And when she said she planned to blog in the new year... she probably didn't realize that she would be working 50 hour work weeks for the first two weeks of 2012...

Officially the longest blog title. Ever in the history of Thoughts from the Deep Recesses.

Yes. Work has been insane.

You see, Weight Watchers is opening new stores all over the country. And my store - the store I am the Location Coordinator of opened January 2nd. After being told it would open January 9th. And then January 4th. And then a wedding on New Year's Day in Portland when my nephew married his beautiful bride, Annie.

And then our computers weren't working at the new store. And that was a crazy experience, processing the crowds and crowds of new year's resolutions join-ers... without the convenience and speed of our computer system.

And of course, I volunteered to oversee our Housewarming event. Which was last Saturday.

And now, this week is what I think is actually going to be a 'normal' work week.

And now, I can blog.

Twenty-twelve.

For the first time in four years, I don't have a MAJOR goal for the new year.

I have lots of goals... like eating five servings of fruits and vegetables every day... and running another half marathon... and continuing to be very purposeful about giving things away and saving for another trip to Sierra Leone in 2013...

But no hard and fast "I've got to accomplish this this year or I'll consider myself a failure."

I did those, you know, the past three years...

• 2009 - walk every day
• 2010 - not buy any new clothes all year long
• 2011 - walk/run/bike/log at least 500 miles of activity

This year I'm taking a more relaxed approach. More of an 'I'm going to strive for these things... but I'm also going to be flexible this year' approach.

Last year was awesome... what with the trip... and the running... and the accomplishing those two huge goals.

But it was also pretty rigid.

We didn't travel at all - except for the 3 1/2 weeks we were gone. While the trip was amazing, not getting out of town for anything besides that was hard... we didn't see our family as much as we like. I didn't get to do any 'girlfriend' trips.

And the running thing - I was so afraid to fail my first attempt at running that I was completely anal about my training regime... and got really burnt out in the weeks before the half marathon... to the point where I just couldn't wait to get it over with.

So this year, I'm all about flexibility.

Sure, I hope to run another half... but this time I will be sure to incorporate some cross training.

And yes - Asia and I are planning another trip to Sierra Leone next year - which means we need to continue to be very intentional with our money and careful not to spend too much on other travel... but we've got some things up our sleeves and are looking forward to several trips this year.

I'm ready for this new year. I love January - with it's fresh start and it's crisp blue skies and it's shivery newness.

What are you hoping for in 2012? I'd love to hear about it...