Get Ready 2015, I Have Big Plans for You!

My Mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find peace with exactly who

and what I am. To take pride in my thoughts, my appearance, my talents, my flaws

and to stop this incessant worrying that I can’t be as I am. 

~Anais Nin

I saw this quote on Instagram last week and it pretty much sums up what I want 2015 to be like. 

Get ready 2015, I have big plans for you! 

I don’t want to say that this is the year that I will be myself, since I always have been, but I am hoping that the pruning that happened in 2014 will allow wonderful blooms to grow in 2015. (cheesy? maybe…yes). 

I really don’t like resolutions because I always break them, so I am thinking 2015 goals or maybe 2015 priorities. Hmmm, I like priorities, but I will need to elaborate to more that just a list, right? Yes. So, here we go!

First and Foremost my top priority is God. If you just rolled your eyes, then maybe this isn’t the blog for you. So what does that mean, making God my top priority? 

It means that my daily, weekly, monthly routine will include:

1. Devotions: daily devotions and devotions with the girls. 
2. Bible Studies: I am participating in three this year. 
3. Church: attending and volunteering. 
4. Sharing the Word: through writing, living and ministry (wait, is my ministry writing and living?)

Let me take a break in my list to share this song with you. You can listen to it now or later, but let me say…these are the lyrics that are playing again and again in my head. 

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

That and this. Can you tell I connect with God through music. These lyrics, this is my 2015 goal right how:

How can I say I know you

When what I know is still so small?

Let me rediscover you and breathe in me your life anew

Tell me of the God I never knew

And let me rediscover you

Man, I could listen to that over and over. 

My second priority is my family. This means that these things will be a part of my daily, weekly routine. Sorry if this sounds a bit like June Clever. Wait, should I be apologizing? Or does that go against my quote above? This is me…deal with it - there that’s better. 

Having my family as a priority means I will:

1. spend quality with my girls. Bekah and Morgan are like little sponges - they learn new things every day. I want to make sure I am expanding their minds through play and learning and less TV. I also want to make sure I am available to Shelby. 2015 will bring High School and even more changes. I want to keep our communication open through this time (and always). 
2. Grow with Matt. I’m trying to find the right words to say what I mean here - we just need to make it a priority to have more quality time together as husband and wife not just parents. Make sense?
3. Relationships with my family: I won’t go into details here, (that’s a journal thing…keep reading) but 2014 has been one of the most hurtful years with my extended family. I don’t think all for the relationships will be mended, but that are a couple like the one with my sister that I want to rebuild. (my sister and I didn’t have issues this year, but we could be closer - she’d agree with this). 
4. Do my best to keep a clean and tidy house. I want to get organized in 2015 because I feel this will help with my ADD and the girls’ dresser drawers won’t close - need to fix that. 
5. Meal Planning, Budgeting and Healthy Cooking. (those last two are just about everyone’s new year list, huh?)

Myself is my third priority. I think it will be kind of hard to explain, but I’ll get it a shot. 

1. Remain Creative: Man, my life is so different when I am creating - mainly sewing, but I’ve found other creative crafty things that fill that need lately as well. That being said as I type this I am not sure if DanaRae Designs is going to make it through January. I love bunting (banners) and I love creating them, but for the past year my upkeep with my Instagram account and my online store has been weak. It maybe best to clear out my inventory and move on. That’s so sad, though. I’ve put a lot of my heart into that business. I really want to start posting tutorials, maybe even some of bunting. Also, I see dresses and princess costumes being sewn in the future. Sewing for myself is so therapeutic - I might even try my hand a quilting. 
2. Writing: I HAVE to WRITE! There is NO EXCEPTION! Blogging and Journaling - it has to be done. I think just about all my other priorities revolve around this one. I (and God) still have work to do on me and to help me figure it all out I have to write it down. I am strong believer that there are things that get blogged and things that go into a journal. I’ve found a few planners to help me with blogging - again, it’s something that isn’t as easy now that I am not on medication for my ADD. There are days that it flows out of me and days that I can’t sit down long enough to make it work.  I need to be nicer to myself and remember that I write for me and my daughters. Remember that I write because of my grandmother’s and great grandmother’s battle with alzheimer’s. I write to document, to leave my girls with my thoughts. When you read this it’s just an added bonus for me. 
3. Compare No More: Try my best to not compare myself to my Christian Sisters and Fellow Bloggers. I spend so much time saying “I wish I was like her” each day. It is true how much comparison steals your joy. I will break it this year. 
4. Love Myself: I think that if I say no more comparison I have to follow it with cultivating a true love for the woman that God created. I don’t think that there is much more to say there. 
5. Don’t stretch myself too thin: Don’t over commit, don’t base my existence on whether I meet my goals with Thirty-One. I need to breathe and give myself space in my life to breathe. 
6. Friendship: Cultivate current ones and create new ones! 
7. Read More! I should have my reading list for 2015 published soon. Also, read blogs! 
8. Walk, Run, Dance: just move my body more. It helps the mind and also #4 of this section. That and maybe not eat as much candy as I did in 2014. Candy and cake…hmmm cake. “I love cake” — Matt.

Ummm, what else? 

     9.   Wash YOUR FACE: My more pores took a beating in 2014. Exfoliate! 

Ok, now I am just getting petty with my thoughts. Put God First, Take care of my Family and Take care of Myself. That about sums it all up.