On my mind: 2018 can only be better

This has been a long year for my family. In fact, it seems to have been a long, hard year for many people I know.

I can't even count the number of times I have said "can 2017 just be over already" or heard something similar said by others.

My family personally experienced death over and over this year and had to say goodbye more times than seemed even slightly fair.

Some were expected, others were sudden and came like a punch to the gut, taking our breaths away.

Just the loss of so many loved ones would have been enough to say 2017 sucked.

Unfortunately, many other events led us to feel like no matter what we did we just kept getting knocked down.

How many times must one be brought to their knees in the course of 365 days before it is their turn to rise?

It would be easy to give up after so many set backs and there were definitely times when I wanted to.

Days where I just wanted to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head and just stay there feeling sorry for myself.

But where would that get me? Where would that get my marriage, my children's well being?

Absolutely nowhere.

With a new year being right around the corner, now is the time when most people look back on their accomplishments while also looking ahead to a new and better them in the year ahead.

I could look back and say I would never want another year like this one to happen again, however, something awesome did happen to me in the middle of the chaos of 2017.

As summer faded away and the school year was set to begin my new reality hit me.

For the first time both of my children would be in school full-time and I had the opportunity to go out and pursue my own life.

Luckily around that time the local classified section advertised an opportunity that got me more excited than I had been in a long time.

In September of this year, I was hired at the Mountain Home News as a reporter.

I have dreamed of a career in newspaper journalism since I was a very young girl and I absolutely love my job.

I guess with all the bad there is always something good. You just have to look for it, and that is what I am going to try to do in 2018.

I have set many New Year's resolutions over the years and they usually fall through by St. Patrick's Day.

Do I need to lose weight? Yes. Are there bad habits I need to break? Most definitely.

Do I need to lead a healthier lifestyle all the way around? Yes. Could I be a better wife and mother? Of course.

However, those are not the type of resolutions I will be setting this year.

This year my resolution comes down to one word: gratefulness.

In 2018 I will remember to be grateful for what I have.

Grateful to open my eyes every morning, grateful for my children, for my husband, our animals, the roof over our heads, the flowers in my yard.

Just grateful to see each new day arrive.

Hopefully by being grateful I will find true happiness to balance out all the negativity of 2017, and with that those normal resolutions of losing weight, giving up bad habits and living a healthier lifestyle will fall into place naturally.

Because who doesn't want to prolong that happiness as long as possible by being healthy?