Moving Forward by Looking Back: 2024

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Where was I this time last year?
Here. Doing the same things I'm doing now... but different some how. Not as deeply. Not as committed then as I'm finding myself to be now.

What are three things I'm sick to look back on in 2023?..so much so I hope nobody finds out.
1. I tried to orchestrate and manipulate my sweetheart to come to a training with me. It doesn't matter if I believed it would be really helpful to him. I looked past his individual humanity and treated him as a problem to be solved, tho I didn't recognize it until after the fact. Not acceptable. Not the way I desire to honor and respect my husband.
2. Our freezer full of locally grown ground beef was turned off...and I didn't notice until a week or so late. Ugh. The money lost? Yes a real bummer. But the smell...
3. I didn't keep the committments I made to myself about recording homeschool doings every day and my personal reading goals.

What are three things I am proud of accomplishing through Christ in 2023?
4. I completed some really meaningful, important and fun projects.
- For my husband and brother-in-law I completed their sleeping bag coats made from their chikdhood sleeping bags.
- We got chickens and I became the tender of a flock! My son is learning how to care for them consistently to earn the opportunity to have a pet of his own.
- Rebuilt the chicken coop.
- Compiled a memory book for my youngest brother. We all had one growing up, until things got digital. All his photos were lost with the family computer crash. He's 16 and has never had one. All the siblings, parents, uncles and aunts, cousins, friends compiled every photo and video we had of him and put them in a book. Cue the watter slide. I don't know who was crying and not, but I was crying. So happy we could do that for him.
- Helped my Mom construct her one-of-a-kind stockings she makes for family members when they join the family. My brothers in Arkansas and their whole families each got a special Grandma Roberts stocking to use this Christmas. If stockings seem like a burden to you, believe me there is a way around that! Stockings are our favorite part of the Christmas morning surprise. More details on this in another post.
5. For my 30th birthday I wanted to do something big. So I had my brother register me for a training he (and 3 other brothers) has been going on and on about for years. It's called Be You. Such a powerful and packed six days. three days one month, three days the next. I committed to fully participating, and it was a top five experience of my life. 
6. Did things I was scared to do but felt were important.
- Started a garden by grieing5one plant. Garlic.
- Coached my girls soccer teams.
- Started a bisiness.

What are my take aways from each off those things?
1. I am free to do what feels good and right for me to do, and love my family as they choose for themselves and their own life. I am not the driver of my family's growth. That is a personal matter between the individual and the Lord. To believe I can drive another persons growth is arrogant and disrespectful.
2. Keep the freezer temperature knob out if reach from my beautiful, curious, discovering children.
3. Find routines and systems which make follow through automatic and effortless, or atleast simpler. Habit stack.
4. When there is a deadline God helps me find a way to get done the things I need. When the only option is completion, and I believe that, God inspires me with the information and brings me the connections to make it happen.
5. I am a vibrant virtuous valiant daughter of God. I see some of the ways I hide, avoid, run away, sugarcoat, make excuses for myself and others in life. And with God I can now choose out of them because I know they are there.
6. Sometimes when something is intimidating the best thing to do is start.

What is the word God has given to guide my learning and growth for the year?
2024- PLAY
2023- A Godly Woman
2022- Refine
2021- Management & Stuardship
2020- Simplify & Love

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