New Year’s Goal Setting and Reflection

Can you believe the start of a new year/decade has almost arrived? It’s a bit hard to believe if you ask me. I am excited to ring in the new year and believe it is so important to stop and reflect on the prior year and to set goals for the upcoming year. I’m not huge on resolutions but I do think setting 3-5 SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) goals for the year is super important.

Looking back: 2019 was a bit of a challenging one for our family yet still overall a good year. In 2019 we made the decision for me to leave the company and career and I love/loved to stay at home with our children and prioritize our family. I traveled a lot in the role I was in and while I both traveling and especially what I got to do I hated missing so many family moments. Making that decision and then communicating my decision to my coworkers, peers, superiors, mentors, and friends that truly felt like family at the company was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. While very hard I truly feel called to be at home during this season and am thankful that God has provided for our family to allow me to do so and to be more present for my family.

We also found out early in the spring (to our surprise but also excitement) that we were expecting another baby that would be due right before Christmas. Sadly we ended up losing that baby a few months later (right around the 15 week mark of pregnancy) . I may share more of this at a later time but it was one of the most challenging things I have ever walked through (both emotionally and physically). I was still working and traveling by myself on the road weekly during this season and to be honest it was just really hard. While we will never understand why God choose to call this baby home before we ever got to meet him/her I now have an entirely new perspective for just what a miracle life truly is and believe without a doubt that God’s will is best. While I didn’t share with many what was going on as it was just hard there were a few people that God put into my life during this very challenging season that I did share with and truly were Jesus here to me on earth. Thank you, thank you if that was you. And in God’s timing just two and a half months after losing that baby we found out we were again expecting. Our third child, a baby boy is due late May and seems to be healthy. God is so good and we are so thankful for the continued prayers for this sweet little guy.

2019 also brought with it the start of kindergarten for my little guy and a transition to a new school. He has rocked it. Mom is still figuring it out. 😉 He also fell in love with baseball and has an awesome talent for both athletics and art.

In staying home and having a little more time available I also felt called to minister to other woman (particularly moms) through social media and have been able to build an amazing community on social media of moms supporting other moms. I love sharing our everyday adventures, travels, tips and tricks, and the products we love most with you all and look forward to continuing to do so into 2020.

Looking forward: I anxiously look forward into 2020 and have decided that I want my word/phrase of the year to be “to delight in” or “to savor” (borrowed from a friend). I want to savor the day. Savor the moments. Savor the blessings God is giving our family. Savor relationships. But most of all I want to delight in the Lord. The Bible says in Psalm 37:4 to “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” When you delight yourself in the Lord you begin to see things as he does. Joy and savoring the everyday moments becomes much easier. This is why I want this to be my overarching theme for the year.

As I mentioned above I am not much of one for resolutions but I do love to set 3-5 SMART goals for the year (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely). For me this year my goals are to:

1. Read at least a book a month
2. Stop to truly play with my children daily and in doing so continue to teach them love, kindness, and respect.
3. Go on one trip with just my husband and I (we do this one every year).
4. Go on two family vacations.
5. Continue to encourage other moms by distributing high quality, real life everyday content including fun ideas, tips, tricks, travels, and favorite products throughout the week.

Alright, friends. It’s your turn. My challenge to you is to pause and take time to reflect back on 2019. Once you have done that set some SMART goals (3-5) for the upcoming year. What is one of your goals? Please share below so we can encourage one another!