Yeah, I’m doing that whole looking back at the year behind us, and looking forward to the year ahead sort of thing today. Bear with me, I haven’t written a blog post in several months. I’m a bit rusty.

All in all, 2012 was a pretty good year for us. It was the year my father fought and beat cancer a second time. It was the year we were finally able to move our family out of our tiny house in our beloved small rural town, and into a bigger place in a Des Moines suburb. It was the year I got to work on some top priority projects at my day job, got to do some more international travel, and worked very hard on my assignments. It was the year I decided to finally focus on my art and try to not only continue to increase my skill, but also attempt to turn it into a functional side business. We may have run into money problems a couple of times during the year, but we always managed to dig our way out, through persistence, sacrifice, and help from our friends and family. Our kids are healthy, happy, growing, and learning (still at home!), and our family is strong and successful in all the ways that matter.

And from the looks of it, 2013 will likely turn out to be more of the same. I plan to focus even harder on improving my art and accelerating my business, and I’ve added new tools over the past couple of weeks that will help me do that. I’ve got some great projects in the works for next year, and I’m looking forward on completing some tasks and moving on to new challenges. Our family will continue to be focused on love and commitment, and we look forward to seeing spring at the new place.

The past year is one where I feel like many of our family’s hopes and dreams that we had been struggling for years to accomplish were finally fulfilled. It was a fight to get here, but it was one that was worth fighting, and one that we ultimately won. I have a feeling 2013 will have new struggles of its own, but will again be rewarding in all the ways we want it to be, with maybe a few surprises here and there.

So, here’s to an excellent 2013. May you shine as bright as I like to imagine you will.