School, school, and more school (Oh, and a New Year!)

Hi all! Happy 2011!!!!

Yeah, I guess I'm kind of late on that, aren't I? Haha. That's okay. Once I tell you about this new semester you'll understand why.

This semester is going to be a crazy one. Crazy, but good. Very good. I love all my classes. I'm taking World Literature, Social Problems, News Writing, and Notebook Writing. My professors are so great, as well as the students I'm surrounded by. But I have to say my favorite class is notebook writing. I love the other students in the class. It's small enough that I can actually talk to people and get in comments! And the class itself just stimulates the mind. It's great!

This semester I arranged my schedule so I'm only on campus three days a week from 9:30 to around 3:00. This makes for long days, but good days that keep me going and thinking and questioning and learning. Those are all good things, right? ;)

But I've been pretty busy the past three weeks. There's a lot of reading required for all of my classes and quite frankly, that's one of the big reasons why I didn't blog til now. That and I've been going into work for a friend of mine. I don't mind it, but it gets a little stressful sometimes. Work is fun, but it is still work. Haha.

Did I mention that for my News Writing class I had to start another blog? Yeah, well, I did. Check it out, if you feel the need: www.diamondsforstones.wordpress.com.

So, now that we have school out of the way (for the time being, at least), would you like to hear my New Year Resolutions? Of course you do! :) I only made three goals for myself this year, and they're all pretty loose and flexible. But don't judge me too harshly. I'm still going strong on my 12 month plan! This month, January, I'm trying to read the Doctrine and Covenants. I'm not sure I'll make it with all my school work, but I'm going to try my best.

First Resolution--Go to Fitness: My work offers free fitness classes two times a week with an athletic trainer. I couldn't go last semester because I had class when the classes were held, but this semester I'm free to go. So my goal is to go to fitness to help me become, well, fit. :)

Second Resolution-- Write Something Every Day: I really want to get back into story telling and writing the books I've had planned out in my head. But with school I'm always struggling to find time, and end up berating myself if I never even open one of my books in Word. So I've decided that rather than a goal of having such-and-such a manuscript finished by such-and-such a date, I'm going to just write something every day. Blogs count. So does journal writing. At first I told myself it couldn't be school related, but with my notebook writing class that's going to be really hard. So I've expanded it. I figure even just one page of writing on a book or outline or plotting out ideas is better than nothing at all. Yay for writing! :)

Third Resolution-- Read the Book of Mormon at least 3 times: I really enjoyed reading the Book of Mormon a few months ago for my 12 month goal. So I want to read it at least 3 times. This gives me four months to read it through once, which I should be able to do, then just do that three times. I'm excited about this goal because the Book of Mormon is such an amazing book.

So, there you have it. Fitness, Writing, and Reading the Book of Mormon. I feel really good about these goals. They're broad enough that I don't feel restricted or like I'll let myself down. They seem attainable and like they'll help me a lot in my life. And then, as I mentioned, I'll still be carrying on my 12 month plan. Let's review it, shall we?

-May/June: Being Healthier
-July: Morning and Evening Prayers
-August: Early to bed, early to rise.
-September: Read the whole Book of Mormon
-October: Being more outgoing
-November: Read the Doctrine and Covenants and the latest general conference issue of the Ensign
-December: Read the whole New Testament
-January: Be more helpful
-February/March: Read the whole Old Testament
-April: Being cleaner

So where do I stand on these goals? I feel I'm doing very well on all of them so far. I've lost weight, established the habit of praying every morning and night, am able to wake up (I'm proud to say I have woken up every day before 9:00 for the past three weeks. Shocking, I know.), read the Book of Mormon, made new friends, and re-read the General Conference talks.

Obviously some things fell through the cracks and I've had to make some adjustments. I couldn't read both the Doctrine and Covenants and the General Conference talks in one month. So now I'm reading the Doctrine and Covenants for January. As for December, that month was all kind of a blur. Haha. I did start the New Testament, but didn't make it very far.

However, this is exactly what the 12 month plan was intended for. It allows for exceptions and doesn't make me feel discouraged if I didn't meet a goal. Come May I can start a new round of goals. I could give myself four months to finish the New Testament. Or six. As circumstances demand or allow I can change my goals. Nothing is set in stone. It's such a relief! :)

So yeah. It's been busy, but fun. Crazy, but enjoyable. I hope you all made some resolutions and have a fabulous (belated) New Year! :)