New Year's Resolutions

To begin with, a documentation of the completion of certain resolutions from 2009.

Goal: to read 10 books
Accomplished: 18 + .5 of 2 other books

1. Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
2. The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
3. Watchmen by Alan Moore
   
4. Youth Culture 101 by Walt Mueller
5. The Screwtape Letters (finally) by C.S. Lewis
6. That Incredible Christian by A.W. Tozer
7. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
   
8. Crazy Love by Francis Chan
9. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
10. Red Son by Mark Millar
    
11. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen
    
12. Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne
13. The Importance of Being Foolish by Brennan Manning
14. The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
15. Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
16. Plan B by Ann Lamott
    
17. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
18. Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell
    
19. half of The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman
20. half of Sindbad and Other Stories from Arabian Nights translated by Husain Haddaway

Goal: to save up and hopefully buy a saxophone
Accomplishment: bought a sax through craigslist, and have been studying/practicing for the past 5 months. See other blog for more details.

Goal: to give away a lot of stuff
Accomplishment: this seems to have turned out pretty well, although I can give, and could have given, a lot more. God has blessed me with so much, and I'm working to have a heart that remembers that nothing is mine in the first place.

Goal: run for a consecutive 2 hours
Accomplishment: got to a point of running for an hour and 20 minutes. I'll have to retry this one!

Goal: pay off second highest loan
Accomplishment: paid off one small loan, as well as second most costly loan that has the highest interest rate. Monthly loan payments have been reduced by 50%!

Goal: travel to Russia
Accomplishment: took part in a two-week mission trip to Moscow, Krasnodar and Maikop.

Which reminds me.. places I've visited in 2009:

1. Chicago, IL (twice)
2. Pheonix and Tuscon, AZ
3. aforementioned cities in the Russian Federation
4. San Francisco and Walnut Creek, CA
5. Minneapolis and White Bear Lake, MN
6. Knoxville, TN
7. Los Angeles and Calabassas, CA
8. Grapevine, TX
9. Detroit and Shelby Township, MI
10. Frankfurt, Berlin, Nuremberg, Memmingen, Fussen, and Munich, Germany (by plane, by train, and by automobile!)
    
11. Zurich, Engelberg, and Luzern, Switzerland

Never in my lifetime did I think that I would have gotten to travel this much to Europe, especially by this age. There are more international trips ahead, Lord willing!

Now to report on this coming year's resolutions.

Goal 1: to read 20 books
Goal 2: to advance to book 3 for the saxophone, and hopefully have a private lessons teacher
Goal 3: to pay off one of my 2 smaller loans by June
Goal 4: to become proficient in another foreign language
Goal 5: to run for a consecutive hour and a half
Goal 6: to get rid of even more stuff that I don't need, or that others could use more than I
Goal 7: as most recently inspired by Rob Bell's book (see the list above), to be the eucharist

I don't mean to write these out to make you think any more of me. I am not what I do, or what I have done. I am simply who God has created me to be--his daughter.

..And there are other goals, but I prefer to keep them personal. I'm excited for this coming year, even if it turns out to be harder than the last. In all things, God is good.