. All my racing books tell me to cut crabs and blabbidy blee blabbidy bloo. I will just have to have a slow race time. I'm sorry, but I am just not willing to compromise on my carbs :) Other than that, I eat pretty well. But I suppose I could cut back on the carbs a bit. . .  just smidgin.

2) Business. I've been spending the last year slowing down on business. I have been successful, for the most part, with the help of my seven wonderful seamstresses. Where would I be without them?! I now just do specialty items in the shop, like ribbon shades, etc. But it still gets crazy every once in a while because sometime people order 8 ribbon shades then upgrade to expedited production. :) So I'm not entirely slowed down, but I'm pleased with where things are at with the business. We're more successful than ever! I am very blessed to have had such great business professors in college and the wonderful example of my father and even my siblings. My siblings and I sometimes just sit around thinking up new businesses. It's a lot of fun to be in a creative family that follows through with ideas.

2a) New business??? ANNOUNCEMENT!! I am starting a new business (I know, so much for slowing down. . .). I have been blessed with a tremendous capacity to manage time and use my time very wisely. Well, some might argue that "Henry Cavill o'clock" is not the best use of my time, but you have to some kind of break, right? So, I am starting to build inventory for my new business: Miriam's closet, by Melissa: Special Occasion Children's Clothing Rental. I have created several dress patterns, and also cumberbunds, ties and bow ties for boys. The neat thing about my patterns is that the dresses have pieces. The dress will not arrive to the person in pieces, it will be assembled and they probably won't even know it can be taken apart. This is so that if a portion of the dress gets ripped or stained or anything else, I can just replace that portion of the dress and not the entire thing. Most are in three pieces, but the tulle dresses are in two parts because with the tulle I am likely to only have to replace a few pieces of it instead of an entire portion. I hope to launch April 1! In time for wedding season. We will also be providing accessories. Unfortunately for me, tulle and hair pieces are foreign to me. So I might need some more practice time with those. I have my "in house counsel" working on terms and policies. :)

3) personal. The last half of last year was great and it just keeps getting better and better. After my bishop explained to me how being sealed to a family works, I just really turned around. Now that I understand I am only sealed to Garren and not necessarily to other members of his family, I just really got the closure I needed. I struggle for a long time with that and let myself go over a year without a temple recommend and it has been 3 and a half years since I've actually been in the temple. But I now have my recommend back and it will be a beautiful day at my next temple trip.

Having slowed down on work I am more focused on my kids. I was always able to just work while they were at school or in bed at night, but when I was with them I was always thinking about work. But now, their time with me is so much better because I can completely focus 100% on them knowing that my business is in the hands of my loyal, trustworthy and talented seamstresses. I have a passion for science and bought a few science experiment books at my kids school book fair. This week we are doing experiments from the "Candy Experiments" book. So much fun. This past month with my kids has been great. I just really feel like they are awesome kids and so fun to hang out with! We're going to Disneyland next week and I can hardly wait! Disneyland with kids is the best! We've also continued with piano lessons. Miriam just started and I am surprised at how much she can pay attention to. I'm thinking she might do well on the harp.

AND FINALLY, the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT for this year. . . actually, it might be many years. . .  I am finally writing my book! Ever since writing in college I knew I wanted to write a book. I spent a summer in Las Vegas working on my writing, but nothing felt right. I have started projects a thousand times and every time it just didn't feel like "my story." The last time I saw my grandma, she was walking me and my kids out to our car. She grabbed my shoulders firmly and said, "It's time for you to write your Harry Potter." I had been thinking about that for a long time and it frustrated me sometimes. Every idea I had just didn't feel like it was my story. They were okay ideas and the writing was great, but I just wanted to enter the writing world with a bang. And nothing I had composed felt like it would accomplish that. Then one day, out of the blue, it came to me. Garren and I were watching a movie. I can't even remember what it was. It was something where someone didn't think their promise to their spouse was worth fighting for, or even living for, and just let their family dissolve into nothing. I was feeling so sick and tired of these movies being put out with the idea that, "Oh, sometimes it just doesn't work out." And I thought to myself, "Is there anyone left that thinks family is worth fighting for?" And finally, it felt right. That was my story. And I can't give away too many more details because I don't want anyone to steal my idea. But I am very excited to share this with everyone and create heroes and heroines that my children can look up to. And fortunately, I had Orson Scott Card as my fiction writing professor in college and he promises all his students that as his students he will consider any of our works for publication under his publishing company. One year he liked a story a workshopped and said if I could make it novel length he'd publish it as a YA novel. But I just didn't want to enter the writing world with that one. But this one? This is my story. I found my "Harry Potter," Gram!

So there is my upcoming year :)