Fears for the New Year

During the past few weeks, I've been prepping our household for the new year.

First I tackled the budget.

I have this very fancy system for budgeting. It's called a notebook.

It's actually kind of funny that I use a notebook because I studied accounting in junior college, AND I was a financial secretary for a school before I had kids, so I have every bit of experience necessary to use technology to do my budget, and yet... the notebook wins!

I have every month of 2015 written out with pay days, due dates for bills, and all the other good stuff that requires money during the year.

Next, I tackled the calendar.

As with my budget, I have a very fancy calendaring system. It's made of paper. It hangs on the fridge.

Everything is filled in that could possibly be filled in at this point, and January is quickly overflowing with life's activities.

I'm glad I have these two lifelines ready to go for next year, but at the same time, they terrify me! There's something unsettling about looking an entire year into the future. I am relying on sameness, and at any moment, something could change drastically. I don't know if Scotty will have the same job. I don't know if we'll all be healthy. I don't know if our income will stay the same.

Anything could happen to change our course of life. Anything.

I love the transition from one year to the next - it's such a great time to be optimistic and to experience change - but it's also very scary!