I love a fresh start

I always love the feeling of a new year. Or the beginning of Spring, the start of a new diet when I'm totally motivated (if only I could stick to it!) or just when I make a new goal. This time of year, I like to look back in my journal and now of course, past blogs and realize the things that I have accomplished, progress I have made and new talents that I have developed. But with the "fresh start", I enjoy thinking of what I want the new year to bring. For Christmas I got a really good book that I recommend to all mothers, "Mothering with Spiritual Power" by Debra Sansing Woods, it has made a difference in my focus this year. My goals are much more Christ centered and I'm more focused on mothering with the spirits influence. Some of my past goals have been to do a triathlon, become an aerobics instructor, lose weight and learn Italians. I think they are all great goals and it felt good to achieve them but for some reason this year, I felt more incline to focus on my children and the type of instrument I am in their life. What a great goal to post about following the last post of my sons comment! But that was last year ;) And I would like to have a baby this year so why bother with a weight loss goal?



Nothing can be less eventful than our New Year's eve last year spent on a plane on our way to Florence but you know your lacking in friends when you have 8 missionaries over. The 4 sisters had to leave at 7:15 to catch the last bus of the night and the elders left at 9. Woo-hoo we picked the party animals! We gave the kids naps earlier in the day and they had no problem staying up until midnight. We had tons of food. We did a burrito bar with Ryan's salsa, con queso dip, spinach artichoke dip, cheese ball, and Swedish coffee cake. The missionaries were in heaven. Go figure, you can find heaven at the Brown's!?? For the whole month of December we have heard fireworks but about 2 hours prior to midnight it was a non-stop sound of explosions. Then at midnight, they went CRAZY! had it not been new years, I would have thought the Nazi's were invading again. The kids loved it and went outside to blow there horns and yell "happy new year!"


I never payed attention to how they say it in Italian so we stuck with English. Again, another good holiday but I'm glad it will be celebrated next time with family.