Happy New Year Decade!

As the clock struck midnight, it was out with the old and in with the new.

Many milestones where reached in 2009: In June, Mr. Shell and I celebrated our thirteenth anniversary and Spice, our youngest, turned five. In the fall she started kindergarten.
Sugar, our oldest, went into the Seventh grade and in November she became a [GULP!] teenager.
November also marked our one year anniversary of blissful happiness in our new home. For the first time ever, we live in a neighborhood where we could put our outdoor decorations out without fear that they would grow legs and walk off. We said goodbye to our long time family dachshund, Sam. And blogging took a backseat to social networking and farming on Facebook.

As we ring in the new year, we make resolutions in hopes of accomplishing goals that, up until now, have always seemed unattainable. We tell ourselves: "This will be the year that I get myself organized." or "This year, I'm going to join that gym and get serious about my health." or how about this one, "This year, I'm going to lose weight." And all these things are said with good intentions and thoughts of starting anew, "It's out with the old and in with the new," we say. But as January winds down and the realities of life start settling back in, we realize we aren't making as much progress as we had hoped and all those good intentions usually fall to the wayside.

Not one to make a bunch of new year resolutions that are sure to be broken before the end of a full month, I will admit that I have recently felt a strong conviction towards blogging - I miss it!

For a while, I though I wanted to try my hand at writing a novel but, after many false starts, I just don't feel that I have a story in me. While I love telling stories and I love reading stories, I don't feel like I could "make up" a story that would be interesting enough for people to want to read - much less go out and buy.

To me, blogging is not the same as writing. With my blog, I can take an ever day event and spin it into a tale. While I may never be good enough to have a published novel, I can honestly say that I love telling stories. I love finding ways to take what may have started out as a negative situation and turning it into source of laughter.

I tell you all this to say: In 2010, I am resolved to make more of an effort to listen to my creative voice and tell the stories that are inside my head instead of ignoring them as I have in this last year.

One of my favorite things about myself is that I'm creative. I feel that God has blessed me with the gift of creativity and I also believe if you do not use the gifts He gives to you, He may also take them away, and I certainly don't want my creative voice to become mute. So watch out world, Shelly's blogging again and YOU may be her next victim story! ;)

I'll talk to you soon and Happy New Year :)