Bring On The New

i used to make new year resolutions. used to...not anymore. i used to put study harder, pray 5 times a day, yada yada yada. my list was as long as st nick's list. then i thought...heck it. why plan for the better once a year. if you want to be a better person, if you want to change, you can do it anytime...anywhere.

i'm a bit confused when i read resolutions that include "want to be a good mom and wife". cant you do that without waiting for the new year? are they bad mothers and wives and will continue to be so until 31 dec and then miraculously will change overnight? weird...oh well.

this year...like the previous year...i made monthly plans. monthly plans are easier to monitor, to keep track and to change (if necessary).

jan - new year, new surroundings, new budget, new mode of transportation (erk...)
feb - buy the last bit of things for eai#4
march - welcoming eai#4, in time for the retreat?
april / may - rest and getting to know eai#4 and adapting to changes he will bring; plan for eai#4's cukur jambul; not expecting a lot of ker-ching this year; hoping there's enough for new sets of curtains for my room and the tv area;
june - back to work (noooooo...);
july / august - nothing planned yet but i need to ganti 9 more days of fasting that i missed; work is usually hectic around this time;
september - another ramadhan;
october - will the holiday planned with tiza materialise?
november - hubby's ker-ching; how much will it be this time?
december - i'm planning to take a long break towards the end of the year. no holiday planned yet - unless the october holiday with tiza doesnt happen. but where to go...

i'm just wishing for a good year this year. 2008 was surprisingly good. there were hiccups here and there - unexpected pregnancy (which has become a blessing - alhamdulillah), accidents with the boys (amir's stands out the most) but generally it has been a good year. combined, both hubby's and my ker-chings, made things smoother.

we totally got rid of the evo and are now depending on only 1 - which i will also zero-rised.

we bought new furniture and fittings (totally accounting word there) for the boys' room and are slowly getting them to sleep in their room. its been working great for almost a month but of course daddy and mummy needs to be in the same room with them. hubby's been complaining that his back and head and muscles and almost everything else aches and he's been pining for his big bed.

we've also been making use of the tv area upstairs and have (almost) completely made our bedroom a no-kids zone. after 3 years of having to manouvre around kiddie toys, its a welcome change.

we upgraded our alarm system after an incident that saw the number of hubby's shoes depleting. the thief managed to get his hands on the hubby's best shoes - the total90 football boots i ordered from the UK complete with hubby's name and favourite number, the kenneth cole hantaran i gave hubby, his brand new nike trainers.

the biggest purchase we made with the B and L we got, was our new ride. just in time for eai#4. a great big surprise for the boys, which we were so excited about. alhamdulillah...this has been our biggest buy thus far and we're pretty happy with it. the purchase process wasnt great but finally, we are more comfortable...