New Year Goals, Reading List, & Word of the Year

Happy New Year! Every year during the last week of December I like to do the Word of The Year Challenge and create some New Year goals.

FYI, You can WATCH this blog post, I’ve filmed it in a YT video for you.

I have hopes for 2022, but I’m skittish. I’m naturally that way about a lot of things anyways and I think 2020 and 2021 were enough to make anybody edgy over making plans for a new year! My hopes may not be high, but hey, the upside in my opinion is at least exist!

I don’t know about you, but 2021 is a year I’m glad to have behind me. If I could summarize the year it would be that 2021 was a year of disappointments for a variety of causes-from political to personal.

Speaking of personal, it seems so many times we made plans only to watch them either explode with a foul sulfuric stench or simply melt all over the place like the crayons my youngest stuck in the furnace vent (which did not make a pretty picture).

So 2021 was a year of disappointments for our whole family. Starting in June it was just one challenge after another.

There is one personal discovery as the year closed though that I was glad to finally have some answers in. After a couple years of therapy for anxiety my counselor may have helped unearth the source of much of my anxiety. This is definitely an area that was good to get some answers in.

I have a quite a bit of work to do in this area, but I am looking forward to getting the work I need to do done and being a more healed and whole wife and mama for my husband and kids, and myself, so my mindset at this point is optimistic.

My Word of The Year Challenge

As the New Year approached the personal work I have to do was something that contributed to a lot of reflecting and praying about what to choose for my word of the year, and also some of the directions I need to go in this coming year. It was perplexing trying to land on just one word because four words that spoke to my heart all kept coming to mind.

Finally I landed on a word that kind of summed up what I knew I needed this year.

Rebuild.

There are area’s of my life that have needed to be rebuilt for decades. Area’s that have needed healing, transformation, armor, and grounding (those are the other words I was debating on whether or not to use). I decided that those words would be my supporting words, my steps of action words that I’ll be using as I REBUILD the areas that have been broken down (and honestly some area’s that were never built in the first place).

My 2022 Reading List

Lately I’ve started reading more, especially audio books. I got an Audible subscription again which is the best way for me to enjoy books. I like to listen to them while I’m getting reading in the morning so I actually made myself a reading list for perhaps the first time ever. This year I’d like to read the following;

• self help books pertaining to my particular anxiety issues, including Forgiving What You Can’t Forget by Lysa Terkurst
• Home Management Plain and Simple by Kim Brennamenn (this used to be Large Family Logistics but has been updated-I’m SO EXCITED TO READ THIS!!! I loved Large Family Logistics and it changed our family life for the better). This new edition is geared towards more than just large families-apparently Kim had input from a lot of people that didn’t even have kids but read her book and found a lot of value in it. I’ve always told friends the book was great even if you only have a couple kids. So this new edition is for people with and without kids and it has a section for people with kids.
• At least 2 homeschool empowerment/encouragement books (I’ve started The Brave Learner but so far I’m not loving it at all-if you are considering it I would definitely check out the one, two and three star reviews).
• Jesus Calling books by Sarah Young. Jesus calling devotionals are perfect for my ADHD brain!
• last but not least I’ll be reading many homeschool curriculum books along with my children (see here for a few of them)

It’s not a big list, I know better than to take on a big reading list with all the other plates I need to keep spinning (homeschooling, managing home, work, parenting, making time to be a wife). But my reading list is super intentional and one I know I have a good shot at completing.

New Year Goals

Unlike resolutions, these are practical goals that I know I’m more likely to achieve! Here are a few of the goals I’m going to be shooting for this year.

• To make more time for music with the kids
• To take more Sunday’s off to relax
• To create days for specific tasks-laundry day, baking day, cleaning day and so on (if I can do this and make it work that will enable me time to relax on Sundays)
• To help the kids have less screen time and more reading time
• And as usual, to continue working toward being more present and to create more moments of connection with my husband and kids

God’s Word on Planning

As I’ve been considering the coming year, I’ve been praying over it, and for God’s blessing over all of these plans and goals. I wanted to share some of my favorite Bible verses about planning. Here they are;

What are some of your plans and goals for the New Year? Do you have a word of the year? Share in the comments below!

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