January 2016 is here.  It’s a time that everyone is setting goals or making resolutions.  For us, after last year, it’s for sure a time to take stock of everything and get prepared for what’s next.  From the time we decided to get married in June through New Year’s we haven’t stopped!!!

We had our first weekly meeting this past Sunday.  You see, we’ve decided to meet every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. to talk about our goals, our week, the book we’re reading together, what to cook that week… all the stuff that happens.  Oh my goodness we’ll be organized!

We’ve each written personal goals and as well as goals for us as a couple.  One of them is reading books to discuss every week, Henry’s calling it our “book club.”  We’re going to start with “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” by Stephen Covey.  It’s an old favorite of mine and it will be great for me to re-read.  I think Henry will love it.  I’m going to love talking with him about it and from it we’ll really be setting a great foundation for not only our year but our life.

I was being interviewed by a British women’s magazine this week and the writer asked me about what’s next for us.  Well, here I am at 56 with the most amazing job in the world and finding myself committed to learning more about PowerPoint and in person presentations.  I always push myself to grow and grow and grow.  I keep setting goals booth personally and professionally.  My grandpa, who was from Norway and Denmark before he moved to the States, worked into his 90’s.  My dad retired 2 years ago at 87.  I have no plans to retire, but I would like to find my next thing that would let me be more flexible.

For my life going forward will be a great deal around what Henry’s life will be.  He’s getting a new job in 2 weeks and is going to learn a HUGE amount more than he currently does about computer programming.  His goals include having his own business and becoming quite wealthy.  At some point along the way he wants to move to where the big tech industry is located and work for someplace super cool.  I think it will be an amazing adventure – my life ahead 🙂

We’ve found ourselves in more debt than we’d like due to our spending habits, so in our weekly

meetings we’ll be assessing our finances and looking for ways to cut down on spending and start paying down the credit card..  One of my goals is to save more.  Check out the table on the right.  You might need to get a magnifying glass out to see it.  It’s a 52 week money challenge where you put away $1 the first week, $2 the next week and so on and so on.  By week 52 when I’ll deposit $52, my balance will be $1,378.  Seems like a good goal!!

Our personal growth goals include watching for our triggers and learning more about ourselves by feeling what we’re feeling during the triggered experience.  There are things that Henry does that he means no harm by but can devastate me because it reminds me of being super hurt as a child.  And vice versa.  Our best route towards personal growth is to feel the feelings and remember the pain of when it first happened and honor our inner child.  NOT blame the other person.  This is unbelievably hard, but something we’re both committed to working on!  At some point this year, we’re also planning to read “The Four Agreements” by Paulo Coelho – highly recommend.  The agreements are below.

We’re also going to put time into our blog.  We’ve had great advice along the way about posting videos, about starting a forum so people can post questions that others can answer.  We have so many things to write about too.   All we’ve done since we started this is just write.  About whatever was happening right then.  That’s OK, but there’s SO much to share!!

And lastly, we’re going to spend more time improving our sex life.  Being 56, I’ve gone through menopause and have found sex to be quite painful in the last year or so.  Plus, my body is super sensitive to pharmaceuticals and supplements so although I’ve tried hormones, I seem to react badly to them in one way or another.  Add to that some deep emotional wounds around sex that interfere with my mental ability to really enjoy intimacy.  Whew!!!  Big mess.  Big mess.  I cry about it a lot.  Or try to avoid it because it’s so complex and I’m just not sure what to do about it!

But man o man, my Henry is one hell of a guy.  He’s so patient and persistent with me.  He thinks I’m so sexy and tells me almost every day.  He loves me too much to let me ignore this.  He knows I have the tenacity to work through even the toughest challenges and has asked me if we can work together on this one.

I’m pretty sure that in the end I’ll be glad we did 🙂

Isn’t it great that once upon a time, Henry answered my text?