Goals and Things for 2021

Hey! Happy Monday.

Sorry I fell off the map at the end of my blogmas journey but when you make a decision to an entirely DIY Christmas on Thanksgiving you tend to spend a lot of time you hadn’t planned on spending behind the sewing machine the week leading up to the big day. But everything that was created was loved and that is the important part.

So now, here we are just a few short days away from the new year and I’m not going to lie…I’m a little hesitant to consider setting any form of goals for the new year. It’s no secret that things are tough right now. The pandemic is still in full swing and while there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel considering the recent release of the vaccine and the continued health orders, that light is but a pin hole still. I have always taken time to set goals for myself as I look toward the coming year but for some reason this year has me really stumped. Nevertheless, I am going to do my best to lay out some of the things I hope to accomplish in 2021.

I tend to break my goal planning down into categories mostly so that I can know where I am headed in what areas of my life. This year my categories are:

Word of the Year: Home

Mars Hall Legacy Academy (our homeschool name)

The Well (the church my husband is pastor at)

Elizabeth (health and wellness for myself including spiritual, mental, emotional, physical)

This is Us (marriage priorities)

Each of these areas will more than likely break down into smaller categories within themselves over time but here are some overarching goals I have for each area as we move into the new year.

Word of the Year: Home

For the last several years I have chosen a word or phrase that I use to focus my life. This year I have chosen the word HOME. I write all about my chosen work Here. You are more than welcome to jump over and see why I made that choice and what I plan to do with it. The short version is this: 2020 has taught us a lot when it comes to how we view our homes. We were all forced to spend a lot more time there than anyone had anticipated and the truth is there isn’t much of an end in sight. My goal for 2021 is to make our house the home we want to be in. This includes but isn’t limited to:

Re-organizing and decluttering following a 52 week guide I have found on the interwebs

Creating and establishing easy cleaning routines that incorporate the entire family

We we become able, opening our home to those in our community as a safe haven.

Mars Hall Legacy Academy

School. This is an area that I am really wanting to get better at. Don’t get me wrong we are doing well, but there is always room for improvement. I had big hopes and dreams for field trips, park days, and exploring in 2020 and that just didn’t get to happen and it probably won’t happen much in 2021 either which is sad since our state really is very rich in field trip opportunities. For 2021 my over arching goals are:

Better planning and organization: I want to work on making sure that I have better lesson plans done each week rather than waking up and scrambling to see what we need to be doing. My goal here is to continue my 6 week planning for the math and language arts portions of our schooling. I also want to take time on Friday or Saturday to read through the lessons for the rest of the subjects and make sure I have all copies, printable, and supplies prepared and ready to go for the coming week.

Better engagement in the activities: There are a lot of fun hands on activities, especially when it comes to science, that I tend to just skip over. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I just don’t plan well enough to be prepared for it. I want to change that.

The Well

January 3rd will officially mark our “relaunch” of the church that we have been serving at for a year now. The congregation has made the decision to rename and rebrand and we will be moving forward with that in 2021. There is still a lot of work to be done but ultimately we are pleased with the progress that has been made and the way we have seen God work.

My goals for this area are:

Continue Sunday School: I have been going through Sunday School lessons with the kids while Dusty is preaching. We will be continuing that but I want to use some of my planning time on Friday or Saturday to be sure I have prepped the Sunday School lesson as well.

Work with mom on a women’s ministry: The women in our church are crying out for deep Bible study. My mom has stepped into the role as WMU director and we are looking forward to beginning our first group Bible study in the coming weeks.

Continue to support Dusty however I can: This one of course is on going. I do what I can when I can with what I have to work with. I will be honest, being a pastor’s wife is exhausting by man what a blessing it is as well.

Elizabeth

Personal goals are harder for me to set. I have a tendency to put myself on the back burner for everyone else but this year I am hoping to manage my time well enough to incorporate some of the things that are important to me as well. The overarching areas are:

Health and Wellness: My goal is to participate in 5 Refit classes a week. Ideally these will be Monday-Friday. I have found that I do pretty well when I can fit in the 11 am live class (noon in Texas). These classes are usually only about 45 minutes long and the kids appreciate the break in their lessons so I can get my work out done. We are also going to be going back onto the Daniel Plan for our meal plan. We did really well for the set aside 40 days at the beginning of the year so now our goal is to work toward making this a lifestyle rather than a time-determined diet.

Spiritual: Along with the group Bible study with the church I will be participating in the studies published by Courtney Joseph and the team at Women Living Well. I love these studies. The first one for the year will begin on January 18th and will be over chapters 1-23 of Isaiah. So. Excited.

Mental/Emotional: This is the area that is hardest for me. I am not a huge fan of the whole “self-care” movement but I also do understand the need to do things to help reduce stress and anxiety when possible. One thing I love to do is read. So I am setting my reading goal higher this year. In 2020 I set a goal to read 26 book for the year. That averaged to about one book every 2 weeks or so. Thus far I have finished 32 books with at least one more to be finished before the end of the year. While granted several of these books were audiobooks I still count them. For 2021 I am going to be setting a reading goal of 35 books I think but I haven’t nailed that one down for sure yet. I plan to set aside some time to read each day not only for myself but for the kids as well.

I am also realizing that I just feel better when I have my nails done. I’m not talking nail salon acrylic type nails but I have fallen in love with Color Street nail polish strips. And lucky for me my sister sells them so I have a steady supply of them. They have helped me to quit biting my nails and I just feel like I’m mostly put together when I have my nails “painted” so I plan to keep that as a priority in the new year.

Professional: It seems silly to include this as a subcategory but I wasn’t really sure what else to call it. I have been working on writing a resource for church replant pastor wives that I am hoping to get finished and possibly figure out the whole logistics of getting published in 2021. Am also hoping to use this space on the internet to produce more content that is helpful to the readers I have. I have several people who have asked for devotions that I will be trying to work on as well as practical homemaking and homeschooling tips, tricks, and advice. I want this space to be more than just me rambling on and on.

This is Us

So disclaimer: I have never watched the series “This is Us” but I just felt like that title fit for my category of marriage. Dusty and I celebrated 12 years of marriage in June so we are half way through year 13. One thing we work to remember is that one day our children will grow up and leave home. It is important to us that we continue to cultivate and develop our relationship so that one day when the youngest kiddo leaves home and we are left here with just the two of us we don’t look up and realize we have no idea who this person living our home is. As much as we love our children our marriage comes first. Goals for this area are:

Carving out time to spend together a couple nights a week after the kids are in bed.

Monthly date nights even if this means at home.

Continue our podcast that we host together.

Pray together more.

Wrapping Things Up.

I am well aware that a lot of these over arching goals are very vague. Like I said at the beginning I am having a harder time nailing down some specific goals and plans for the year. I am hoping that over the coming days and weeks I will begin to see a more clear picture. Maybe one we get the Christmas decorations down and the house put back to normal thing will get clearer….then again..maybe not. Who knows? Join me as we move in to 2021 even if there isn’t really a plan just yet.

Have you set any goals for 2021? Let me know in the comments. If you are feeling like setting goals is challenging the same way I am, let me know that too. Maybe then I won’t feel so crazy!!