Hello 2024

Here's my goals for 2024.

Continue the good habits I've created | Budgeting, meal and grocery planning, Bible reading, reading, bread making 

Declutter | Over the last few months, I've been decluttering. Slowly, but surely. This year, I need to focus on my craft room. It really overwhelms me. There's so much craft stuff and it also becomes a catch-all. (There's currently a ton of laundry from our mission trip, a Christmas tree I had to move in there because our wobbly cat kept knocking it over, and a pile of laundry I need to iron, not to mention TOO MUCH FABRIC.) I've wanted to sew today but don't want to dodge the things. This is a problem, which makes it a priority. I don't want to be overwhelmed by stuff anymore. 

Actually stick to a home cleaning program | This has been on my list for years. And maybe I don't actually need it. I feel like the house is usually in an okay-ish state and, honestly, that's enough for me. But I wouldn't mind it being in a more okay state. I created a document today that is a cleaning program I used years ago. Now I just gotta give it a shot!

Paint the living room | The living room paint is worse for wear. AND it's gray. It's a rental, but we're here longterm and we're allowed to paint. I want to go with a light pink/beige color. I'm honestly intimidated to get the wrong color, but I need to just go for it and refresh the living room. So this year... we paint the room pink! (And also probably repaint the trim because it NEEDS it.)

Add one more thing to my grocery list | I've got someone in my life who has fallen on rough times and has been relying on the food pantry. I'm so glad there are programs designed to help people in need. I want to help, but we live on a small budget. I wondered, "How can I help people when my budget is already stretched thin?" And I decided that I can buy one thing each week to put into a local blessing box. It's not much, but perhaps over the year it will add up to help others. It will also be my personal reminder that God has blessed me, and I will bless others. Even when I don't feel like I have a lot, I have more than enough, and I want to share that with others. 

Crafting | I'd like to finish the Works in Progress as a way to fulfill my "decluttering." And make 12 NICU quilts.

Reading | Let's start with a goal of 50 and see how things go.

Adoption | Raise enough funds to officially start the adoption progress (we were told we need to have $10,000 before we get started so we can do the first steps of the process). And, well, hopefully even more so we can really get the ball rolling. Once we get our home study done, I'd like to apply for grants to help with funding.

Marriage | Implement date night again. We used to be so good at this and I'm not sure when we fell off the bandwagon. Life's been so busy and, with a tight budget, we're not really able to go do "fun" stuff. I guess I lost my momentum. We need to get the ball rolling again, though.

Spiritual | Continue my study through the Bible and have grace with myself when it feels like I'm going slowly. Strengthen my prayer life. Write SALT lessons (I think about praying using The Lord's Prayer as a template). As for Sabbath, I do like not getting on social media once I'm home from church. 

Other things I'd like to do more of but will have to make a plan for implementing:

- spend more time outside 
- spend more time OFF phone (listen to that book)

Goodbye 2023

Well, obviously blogging was not a priority this year. But that's fine.

I've realized that I really like coming back to read my end and beginning of the year posts. The other day I was reading one and realized that I've actually made progress in several areas in my life over the past few years. In the day-to-day, I don't necessarily see the progress--it sometimes takes reflecting over the years. 

So I want to continue the tradition. Here's some of the areas I wanted to focus on in 2023 and how it's going.

Budgeting | I feel like I'm in a pretty good spot here. Once I got my systems in place, things run pretty smoothly. I made a few changes this year to make things run even more smoothly, and I know there's room for improvement, but I think that slow changes are just fine as long as it's working for me. 

Meal Planning/Grocery Shopping | I think this is inevitable because we live on a pretty tight budget. Again, I've got a system that works for me, so this has been pretty smooth as well. I'm really proud of that, because a few years ago, it was more difficult. I know we're in a season where it doesn't actually require much planning--I only cook a few times a week and we eat on leftovers a lot. I think it will become more important to meal plan and will require some adjustments once we have kids, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Reading my Bible | I started out the year strong with the plan to read my Bible AND a commentary in one year. About halfway through the year, I realized I felt burnt out on so much deep reading. Some days I'd spend three hours doing my Bible studying, and my brain felt like mush afterwards. I asked myself: What's more important? Reading my Bible in a year again? Or to enjoy my time studying the Word? It's more important to me to continue studying, so I took off the time limit. I now only read about a chapter a day, but I get more out of it and don't find myself dreading it. I have no idea how long it will take me to complete the entire Bible, and that's okay. I've learned SO MUCH this year and have a much better understanding of the Word of God (particularly the history of Israel). I'm excited about my Bible reading now! 

Reading | I'm SO PROUD of myself. I read 100 books. Again. It was a bucket list item for me when I did it in 2021 and I figured I'd never do it again, but I've been reading a ton. I realized I was reading a lot on my 10-year-old iPad that could bite the dust at any moment, so I decided to splurge on a Kindle. I love it so much. It travels so well and I love reading one-handed when I'm sleepy at night. I haven't yet thought about my 2024 reading goal, but I will probably start with a smaller one like I did last year.

Move More | lol. I've gone for a 30 minutes walk the last two days. Does that count? We did get bikes but don't use them as much as I was hoping we would.

Turn Sunday into Sabbath | Also lol. I honestly usually spend my Sunday afternoon taking a three-hour nap and I do love that habit. I was recently reminded about my "no social media once I'm home" idea and did implement that a little.

Home | Wow, my specific 2023 goals were a bust. That being said, I've been reworking a cleaning program I used many years ago and I'd like to start it up again.

Decluttering | This was not on my 2023 list (but will be on my 2024 list), but I started decluttering a few months ago. I did a massive kitchen reset by moving EVERYTHING in my kitchen into my guest room and only bringing things back in the kitchen when I needed to use it. Honestly, my guest room still has a lot of kitchen things, and I need to go in there and decide what I'm keeping and getting rid of. I've made a great start, but there's still a long way to go.

Bread Making | I think it was January or February when I decided I wanted to start making our sandwich bread. I found a recipe I like and it's been going really well! I bought a few loaves of bread but I think they were all for the kids at church. I'd like to eventually make all my own bread products, but I'm okay if it takes a while to get there. I gave a shot at flour tortillas (they were good) and took a croissant class this year! I always make my own biscuits but the thing I feel like is hardest to give up is crescent rolls, especially for quick and easy meals. Maybe one day I'll get there, but for now, I'm really happy with my breadmaking!

Crafting Goals
- I completed finished my Fresh as a Daisy quilt and love it so much.
- I finished the blocks for Picnic in the Park and assembled the top.
- t-shirt quilt - I've had Casey pull my shirts out of storage several times only to put them back
- Started and finished the top for Summer Pop
- I quilted the Happy Quilt
- I made two quilts that I raffled off to raise funds for our mission trip (strawberry quilt and Harvest Days)
- I completed four quilts that I donated to the local NICU. (I just received a photo the other day of one of them on an iso unit.) I love making these and am so glad a lady in my church told me about it! They are quick, fun, and I can try new things. And it allows me to "give back" my gift to bless others, which is something I asked God to open doors for.
-I made several ties through the year and sold some to raise funds for our mission trip.

Adoption process | We spent this year researching adoption agencies and having online meetings to learn more about them. We've got an agency picked! So in 2024 we begin the fundraising so we can officially begin the process!

Foster Kittens | We've been fostering kittens for a local rescue since 2020 and this year we fostered 55 kittens and one dog (twice). We might have also adopted another cat. 

Wrap up | 2023 has been better than 2022 was, but I still find myself worrying more than I should about things. At the beginning of the year, I decided "joy" would be my word of the year. I think I still have more to learn in that category, so I'll be going forth with it in 2024 as well.