The Man Crew: Word of the Year

Showing posts with label Word of the Year. Show all posts

Thursday, January 3, 2019

My Word For The Year: 2019

Do YOU have a word for the year, or a motto, or a special verse? I have joined this movement in recent years and I like the idea of having an overall focus or goal for the year. However, choosing that word is sometimes difficult as I have too many ideas for what I want to work on in the coming year, or conversely, none at all. This year's pick took me a while to really settle on and I think it's a good one. In fact, I think the last several years worth of hard work have led me to it. From retiring my #PlateSpinner hashtag and replacing it with #NoLongerAPlateSpinner a few years back, learning to say ENOUGH (that one took a while) and last year's goal of Progress, it's been a circuitous route, but here I am, ready for something new.

This year, I'm focusing on me: my attitude, boundaries, and personal growth...things under MY control. I've learned so well over the last few years that my attitude as a mother and a wife truly affects my people, my job, and my home. And since it is under my control, so I should make every effort to use that to bless people. I can choose to use my powers for good or evil. I want to choose good. And so I shall.

    My word for this year is CHOOSE. I will choose to work hard, love harder and bless everyone I come across, all year long. I will choose to smile when the days are long. I will choose to speak gently in love when I feel like screaming. I will choose to pray when I feel like worrying. I will choose to take time to spend with my family. I will choose to feed my people good, nutritious meals when fast food is an easy way out. I will choose to read my Bible and spend time with Jesus, so I know where He wants me to work on me, and how He wants me to share Him with others. I will choose to make time for Dan and I to be together just for us so as we face the coming years, it will be as a team, not as two individuals pulling in opposite directions. I will choose to say no to good things, so I can save my YES for the best things.

   My goals for the year are as follows:

*Personal Health*

Fix my foot
Eat veggies 2x a day
Drop 3 sizes
Hike "A" Mountain

*Spiritual/Intellectual*

Read the New Testament
Pray from a list
Read 52 books
Serve in our church
Continue with our Community Group

*Marriage/Family*

Help The BIGS move out as they are ready
Go on 1 family weekend-camping, Grand Canyon, Cloudcroft
Continue Pizza and Movies on Sundays
Date Night with Dan monthly

*Home*

Finish garage
Repair Breakfast Nook roof
Reduce our Possessions by 30%

*Finances*

Save $1000
Stay Current on bills

*Hospitality*

Host/Attend a gathering once a month
Call a friend 1x a week
Send a handwritten note 1x a month

*Homeschool*

Finish the 2018-2019 school year well, complete our curriculum AND our 180 days with good attitudes and good grades (focus on comprehension, not completion simply for the sake of completion)
Enjoy our summer break filled with outdoor fun, lots of reading, and family time
Start the 2019-2020 school year on time, and work hard to make progress all year long

*Travel*

Visit IL to see #BabyThea soon after her birth and celebrate #BabyCaden's 2nd birthday (His hashtag will become #ToddlerCaden)
Send Dan to IL for Mambo's 80th birthday
Visit Laura Hepker in Austin
Visit Cindy in Phoenix
Start saving for a family trip to IL in 2020

I'll try to post in once a month and update my goals. I'll try to have good news in at least one category every month. ;)

Thursday, February 1, 2018

January Update on 2018 GOALS

As promised, here is the GOALS update I am aiming to share at the beginning of each new month. I won't bored you with every single detail, but an overall summary about how each goal is coming along. Updates will be in a color other than black. If there is no update in that area, I'll just skip it until there is progress in that area.
Without further ado,
Spiritual:

Make a new habit of praying WITH Dan as often as he is willing. We only managed a time or two this month, but starting new habits is a challenge, and praying with each other requires us to be particularly vulnerable, so I'm looking forward to growth in this area as the year passes.
Read the Bible every day. I did NOT do well in this area last month, but I'm committed to doing better this coming month. I have my 21 days devotional from church at my bedside ready to go for Monday.
Make a prayer list and pray more often and more specifically. I don't have a written list yet, but I have been praying more.

Health:

Instead of specific numbers/servings/grams, etc. I am adopting a eat-to-live attitude instead of my usual live-to-eat policy. I'm trying to pack simple healthy lunches each day, get more veggies in than in the past, and make sure I get my water every day. By end of year, I want to be able to hike Dripping Springs, A Mountain and Aguirre Springs. That's it. I did really well on this challenge, especially since we were doing a Pantry Challenge this month. I packed simple lunches, drank tons of water and reminded myself often that I didn't need to acquiesce to every craving. It was too chilly and I was too ill for much of the month to do much hiking, but the forecast for the next week looks amazing!

Books:

Read 52 books (or approximately one per week) hopefully along these lines
- 6 marriage 2 In progress
- 2 financial
- 10 novels 1 In progress
- 1 magazine subscription
- 2 gov't 1 In progress
- 3 history
- 10 read-alouds with DT 1 In progress
- 2 book club choices 1 In progress
- 1 spanish
- 10 Christian Living
- 10 books that I had on my list from last year
  No wonder I'm always scatterbrained, I'm reading 6 books at a time! LOL!

Family:

Start eating together at the table at least twice a week We managed about 1 meal per week, which is about 1 more per week than normal, so...progress
Get away together for at least one long weekend and 4-one day trips I'm starting to plan a small weekend away for Dan's birthday later in February.
DE-CLUTTER the whole house. I mean it. For reals. This month saw Dan, Derek and I all go through our drawers and closets, the spare bedroom closet and the linen closet all got an overhaul and we took 6 garbage bags of clothes/linens to the thrift store that we love.

Cultural/Social:

Attend one cultural/social activity per month that's inexpensive or free~ Game Night does not count, no matter how much we love it This month I saw The Lesters in concert with Mom, went to a paper crafting event with Amanda, had lunch with Jody and Ruby, and toured the local art museum with DT.
Attend 1-2 BIG events this year (Newsies, Lion King, TobyMac, etc)
Participate in #NoPantsApril2018 and #100HappyDays

Personal:

Wear Make Up 1-2 times per week Being ill and the weather bringing us high winds and crazy dust kinda blew wearing make up out of the water, so I only managed this once, but once is better than none. Progress.
Slowly upgrade my wardrobe with an emphasis on high quality classics with a few trendy pieces thrown in for fun (Limit t-shirts with writing on them)
Plan meals and cook 4 times per week, plus pack healthy lunches for DT and I at work Pantry Challenge month means I cooked every meal all month long. DT and I did well on packing healthy and tasty lunches and the guys helped by eating all the leftovers.

Financial:

Get back on track once Dan gets a new job and stay current on the bills
Save 50% of my monthly earnings to start and grow our emergency savings
Tithe more generously (not just to the church, but to our community)
Pay off Dan's Honda
Put up a clothesline, repair the breakfast nook roof/ceiling, install raised garden beds in the back yard, get a coop and 4-6 chickens, and plant dwarf fruit trees along the rear fence line. (probably only 1-2 two of these will happen this year and that's OK)

I know that despite my trying to be "reasonable" with my goal setting, I've set some pretty challenging goals. And that's not a bad thing. I will try to update once a month to see how I'm progressing.
Overall, I did better than I thought I was going to this month. I'm reading, I'm praying, I'm being social/cultured, I rocked Pantry Challenge, and the house is getting decluttered. Progress...in enough areas for me to be pleased. Take that, January!

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

2018 Word and Goals for the Year

I know I'm a bit late to the party, as it's well into January already, but I wanted to share my word/motto for the year and some goals I will be working throughout the year. But first, a quick recap of 2017 goals/word.

It took me a while to determine whether I was done using the word ENOUGH, as it's been my word for a few years now. I finally decided that with 2017 fully in the rear view mirror, I was ready for a new word and new goals. I retired my #PlateSpinner hashtag in June of 2017 by retiring from the B-Bunch House after 5 years and starting a new job at LFAL. I fully embraced my new hashtag of #NoLongerAPlateSpinner just a few weeks ago by bidding my snack bar lady work trade job at Gym Magic a fond farewell and reclaiming my Saturday mornings after 8 fun-filled years. So, I'm calling 2017 a win on goals, since my only true goal of last year was to retire the plate spinner tag.

     Moving on! Hello and welcome 2018. The word I've chosen for this year is "Progress". My motto is more of the same by choosing "Progress, not Perfection" to print in my planner and on my heart all year long. I've spent too many years either in one camp or the other...exacting perfection (or beating myself up for lack thereof) or a lackadaisical Meh, close-enough-is-good-enough attitude. Neither actually work for me, or lead to a healthy balance in my life, so I think Progress is a better fit. I can give myself grace on the days where it all goes to the dogs, and encourage myself to do better when I'm not giving things enough effort to make it come together.
     As for my specific goals, I've tried to just be reasonable with myself this year. We are in a season of change. Dan is currently unemployed. I don't make enough to support us. That is stressful and requires a good portion of our attention until that resolves one way or another. PattyCakes just turned 19 and will probably move out within this year, leaving us with just one child left at home, a situation we've NEVER encountered before as even when we were young parents with only one actual child, I was nannying for 2 littles and caring for my young nephew many MANY hours a week. I've never parented ONE child before, let alone a child who has FULLY embraced his 12 and a half-ness like this one does. It's not going to a dull or boring year, that's for sure. And that's ok, I just need remember that as I attempt to be real about how many/how specific of goals I can work on while I live this life I love so much.

     So, for the nitty gritty:

Spiritual:

Make a new habit of praying WITH Dan as often as he is willing.
Read the Bible every day.
Make a prayer list and pray more often and more specifically.