Intentions for 2008

The very first blog to which I became addicted was Loretta Marvel's Pomegranates and Paper. Today, she has challenged her readers to make a list of intentions for the New Year and to blog about it. I started out with the title "2008 Intentions" which makes sense to me but I soon realized that that was a LOT of intentions! So, here's a shorter list!

#1 - I intend to write a lot more clearly and will try for not only clear, but concise writing!

I always feel that the New Year is much more a new beginning to me than I imagine it is for others. My birthday was yesterday, December 30th, so the New Year is a big marker of beginning and renewal for moi, Daddy's Little Tax Deduction! In a way, it is of lesser importance and kind of merges into one big three-day celebration, usually marred by a bit of work today, New Year's Eve.

#2 - I intend to see work as something joyful again. A challenge to be taken up, chewed up, spit out, and thoroughly mastered in the way I used to see it.

#3 - I intend to gain a more thorough understanding of my changed priorities and to balance them better with the things I have to do whether I want to or not!

#4 - I intend to make some pretense of cleaning the house or get someone else in to do it for me!

#5 - I intend to make dinner at home once in a while and save the $40 difference in cost.

#6 - I intend to make more art while learning to use my new Bernina 435 EL.

#7 - Tempis fugit! I intend to waste less of it!

#8 - I intend to be on time with my projects.

#9 - I intend to get off my ass and exercise!

#10 - I intend to get my MINI Cooper S Sidewalk this year or bust. Here's MizBunny with my boys sitting there waiting for mommy to help them escape to Colorado!

And, having spouted about a couple of the things I want, I should remind you as well as myself that I've long believed that wanting is often better than having in regard to the accumulation of things. While reading others' blogs today, I came across this quote:

"We tend to forget that happiness does not come
as a result of getting something we don't have
but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have."

-- Frederick Koening

A project I started earlier this year was a journal of gratitude, the things for which I am grateful. The journal is private but some of the entries are:

• A wonderful relationship with my own true love, known to you all as The Sports Fan


• A fun, crazy, loving family - and especially


• My 94 year old mother whom I have enjoyed this year more than any other


• All the dogs in my life, past and present: Laddie, Timmie, Parker, Dukie, Bandit, Blue, Gretel, Brownie, Katie, my beloved Jasper (aka My Dapper Dog for whom my website is named), Tinker, Shea, and finally our own two boys who have been with us for a year and two days now, Cody and his son, Chance


• Good, fun, loving friends


• That snow exists even if it isn't in my life right now...


• Relatively good health


• And best of all: Happiness

And I wish all of you, my lovelies, success, however you define it, and much happiness for 2008 and beyond!