Twenty Ten

The Christmas break is over and I’m back at work - and back on the internets. I realise we just had 3 months away but, man, it was good to have another wee break. Good to sleep in, good to be just the two of us.

Pre-break we had big plans to have all sorts of adventures but Christmas and its lead-up took care of one week and Post-Christmas my parents were working during the day (yes, we still live with my parents) so we ended up taking advantage of long and lazy days together and spending our nights with family. It was good times. We had breakfast burritos each day, I took up residence at my new sewing machine (all the time complaining about the heat) and Zanne watched all three Lord of the Rings episodes. I like those times, when we have no cares and nothing to talk about, and when every time I catch the gaze of my love she smiles and I smile back because I just like hanging with her.

In addition to all our lazing about we also made plans for this new year (2010 – can you believe it?). We both committed to a budget and we wrote down some joint goals. We have dubbed this year “The Year of the P” as our goals fall under four categories: productive, practical, prepare and pretty.

Productive relates to how we wish to spend our time. Zanne has a number of projects she wishes to spend time on and I have some classes in mind that I’d like to attend.

Practical relates to how we wish to be with our money. We have both committed to being less frivolous so as to reach our financial goals of paying off our credit cards and saving for our own home (fingers crossed we’ll move in by the end of the year!). We were both motivated enough last year to save for our Canada adventure so I think our new goal should be no problem for us. We’re both really excited and I can’t help constantly thinking to myself “our own home, can you imagine!”

Prepare relates to gearing up for a family. We hope to start our family next year(!) but before that can happen we need a home and we need to be healthier, so health and fitness also falls under this category. I will be the birth mother of our children and so I have conception and pregnancy to be healthy for, but more than that, we both want to live long and healthy lives with (and for) our children. My Mum is currently having health issues and it’s a bit scary to be honest… It’s scary to think that Mum isn’t indestructible, and scarier still to know that she is so stubborn she might try to “grin and bear” her pain. My Mum is young (only 46) and it is awful to think of her not being well enough to enjoy her children and grandchildren - which has inspired Zanne and I to resolve to take care of our health so that we might enjoy our children forever and ever. Now obviously stuff happens and all that, but you know what I mean.

Pretty is so named because “creative” doesn’t begin with a “P”. We both wish to actively be more creative this year. I hope to continue with my sewing, and to hopefully improve, and Zanne is teeing up photography expeditions with some of our friends. I’m also hoping to work on my limited fine art (painting and drawing) skills…

Even though we’ve written our goals down, they’re not set in stone obviously, and some goals are more important than others. I just think it’s cool to wake up and see our purple poster and be reminded of the things we’d like to spend our time doing/thinking about. I’ve become a person who likes to accomplish goals, I find it very rewarding. And I like to reflect back on previous goals and know that I’ve ticked them off. For instance, when I was a teenager all I wanted to do was travel. Well, two+ years abroad and I’ve been there, done that. Same deal with my dreadlocks dream (Zanne says she is thankful she didn’t know me then!). You get the idea.

So 2010, I'm excited to see what you have in store for my wife and I - cos 2009 was awesome!

Cheers!

Shan