Well, Hello There, New Year!

It’s been awhile. I’m sorry about being so MIA (“busy” is not an adequate word to describe our holiday season), but we’re back in action now and have loads in store for this month. And this week, too! 🙂  BUT FIRST, some New Year’s Resolutions. I’m not usually one for setting these, but instead of thinking of them as something that I can’t break, I’m going to think of them as things I want to grow in or do better with. Not all is lost if mistakes happen along the way- I’ll just slowly try and work towards them. I have a few that are personal, a few that are blog-ish, and a few that relate to my work.

1. (Personal) Finish my night looking at a book, not at a screen. I used to LOVE reading (still do, actually) and read ALL THE TIME. It’s how I fell asleep and how I spent most waking free moments. Since the smart phone though, real pages have been replaced with screen scrolling. I was aware that this temptation would be there when I first got the phone a few years ago and always figured I’d never be one of those people with their face in their phone all the time… but habit changing is a slow fade that you don’t always realize is happening.

It got to the point where my spare moments were spent checking a screen instead of enjoying other aspects of life. My bedtime routine would drag out hours longer than before as I got wrapped up in scrolling through Facebook or worse, Pinterest. While I enjoy those things, I missed reading. Falling asleep in the middle of a story. I even found that I wasn’t sleeping as soundly and I was getting headaches. So this year, I’m putting the phone down at night and picking up a book. And guess what? It’s only a been a short time into this new habit and I’ve been flying through books… feels good to be back. 🙂

2. (Work) Give lesson planning more of my time and energy. Youth Ministry is a beast with many moving parts that all need attention (and “immediately” in most cases). With all that keeps me busy, I was finding that planning Youth Group lessons were getting further and further down on my priority list. Well, no more- time to intentionally carve out time for that.

3. (Personal) Drink five large cups of water every day. I just got a new large cup-with-straw combo for Christmas (thanks, Ally and Clint!) and it spurred me to try and do a better job of staying hydrated during the day.

4. (Blog) Decide if February will be the end of an era or if we’ll press on. Originally, I started this blog because it was something on my bucket list: Start and maintain a blog for a year. February 15th is the one year mark! So the question on the table is: do I chalk it up to a bucket list item fulfilled or do we continue and see where this leads…. ???

5. (Personal) Clean the house in small bits throughout the week, not all on one day. I don’t love cleaning (shocker) so having to devote a full or even half day to it drives me nuts. But I do love a clean house. Mitch and I are working on developing a system where we do a little each day (vacuuming on one day, dusting the next, putting away piles another, etc.) so the house is pretty much clean all the time and it doesn’t take forever to undo a week’s (or longer) worth of damage. PS. The picture below is a shot of when we bought our first vacuum cleaner… I didn’t believe my mom at first when she told me it’d be an essential purchase. She was so right. 🙂

6. (Personal) Find an accountability friend. Someone to talk with about my faith, someone who will give me reality checks I need when I need them. Someone who will challenge me to nurture my faith and call me out when I can be doing better.

7. (Work) Try new games at Youth Group. Sometimes we get stuck doing the same games over and over again at Youth Group. Boooooring. Time to shake it up a bit.

8. (Personal) Make some healthy changes. Better foods, more water, more exercise. Exercise that is fun. I’ve been participating in quite a few workout classes at the Y over the past few months and they are such fun! I’m dripping sweat by the end and they are just so much more fun than running. Thank goodness because I’m a horrible runner! I want to fully invest in getting back to the healthiest version of myself. #tabatakickboxingzumba #qualityoflife

9. (Personal) Work on a Family Yearbook. I have all of last year’s photos categorized by month- time to get them into a book!

10. (Personal) Have at least one planned adventure and one unplanned adventure this year. I don’t think that one needs any more explaining. 🙂

So what are your goals this year? Are you a resolution- maker? Apparently most New Year’s Resolutions are broken by January 10th. Yikes… hopefully, I’ll still be reading before bed on the 11th. 🙂