2014

Well, it’s a new year.

On all the blogs I follow, the trend this year seems to be to throw New Year’s resolutions out the window. I feel like this happens every year, though. New Year’s resolutions: either team DO IT or team NOT WORTH MY TIME/ENERGY/I-FAIL-EVERY-YEAR-ANYWAYS.

I am 100% team DO IT. I love lists. Any excuse to make a list/goals is totally my thing. I make a to-do list every day (there are some great smartphone apps for that!), and sometimes I even include ridiculous things, like shower, just so I can cross that off my list. So when the New Year rolls around, I absolutely love another reason to make some goals.

First, I dug out my journal from last year, and I checked out some of the goals that I had for the year:

– Do a chore everyday I’m not entirely sure what I meant by this, but I did a pretty good job of creating a chore schedule and sticking with it.

– Cook dinner at least 6x a week Well, I probably cooked dinner 7x a week most weeks of the year, but certainly not all.

– Run a marathon Score. Check. Done and done.

– Pray for at least 1 person/day I wish I had been better at this one. When I sit down to pray, I have a list of people to pray for, but I certainly did not do that on a daily basis.

– Begin the process of adoption. A year ago, when I wrote that resolution, the picture in my head is totally different than where we are today. We have most certainly begun the process, although it happens to be the process of foster care, not necessarily adoption. Through several different books that I read, we felt led to begin the foster care process, and maybe be able to adopt from the foster care system. And, yes…we have our home study next Friday. So that process is certainly underway.

– Graduate Cedarville with honors. Check. And make that high honors.

So, I didn’t do the best, but I probably did better at most of those tasks than if I hadn’t written them out at the beginning of the year.

This year, 2014, has more in store for us than we can even imagine! I am so excited to embark on the journeys that this year will bring us. One thing that we are doing is a year-long fast. After reading Jen Hatmaker’s book, 7,  I decided I wanted to do something similar. Jen Hatmaker chooses 7 things that are in excess in her life and spends one month fasting from each of them. I highly recommend her book.

Theo and I decided to change things a little bit, but to fast from something different each month of the this year. We picked 12 things and then assigned them to a month. Some months will be really tough, some months will be easier, some months will probably be harder than we would expect.

Here is our layout:

January: Fast from Spending (We can spend money for groceries (at Aldi ONLY), gas, and bills- including medical ones).

February: Fast from Music (No music in the house, car, etc.)

March: Fast from Media (No Facebook, Pinterest, Netflix, Hulu, online gaming, etc. I’m still debating whether or not I will blog)

April: Fast from Possessions (Giving away what we do not need/use, and giving it directly to people in need of those items, not just a Goodwill dump)

May: Fast from Electricity (this one was all Theo’s idea! We are still debating whether we will cheat and use the oven/fridge and an outlet for charging our phones…but we have a couple months to decide. We do want to cook over our fireplace as much as possible that month, and no lights/fans/AC, washer/dryer or heat. Internet will be allowed, but only if we go to a different location with Internet, like Barnes and Noble or Panera)

June: Fast from Waste (use compost, recycle, buy Fair Trade/organic/local)

July: Fast from Stress (take a legitimate day of rest on Sundays, spend time in prayer 7x a day, at certain hours)

August: Fast from Clothing (Choose several articles of clothing, and only wear those for a month. We are still working out the details on this one.)

September: Fast from weekend commitments (just spend time as a family)

October: Fast for Hospitality (it’s not really a fast, but something that we really want to work on- so October we will be focusing on opening our home in very intentional ways- more to come on that)

November: Fast from Food (Still working out the details on this one, too, but there will be certain things that we will be forfeiting for the month. I don’t think it will be as extreme as a Daniel Fast, but something along the lines of going without sugars, or spices or other things that we are blessed to use on a daily basis, but that we take for granted)

December: Fast from Personal Bad Habits (Theo and I are doing this together, and we both have bad habits that we would like to break. Mine would probably by my iPhone or Facebook, but Theo’s would be totally different…so we are going to pick two personal bad habits and fast from them for the month).

Phew! There is a lot to look forward to, and a lot to plan for in the upcoming year! I am excited and nervous and really praying that God uses this year in our lives to grow us more like Him, and to grow our marriage to become more like a picture of Christ and the Church.

I also added a few more goals to the list:

– Read through the Bible at least 1x

– Start making money blogging

– Pay off all school loans and be DEBT-FREE!!!!

– Finish cooking through a cookbook

– Write at least 1 handwritten letter/note a week

– Log 300 miles of running/walking