AULD LANG SYNE

Soooo... as I titled this post for New Year's Eve, I began to wonder what auld lang syne actually meant.  So I went down a proverbial rabbit hole and discovered that the phrase is from a poem written by Robert Burns in 1788.  It's actually a Scottish term/song.  Isn't that cool?!  Maybe that's why I like it so much.  The phrase is translated to mean "times long past," or "days gone by," or "for the sake of old times."  This phrase seems appropriate for New Year's Eve as we look past on the last year. (BTW for the best version of Auld Lang Syne, see Steve McDonald's version - and you'll also be introduced to a FABULOUS Scottish musician!  His best album is Sons of Somerled.)

We celebrated this year with the Bettenhausens.  Scott and I drove to Missouri to play games, visit, eat lots of good things and make our traditional resolutions.  We sure love our "adopted" family in Missouri!

Here are the goals:

Raisin resolves to eat all her dinner every night.

Jelly Bean wants to gain 16-20 lbs.  When I informed him that that wasn't a goal,

he added he wanted to finish the Book of Mormon and have a mighty change of heart like Alma!

Apple Pie's 2023 resolutions are to keep up with his seminary reading, fill in a large section of his bird book, make more cardboard guns and learn his capital cursive letters.

Marmalade always wants her dog, Syl, in the photo... so she made some goals for her as well as herself.  She wants Syl to learn "quiet" and go for daily walks.

Marmalade wants to finish ANOTHER book and run a 5K every month.

*** Not pictures - Nathan Bettenhausen.

He made goals, but wanted me to take the picture later, after his shower.  Later never happened.

(I'm sure the shower happened... but the picture was accidentally overlooked.)

Jacob even joined in the fun!  He plans on publishing his first novel and write another.

He also wants to "never break."

My best friend plans on reading both the Book of Mormon and the New Testament.

She also resolves to log 1000 miles of biking.

And not to be overdone by her children, she also plans on finishing her first novel.

I can't wait to read it!

Mark chose to keep it simple this year with one resolution:  Organize and rotate the food storage!

After he's done, I hope he can do mine!

Scott wants to finish our downstairs upgrades and continue to experiment with screen printing.

I also decided to have one focus: write a daily journal entry - focusing on the good things in my life and the times I've "heard" or "seen" the Savior's hand in my life.  The nice thing about writing this blog post in February I can report that since resolving to write in a daily journal, I have only missed ONE day.  It's NOT easy to start and keep a daily goal.

I was glad that Kiara and Cody sent me New Year's Eve's photos.

(Katia and Skylar, you need to send me more pictures!)

New Year's Day was on a Sunday.  Raisin and I took selfies on the way home from church.

This girl has stolen my heart!

And this boy is now a Sunbeam at church.  He loved his class.  And he told his new teachers "Thank you so much for teaching me" without being prompted.  He called me to tell me that he "got Jesus" from Primary.  To explain, him mom sent this photo.

HAPPY 2023!