The end of another year...goodbye 2011

Another year has quickly gone by. It was a year filled with many ups and downs, challenges and celebrations. While it can be easy to dwell on the negative, there has been plenty to be thankful for as well.
What happened this year....
*I have completed half of my doctoral program maintaining a 4.0
*I was voted to be on the doctoral committee to be the liaison between the students and the faculty
*James made travel baseball
*We bought rafts and rafted several times down the Des Plains river...(this is my favorite thing of the year)
*The basement is 85% complete
*We went to the dells and had a great time
*Grandpa had a rough health year, but hes fighting hard.
*some great friendships continued to grow and others have drifted away
*I started Kris Kringle Christmas Cookies and had a very successful season

This year, Dave and I have spent many hours talking about the idea of contentment. Dave made a great point when he stated that a person cannot be truly happy unless they are content. I believe that a person can be content and still desire things, but when they are not satisfied with what they already have they are often unhappy. It can be easy to blame the economy for why so many people are not currently content with their situation, but I often think it is an excuse. Yes, the economy is not what it has been, but we have been so spoiled that we think poor me I cant have _________. While almost everyone is affected by the economy it is nothing compared to what it could be. There are still people alive who lived through the great depression...and I often wonder what they think about people complaining about the economy. I don't see us waiting in line for a loaf of bread. No, we still have our cell phones, cable, multiple cars, and we are still buying things that are not needed. So it really comes down to being grateful and content with what you have because it really could be a whole lot worse. I debated writing this because I know some people might find it offensive, but sometimes the truth is a hard reality. However, I chose to write it mainly as a reminder to myself (and to others) throughout the upcoming year...2012 could be a very challenging year in a lot of aspects, not just money, but other things too. We all have different situations that may occur this year....financial, school, parenting, health....whatever the situation may be I think we need to be more positive and less of a victim. Ive seen this quote around a lot lately and I find it to be eye opening..."What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things you thanked God for yesterday"....We could spend the whole day be thankful for what we have...maybe it is time to think more about what we have instead of what we dont have.

school update...

I am currently on a few nice long Christmas break (7 weeks!) The end of this past semester marks the 1/2 way point!!! I have two classes this spring and one in the summer. I start my dissertation process this summer and will go until spring of 2013. I have internship the fall and spring of 2012/2013 and I am complete! It has been a great process and I am proud to say I still have that 4.0! I am spending my break baking (www.kriskringlechristmascookies.blogspot.com), writing, and studying. I wrote a paper on Choice Theory for a supervision model that I will be turning into an article and submitting it to a journal when classes start back, so I have some work to do on it. I will be creating notes to start studying for my big exam this summer (3 days, 4 hours each day, 1 essay question a day). Before I know it classes will be starting again. Where does the time go?