Goals

It's been a long, busy, full, and emotional month. Lots of loved ones going through some very difficult things. Lots of exhaustion from the awesomeness of a house full of mostly healthy kids going on for others, including me. Two (No) Snow Days. A birthday. Lots of things.

I am working on an art project for my goals, but it's taking it's time so I'm going to list them here for now.

My 2014 Goals
Focus on homemaking not housekeeping. - Obviously the former requires some of the latter, but it's not the most important part. Jeff and I both want to make our home a cozier, warmer, more welcoming place. We've gotten started and I'm very excited about the plans we have for this year. And, of course, you can't focus on homemaking without focusing on the people in the home.

Be a soft place to land. - For my kids especially, but also for friends, family, Jeff, and even myself. Softening both my words and my tone are where I need to start.

Buy things that do good. - There are so many ways to do this: support small businesses and artisans, shop secondhand, buy things that are ethically sourced and produced, buy products that give back to charities, and probably lots of other ways!

Eat cleaner. - I have a mission this year to find at least one vegetable per child that they will eat without too much fuss. And I will totally count green smoothies. :)

Self-care. - Reading, exercise, sleep, creative time, and actual hair cuts every now and then are all on my agenda. So far, I've read 2.5 books, made time for yoga, gone to bed before midnight many nights, and stepped up my water intake.

Connect with the Word. - I want to do a way better job reading the Bible regularly, but I also want to study, to memorize, to discuss it. Put in place family rituals and seek out fellowship to help our family grow together in this.

Play. - With the kids and without them. Dance, sing, laugh, be ridiculous, run, color, be more spontaneous, look for adventure in every day.

Learn to speak the love language of each person in my family. - The kids don't care if I lovingly paired all their socks, cleaned the bathroom, and picked up dog poo in the yard so they can play. They will. (You know, when they have kids.) And I'm not going to stop doing those things! But it doesn't count to them and it's important that I make them feel loved. And I think Jeff and I are pretty good at being awesome for each other, but 11 years in is a great time to be even awesomer. ;)

Have less stuff. - Abundance is one thing, excess is another. We need to share. This ties directly into so many (maybe all) of my other goals.

Connect more with others and be more hospitable. - We need to get out more and also have more people over, host-stress be darned. Also reach out to those in need, awkwardness be darned.

Trade feelings of scarcity for gratitude, worry for prayer, and feelings of urgency for peace. - If all else fails, sing show tunes until I can't remember what the issue was in the first place.

Do one important thing every day. - If I can do one important thing every day, one thing worth making time for, one intentional thing, then that's enough.

Happy February, y'all.

Posts with way more pictures and way less talking coming soon!

Enough

Happy 2014! I hope you had a great first day of the year! I went to the grocery store without children, did yoga in my living room with no one climbing on me, called a good friend, made cards, did a little home remodel dreaming with my husband, and hung out with the kids. It was simple beautiful and enough. 

Enough is my word for the year. I'm not exactly sure how to express why I picked this word. I read Brene Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection last year (so awesome, read it in a day, bought it) and in the chapter on gratitude and joy she says that we fall asleep thinking of all the things we didn't get done and wake up thinking about how we didn't get enough sleep. SO ME. Scarcity pervades my thoughts. There's not enough time, money, sleep, quiet, energy, joy. Sometimes I'm just not enough. But the whole book starts off by talking about how people who live their lives with their whole hearts do so because they believe that they are enough. No matter what. That you have to believe it in order to really love the people around you. And I think it's true.

So I've decided that there is reality and there is truth. Reality is I will never be enough/have enough/do enough. The truth is I'm enough already. I'm enough like the loaves and fishes, on my own not enough to feed many, but through faith enough to feed everyone present. Nothing extra, but enough. And because of that truth I can kill the scarcity in my head. And good riddance, too!

So my vision for this year is to stop worrying about not enough. To start living as though there is time for what's important because there is and to stop wasting time on what isn't important because ain't no one got time for that. And what is important to me? To make sure that my kids know that they are enough to me, right now, just as they are. To teach them compassion and boundaries and a love of service by modeling it for them. To realize that I have more than enough things already and that it doesn't matter how awesome, cute, or great a deal whatever I'm thinking about buying is if there's no darn place to put it in my house. To get rid of our excess so that we have enough, but not tons more. (Pretty sure the Bible says if you have an extra shirt give it away not buy 8 more on sale.) To make time for yoga and hair brushing and Bible reading and pushing kids on swings. To make our home beautiful with love and art and things that have meaning not just random stuff that was on sale at Target. To have energy for dance parties and patience for eight loads laundry because people want to pour their own juice. To shop ethically, from secondhand stores, small businesses, and places that do good work. To feed our bodies good food. To not be a slave to the urgent. To do more things that fill me up. To notice the good as much or more than the bad. To encourage people.

I'm saying yes to books, to crafting, to singing, to going outside, to play food picnics, to trying new recipes, to yoga, to people, to playdates, to bringing food to people even though it makes me really nervous, to sending cards, to dinner parties, to budgets, to building rituals even when it's awkward, to decluttering, to dates, to being still.

I'm saying no to comparison, to shopping for the heck of it, to lots of sugar, to worry and anxiety, to free cell - is it ever really fun?, to my own crazy expectations, to judgment, to gossip, to being passive aggressive. And I hope to diapers. Because she'll turn 3 this year. It's time.

That is quite enough for now. I'm not used to being this wordy. :) Check out Lara Casey's posts on goal setting for 2014 so you can write your own mini-novel! It really is great stuff.