14 hours ago
January is a time for fresh starts and making plans, but that's not how I've been feeling lately. I've been feeling more like hunkering down than exploring, and more like keeping on than making plans.
But Derek and I had a rare date a few weeks ago - we went to see Little Women: The Musical with friends, and it was so fun. On the drive to the play we finally fit in our yearly "What do we have to look forward to this year" talk, and after Derek told me several of his wonderful goals, he asked me what I wanted to do this year. And I found myself a bit stuck, because of the aforementioned funk I've been in.
However, after some prompting, he did get me to start thinking about some goals I could set, even just fun ones, and I came up with a little list. Since then I've thought of several more things I'd like to accomplish, but I'm going to try something different this year and NOT overdo it on my goals. Instead I've chosen just three weekly goals I'd like to work on as we start 2023, and maybe if these three become rather ingrained, I will move on to adding more later.
1. Write one letter a week.
I've made a goal a couple years in a row now to write more letters, but other goals keep taking priority. I'd like to change that this year. I think letter-writing is quite a time-honored thing, and it shouldn't be lost. Letter-writing is a way to send encouragement to those who may need it, to connect personally even over a distance. It's meaningful in a way that online interactions aren't, because writing a letter takes more thought and effort. I've also been reading about different figures in church history this past year, and it strikes me how many of them made an impact through personal letters - some of them containing so much wisdom that they are still read by people today. And letters are a way to record a moment in history too - that's how we know alot of the details from history, because someone wrote to someone else about it in a letter. There is a rich tradition there, and there is nothing quite like opening your mailbox and seeing a personal letter, is there? So I really do want to prioritize letters this year.
2. Work on my family tree one afternoon a week.
Derek's mom has done an amazing amount of research into their family tree - she has her ancestry traced back to the 1000s. She made a generous offer to help us pay for an ancestry.com account so that I can fill in my branch of the family tree, and I want to make working on that a priority this year. Even if I only get an hour to work on it, I'd like to spend time researching at least one afternoon a week. My struggle has actually been that when I sit down to work on my tree, time seems to go by in a blink. The challenge will likely be to not get sucked into my research and forget to make dinner!
3. Paint or draw something once a week.
When I was a child, I took painting lessons, and produced several paintings that I still have to this day. They aren't too bad either, if I do say so myself. I recently took a couple of them out of storage and hung them up in my house, and seeing them hanging there on the wall stirred in me that urge to try to develop my artistic ability more. I don't feel a strong ownership of those paintings because I had so much help with them, but I know I'm not untalented in that area, and I could improve with practice. I won't be doing full oil paintings as I did back then (too much of a mess with kids running around), but I would like to at the least practice drawing something weekly. I also have a whole online watercolor course that I would like to complete this year. My goal is going to be to paint or draw once a week, just to make it manageable, but I'm hoping I'll become more comfortable with drawing and painting and end up practicing more than that. But saying once a week takes the pressure off. I can definitely manage once a week.
What are your goals for the New Year?
I can hardly believe it, but it's been about a month since I last wrote a blog post! One minute I'm writing in anticipation of Christmas, the next I'm sitting here with a cup of chai tea and a little pile of Valentine's candy hearts as I attempt to catch this blog up. The above photo is of my Christmas wreath, now packed away, and we've been getting little snowstorms off and on between Christmas and New Year's, which makes me happy. I love a good, white January.
Our Christmas was lovely, if a little different than a typical year. Since Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, we did venture out to our church service that morning. It was kind of fun to celebrate Christmas a little differently than in the past, and it actually made the day feel more relaxed and laid back. We opened a few gifts in the morning, and then finished up in the evening. Stretching out the presents a little longer was actually rather nice.
On New Year's Eve we visited my grandpa, which was special, and then on New Year's Day we did a little adventuring in the mountains. The kids are finally getting to a stage where they can walk a fair way by themselves, and I think more hiking days are in our future. I actually love getting outside in the winter as well - the air is so crisp and refreshing, and the mountains are particularly beautiful blanketed in snow. We topped the day off with a saltwater taffy shop.
Alot of my mental energy right after New Year's went into planning a talk for our January homeschool meeting at church, about the history of our state. The topic was my idea, and it didn't take me long to regret it - it took so much research and time to put together a presentation on such a broad topic as the history of an entire state! I think it turned out alright, but I'm glad to have it behind me. My brain can finally relax a bit.
We finally started up homeschooling again, and the week started wonderfully, and ended in a somewhat disastrous day. When you are sitting down with your child to finish his grammar lessons at 8PM, you know something has gone wrong. I'm hoping we won't have a repeat of that anytime soon. However, I am excited by how much we are accomplishing in general this school year - I think as far as the amount that my kids are learning, this might be our best year yet.
Aside from the mental load from my presentation (I don't love public speaking, can you tell?), I've been feeling a little emotionally weighed down as we start 2023. Typically the new year is a fun time for me, and I love making plans and setting new goals, but I know this year is going to be hard for some reasons that I don't want to go into here. It doesn't feel like a particularly happy activity to plan right now. But I'm trying to force myself to make a few goals anyway, because I think setting my mind on some creative and uplifting intentions will be healthy for me. So I'll probably write a post about a few of my goals soon.
How's the family doing, you ask? They have enjoyed Christmas break, but a couple of the kids expressed to me how happy they were to be doing school again, so that's a win. Derek is spending all our free weekends finally finishing the trim work in our house - we've lived here four years now, so I guess it's about time!
My oldest is starting his orthodontic journey this month, and our savings account is sad about it. When I found out how much braces were going to cost us, I had a bit of an anxiety attack. Where we are, it's probably going to cost us around $9,000 per kid. That's before insurance, but let me tell you, even the best insurances don't cover much. I immediately regretted not starting on saving for braces years ago.
I was desperate enough that I started googling "how to get braces cheap". And let me tell you, I did find an organization that gives out grants for braces. I was sure we wouldn't qualify (and we didn't), but would you believe it, we were within throwing distance of qualifying? If we'd had one more child, I think we may have qualified (which kind of amazed me, but that's how expensive braces are here). Anyway, just bookmark this site if you are financially stressed about affording braces, because you never know.
To wrap up my little braces story, to put my mind at ease my finance-major of a husband whipped up a spreadsheet projecting how much we could save starting now, when each kid would need braces, how much help we'd get from insurance, etc, and it looks like we'll be able to straighten out everyone's teeth when the time comes. So I can sleep in peace again.
How has the start to your year been? I hope your start to 2023 has been joyful and lighthearted enough for the both of us!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
