Less Resolutions, More Revelations

It's that time of year again.  My once a year post on a blog I titled, 365 Days of Random.  Too bad I never get to the other 364 days.  I can tell you that they are pretty darn random, you're not missing out.

So for this post I wanted to go over my word for the year.  Each year we try to think of a word to meditate on kicks the year off and drives it through.  Last year my word was still.  Actually it was more of a short phrase, "Be Still".  The phrase comes from a bible verse, "Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).  I wanted to slow life down to be able to concentrate on what matters most and be intentional.  I can wholeheartedly say that I have done just that.  It was a very intentional year, with many moments of stillness.  It was also a happy, productive, prosperous year in growth and purpose.

My word for 2016 is REVELATION.  Though it seems my path for the past few years has been more on my spiritual journey, it relates to all things in life.  This year, I want to continue being still, slowing down, being intentional, but I also want to find true meaning, purpose and realizations in everything I do.

What is your word of the year?

In the next few days I will be reflecting on 2015 and looking forward to the revelations 2016 will bring me.

Cheers to 2016!

#goodbye2015 #hello2016

Making Resolutions

Happy New Year 2015!!!

It's that time again! My once a year post on a blog intended for 365 days of posts. Go figure.  I thought it would be most appropriate to pay a visit to my blog today.  Only fitting, being that it's January 1, 2015 and all.

2014 has been a whirlwind of a year.  It flew by faster than the speed of light.  I seriously don't even know how that happened, but here we are, another year.  As I reflect on 2014 and think through all the goals I set out to do, I resolve that it was a good year.  It's a great thing to make goals for the new year.  I know sometimes we think what's the use of making resolutions when they never last past the first week of the year, or longer for others.  Maybe it's because we were making goals that weren't realistic to achieve.  Or maybe they were goals that were too broad.

A few years back I learned how to set realistic goals for new year resolutions that I was actually able to achieve by the end of the year.  I'll give you the condensed version because it's late and I'm not a real writer so I'll probably mess up the process.

1) Start by categorizing your life.  List each aspect of your life by priority.
2) Think of a small list of goals you want to set for each category (2-3 items).  Try to keep the goal short and very specific.
3) Write this plan on a board (call it a Vision Board)
4) Place your vision board somewhere you can view on a daily basis.
5) Revisit your vision board monthly or quarterly to help keep you on track.  Make tweaks if you have to throughout the year, it's ok.

If you know me, I have a million things I want to get done in a year and a hundred areas that I need to grow in, but we all know that's not realistic.  So I put together a quick vision board for my year that's reasonable for me, considering the millions and hundred of things I want to do.  You can use it as a guide to help you kick start your list.  Whatever you do, whether it's one item or ten items on your list; make it reasonable, make it specific, review it often and be intentional.  You'll have much to reflect on come December.

It's a great thing to make goals for the new year.  It's a better thing to be able to reflect.


My 2015 Goals

God

• Be Still and work on my quiet time with God (set a time each day and start a journal)
• Build community to help others and spread God's word (host a life group)

Marriage

• Get back on track with Date Nights once a week (put it on the calendar)
• Make time nightly to catch up with a-day-in-the-life-of-Chip (even if it's at least 3 days a week)  

Motherhood

• Give encouraging love notes once a month to Raena
• Set a time each night to read with Ty 
• Schedule and plan 2 random fun family road trips to a place we have never been (not including family trips already on the calendar)

Myself

• Commit to move-it everyday (at least 20-30 minutes if not more)
• Sign up for a 5k run
• Read 10 books and finish 5 craft projects
• Set my internal biological clock 1.5 hours behind the world (be on time)

Business: Whimsical Booth

• Update Website
• Run 3 promotional ads this year 

Here's looking forward to everything 2015 has to offer!

Happy New Year All!!!

Jan. 2nd Already A Great Start

It's already a great start for the New Year. From the moment I woke up, I was proactive with event planning for my daughters Sweet 16. If you haven't signed up for Pinterest yet, I highly recommend it, but I'll talk about Pinterest in another post some other random day. In the afternoon we planned to do something different. We planned a trip to the downtown ice skating rink. One of my resolutions (I have many), is to plan more outings with the kids, more quality time with the family. It was a great time for the kiddos. Afterwards we stopped by for our holiday family tradition hot cocoa at the Fairmont Hotel. It has definitely been a great start. Tomorrow the holidays are officially over for us as the kids go back to school and I go back to work. I hope we can bounce back into normal routine with a breeze.

One random note before I sign off. Last night I was proactive as well and took the time to clean my make-up brushes. Who knew how easy it would be and such worthy results. I purchased a cleaner shamoo sometime last year, but put it off because I thought it would be so time consuming and hard. Wrong! So easy! I'm so glad to get this task out of the way and thankful for new years motivation to make me get up and just do something!

Another random note, it's hard to breathe under 3 layers of heavy blankets while typing this post on an iPhone. I'm just saying.

Happy New Year!!

I can't believe 2011 has come and gone.  Exactly one year ago from this day, I decided to start a blog of 365 days of randomness.  You can see from my last post date how well I did with the "365 days" part of the blog. Well you know what they say, if at first you don't succeed, try try try again.  And what perfect timing to try, as it is January 1st again.

There are so many random things I can say about the year 2011.  Like how the birth of this blog randomly took place last year and how I randomly posted on Facebook that I choked on my cereal while singing Someone Like You by Adele.  I just seriously randomly thought about that FB post (squirrel!).  2011 has been a blast.  It was fast, it was hectic, it was definitely lived.  This year, I'd like to slow it down some, but we will see.

Let's just stop here and say "Cheers" to 2012.  May the New Year bring love and laughter to our homes, health to our bodies, God in our hearts and prosperity throughout all aspects of our lives.

You know it's late when I have to really come up with something random to say.

Cheers to the New Year All!  And many more random days to come...

Day #4 Social Skills

How do you teach social skills? Actually, I should probably Google that? I'm having a sudden breakdown with my 4 year old son. Ok, maybe being home all day with no outside social connection may be the root cause of his actions, but I really thought this skill was more common sense. Is it not?

Day #3 First Day at Work... for the New Year

It's Monday January 3, 2011.  First day at work... for the new year.  Aw, I miss my vacation days of last week.  Fun in Vegas, baking cookies with the kids, Christmas and New Year celebrations.  Family.  Oh the good 'ol days.  Well here's to resolutions, changes and goals.  May we succeed each day going forward into 2011.

One resolution was to spend more quality time with my family.  Although work is crazy busy and I got home late (a usual work night for me), I was still able to sit and have a lovely delicious dinner with my family, have a one-on-one convo with my husband for a whole 15 minutes, and played ZINGO! with the kiddos!  Yippee.  God is good.  I am thanking God for all that I have today, for tomorrow is a new day to be grateful for.

Well, I should really start thinking of some creative fun "random" posts.  I apologize, to no one, because I have no followers at this time.  But I will work at making it better.  We have 362 more days to go!

Day #2 Sweetly Broken

Sweetly Broken by Jeremy Riddle

Random post.  That's what the blog is all about.  I may not have meaning to each day I post, or it may mean all the world.  Either way, it's random.  Here is a song from Church today.  Love it!