Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Rejoice in the New Year!

Wow, I cannot believe 2013 is here!  I am fighting the urge to feel a little behind.  It took some prayer, and many revisions of this post to decide that my word for 2013 will be rejoice!  It took me so long to decide, that I don’t have a button yet.  But that is coming.  I chose that word because joy, rejoicing, and thankfulness for God’s blessings are at the top of my list of goals for 2013.  Honestly, it is an area that I have been lacking in greatly in the past.  And a goal I have made for myself but not followed through.  I have a lot of other goals, but I am going to keep joy the big one. 

My word for 2012 was consistency.  I am not exactly feeling like I did very well on that one.  But it is a new year!  And our God is a God of new beginnings because of His grace and Jesus’ blood on the cross, each day is new.
So what happened in my life in 2012?  I have quite a list.
My husband finished classes for his Masters at the University of Washington
He got a job in Ohio
We bought a bigger car so our whole family would still fit after the baby was born.
My brother-in-law got married and we drove from Seattle to Redding for the wedding.
We drove across country with three kids, two dogs, and all of our stuff while I was 34 weeks pregnant
We bought a house and moved to Ohio
We gave birth to our second son (fourth child)
Miss Froggie started middle school!
Jujube started preschool
I started this blog
We celebrated 16 years of marriage

I am actually hoping that 2013 is slightly less eventful.  So besides joy, I want to focus on being present in the moment, building relationships with God, family, and friends, and doing things that matter. On a spiritual level, the things that God is doing are things that matter.  I want miss as few of those opportunities as possible.  I've already missed far too many.  But I think God often presents us with these opportunities in the midst of our "work".  Whatever it is He has given us to do.  So what has he given me to do?   He has given me a body to care for, a husband to help, kids to raise, and a household to run, and a blog to write.  That leads to some work!
 I want to be faithful.  Faithful to God, faithful to the work He has given me.  But I am also working out how to not miss my life.  I don’t want to miss the moments that cannot be redone by being busy with things that do not matter.   Places where you cannot catch up later.  You cannot build a relationship in an afternoon.  I cannot today exercise all day and make up for missed time at the gym in 2012.  However, I could in a day or two make up for almost any missed house cleaning activities.  I want to prioritize 2013 according to moments I cannot get back.  So far my list of things that fall into this category are:

Prayer
Relationships
Exercise
Sleep

I'm sure there are more, but I cannot think of what they are.  Please fill me in on other areas. But, not too many.  Just these four will leave me little time for dishes and laundry not to mention other household tasks.  These two are in a second category.  I can put them off for a while and then play catch up.  But at some point we have to have dishes and clothes.  I can also delegate these more frequently than I have been.

I don't know about you, but I have to start my day with the most important things on my to do list.  If I don't, they are likely to not get done.  The baby is pretty good at playing by himself right after he first gets up.  The rest of the day it is very unlikely that I will get uninterrupted time.  I am able to do my Bible reading while nursing the baby.  I would really increase the amount of time I spend praying while doing household chores.  So if you have any ideas on how to do this please PLEASE leave me a comment.  For now I think I will try to start the day in prayer and then attempt to continue the conversation as much as possible throughout the day.

As a part of Rejoicing, I am planning to take the joy dare this year.  I am still working out how I will share my three things a day.  I also want to do some scripture memory. And I’m working our whether I can read the whole Bible in a year while doing these other things well.  So prayer, Joy, scripture memory, and Bible reading will help me build my relationship with God.
Relationships with family and friends.  I will intentionally schedule time for relationships and work on just being present.  Any ideas in this area will be very appreciated as well.

As for my body, God’s temple: I'm going to try to exercise 90 minutes a week.  So 15-30 minutes a day most days of the week.  When the weather is cold or yucky, I will do Wii Fit. And when it’s nice I'll push the boys to the park in the jogging stroller. And I have to figure out the whole sleep thing…which is a challenge.  I also haven't figured out what the rhythm of my day is going to be like.  I am going to keep blogging four or five days a week.  But I think I will only tackle big research posts once or twice a month.  You'll likely see more posts about what is going on in my life and how I am doing on the goals I've set for the year.
 In my mind, this blog can bring God glory in two different ways.  One is by encouraging other women.  Second, God often speaks to me while I am writing.  Hopefully, I am able to do both at the same time.
And my biggest question for 2013 is whether I will try to get a part time job next fall.  I have no answers from God so far.  So I will keep praying for His answer and what will bring Him the most glory.  

4 comments:

  1. Hey there! Thanks for linking up! My hubby is an NP- Ortho. ;) So I can relate well to your blog. Love these goals- let's do it! :)

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  2. Thanks Rachel. Yes, let's do it! Ortho NP huh? That's awesome.

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  3. Thanks for stopping by NPmom! Your family is beautiful and it looks like you had a great 2012 as well. May 2013 bring us laughs, more joy and a lot of great reads :)

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    1. Thanks Mrs Dr Looze. May 2013 be as you said :)

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