Introducing My 2016 Word...

The past couple of years that I've chosen a word to serve as my theme for the upcoming year, several words have jumped out at me and I had to whittle the last down to that one perfect word. This year I thought and thought and came up with only two words and they were synonyms!

I finally settled on the word:

Build

Now that we are back in the States, I want to start building our home. I want to get things out of our storage unit and set up an organized and efficient home. 

I want to continue to build up my relationship with the Lord. I want to spend more time reading the Bible and understanding who He is. 

I want to continuing building up my husband and our relationship. I want to show him love and appreciation and improve the flaws in my character that irritate him. 

I will build a healthy food lifestyle for myself and our family. I want cut back on processed foods, cook healthier meals and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

I want to continue to build up my friendships. We can spend more face to face time now that most of us are in the same country.

I will build a career. I want to start turning my writing hobby into a living. I plan on being more committed to freelance writing this year.

I plan to build my skills. I want to learn to can, bake sandwich bread. I want to learn ASL, brush up on my Spanish and sewing skills. I want to learn a good braided style for my hair. Also, I'd like to learn some cake decorating techniques.

In previous years, I've chosen "love", "bold" and the phrase "God in me".

What is your word for the year? What are some things you hope to build in 2016?

*This post is linked up at Mama Kat's.

7-7-7

This year I decided to forgo resolutions and set 7 goals for myself in 3 different areas of my life. I always make culinary goals because they are fun for me to accomplish and I get the satisfaction from checking an item off my list.

This year I decided to also make faith and writing related goals because they are very important areas of my life.

What about you, did you make any goals or resolutions for the new year?

 

 

Faith

1. Read Bible daily.
2. Read Keep it Shut.
3. Keep a prayer journal.
4. Go to church regularly.
5. Practice being kind.
6. Weigh what I want to say against Scripture before I speak.
7. Share my faith with others

Writing

1. Write the final chapter of my book.
2. Do a weekly Mama Kat prompt.
3. Do a biweekly Daybook post.
4. Do 3+ blog posts a week.
5. Write 104 pages of Patience.
6. Write 24 new Westbound poems.
7. Keep up more with my inspiration journals.

Culinary

1. Make vegetable stock regularly.
2. Learn to make beef gravy.
3. Make a fried dessert.
4. Make a rice cooker cake.
5. Try brownie pancakes (with peanut butter sauce?).
6. Learn to make tortillas.
7. Learn how to make a Korean dish from scratch.

What did you accomplish in 2014?

2014 Word

A couple of years ago I participated in the trend of picking a word that I want to define my upcoming year. That year, I picked "love".

For some reason, the next couple of years picking a word slipped my mind.

I want to revive the trend again this year.

I've given it much thought and I've chosen to take a directive, voiced by a former co-worker, that I believe to be a message from God.

He said, "Be bold."

When he first said it to me, I was instantly puzzled and understanding at the same time.

I knew I needed to be braver, to speak out more.

At my next job, I was blessed to attend company Bible studies. There I learned more of what it meant to live for God, without inhabitation.

Still, I hold back.

My hubby and I have had a lot of  alone time together.
He's noticed that I don't fully embrace myself. That I hold back, shy away. And being a good husband, he's tried to encourage me to let loose.

So, my word to focus on this year is BOLD.

According to dictionary.com:

not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff; courageous and daring: a bold hero.

2.

not hesitating to break the rules of propriety; forward; impudent: He apologized for being so bold as to speak to the emperor.

3.

necessitating courage and daring; challenging: a bold adventure.

4.

beyond the usual limits of conventional thought or action; imaginative: Einstein was a bold mathematician. a difficult problem needing a bold answer.

I want to be bold for God. To have no fear of obeying or speaking out about him.
I don't want to hesitate to share my thoughts, feelings, ideas
I want to be courageous, daring.

I will be BOLD!!

Revisiting: 7 in' 11

I think its time to check in on my resolutions:

1. I wanted to work out 3-5 times per week. I did really really well with this until summer time and then I lost all motivation. Hopefully starting my new job with a more consistent schedule will energize me!

2. I think I'm following through on number 2: learn to cook. I make dinner almost every night and enjoy trying new recipes. I can only make a few things from memory- pancakes, mexican manicotti, beet eggs, blueberry cake filling, twice baked potatoes, macaroni salad.  But thats more than when I got married!

3. I'm making or altering  most of the cards I send out to friends so thats a check for goal number 3!

4. As for sending out care packages, my two roomies got one while they worked at camp. And back to school care package gifts are chilling on my guest bed!

5. I have a job! So thats a check for number 5! I have two actually, and start my 3rd on Monday!

6. As for doing more crafts, I've been making more cards. I've got a wreath going right now. I haven't made a scrapbook or my wedding box yet but its coming!

7.  And I haven't gained weight...yet. I better get going with goal number one!!

Love Lesson #1: Love is Patient

(Remember, I picked LOVE to be my 2011 word) I've had a hard time with this lesson lately. I'm not a patient person, but lately I've been unfairly unpatient with Mike. He's had a lot of health problems and trips to the emergency room over the past month. Wanting him to be better quickly, I would jump on the bandwagon with any pills or treatment that any of the myriad of doctors he's seen suggested. Even when he told me he truly felt like a certain set of pills would do him more harm than help. I pushed him to at least purchase the pills, in case he would change his mind. I was tired of the countless visits to the ER and postponed plans. I just wanted my husband back, and I wanted him back now.
After much prayer, on both of our parts, and more ER visits, Mike and I have come to the conclusion that the prescribed medication was not what he needed and that there was a deeper cause to his symptoms.

Slowly, I've been learning to be more patient, with God and with my husband. Somedays it takes a lot not to snap at him or get moody over something that he can't control. But I think it is no coincidence that my Bible study planned lined up to have me reading about Job's wife around the time this started. I've constantly had a reminder in my head that comes out everytime I get the urge to be mean or snotty to my husband when I'm stressed or even sometimes inconvenienced by his health issues. It whispers to me that I don't want to be negative like Job's wife.

It reminds me that I want to be supportive, helpful, loving and patient. That the things going on are not my husbands fault and that his suffering is even greater than mine.

As for a health update, he has an appointment with the GI to check out some things. Other than that I can't say much because he has expressed a wish that I not blog in detail about his health.

7 in '11

I have 7 resolutions for 2011. I wanted to keep them simple this year so I tried to keep the list short, and make them things that really need to happen in my daily life.

1. Work out an average of 3-5 times per week. This includes the routine I made up over the summer, my pilates book,  exercise tapes, cardio workouts, situps and going for walks.

2. Learn to cook. This includes trying new recipes, modifying recipes to suit our tastes and being able to cook key recipes from memory. This also includes learning to plan meals ahead and becaus of this be able to grocery shop more efficently.

3. Make half of the cards I send.

4. Send treats/care packages to my friends still in Connieland.

5. Get a job! Anything that pays consistently will statisfy this one!

6. Do more craft projects. This includes making a wedding memory box, making cards, scrapbooking and anything else. I'd like to sew stockings and a new hostess apron but that may be too ambitious at the moment.

7. Don't gain weight! I read it everywhere that married couples gain weight. I don't wanna gain weight. I'm hoping that going from an unlimited supply of cookies and ice cream in the dining hall to cooking for myself on a limited budget will prevent me from eating too much junk and sweets.

Recap and Resoultions

So, I haven't hadthis blog for a year so don't have a lot of posts to link back to but I'm still going to flag up some great things that happened this year.