Happiest of New Years!!

I sit here, at my computer, this morning, sleepily sipping coffee.  I have had a mild cold the past few days and am just hoping my girls don't come down with it.  

I'm ready to put up all of my Christmas decorations today except for some strands of light.  There is something so beautiful, so magical about dark mornings with twinkling Christmas lights and cinnamon candles flickering.  I'm also not quite ready to stop playing my Christmas station on Pandora.  I LOVE old choral Christmas hymns, the Cambridge singers are one of my most favorite choirs.  (Although the Christmas at Downton Abbey is my favorite cd - we have just about worn this cd out playing it to and from doctor appointments)

I don't know how to succintly tieup 2021, it ended much how it began - VERY bumpy.  We, overall, had a great year (taken in context for what that means for our family), but then some medicine adjustments that began in November(ish) have caused quite a bit of havoc.  I have a love-hate relationship with pharmaceuticals.  I know some people are staunchly against them and some people are staunchly pro-western medicine - I land right, smack, dab in the middle.  I am thankful for advances in western medicine that help manage chronic health conditions, yet, I hate medicine because our bodies weren't made for them and it is often times SO hard to find the right balance.  

I am trying something new this year in regards to my goals.  I label my goals in the following categories:

Disciplines - Spiritual Disciplines and becoming an ever increasingly faithful and holy disciple of Christ

Fit - food and weight loss 

Tidy - decluttering and maintaining a cleaning schedule that somewhat keeps a lid on the mess (SO SO SO far from perfect here that I won't even bother to post the before and after pics - but I do take them - as I think that is such an important part of the process)

Smaug - money matters and taming the greed

Reading and Teaching - I love to read and I love to learn 

So I have found or made a mix of 365 challenges and 52 tasks to keep me motivated throughout the year.  

365 challenges

Decluttering Challenge - Starting today 💝

Promises of God - 365 of them - will do a mix of things - verse map, scripture journal, pray them, sticky note them around our house so we can meditate on them and memorize them...most important part?  Making sure I start and end each day with His Promise 💝

52 week challenges

52 books in 52 weeks

Brighter Winter Challenge

and YES YES YES Tim Challies released his reading challenge for 2022 - I will of course be reading books that fill in the blanks for all three challenges...I am so excited.  My end goal - to read at least 52 books - it would be awesome if I could go over that...but I will be happy with 52 - a book a week.

 

Paula B Fitness videos and follow her five things for 2022 - I am not 50 yet, but I am not that far from it either...I am going to give her videos a good shot this year and try her five thing plan and see what happens 

The Bible in 52 weeks for women 

And then I decided to take a Spiritual Discipline a month from The Study Guide of Celebration of Discipline and study it.  Next year I think I will try a fruit of the Spirit each month.

And finally I am once again going to try the 40 day sugar fast challenge *sigh*, (In case you are interested in joining it begins on January 10th).  I have yet to make it past four or five days - so we will see how this goes.   And then Lent is right around the corner after that and I will choose something to fast from during that season.