(Happy) New Year Goals!

Happy New Year!!

Oooh, I love new years!  Reflections over the past year or years; taking stock of what you know, what you have learnt and what you wish you knew; fresh beginnings; a chance to get it right, a blank page, if you like, to fill with dreams and wishes.  Happy sighs all round.  As Anne of Green Gables (almost) said (slightly paraphrased to suit this moment) – it is a new year, with no mistakes in it….yet!

Each year, although I don’t set resolutions I do set goals to attempt to achieve each year.  I have a failure rate of about 80%.  I’d say this sheepishly, only I set myself such low standards that a 20% success rate seems pretty okay to me!

Last year I wanted to simplify and declutter.  All I can say is that I’m getting there.  We must have taken at least a hundred bags to the Salvation Army.  Each bag earnt us £2 to spend in the shop and has allowed us to pretty much clothe ourselves and our family for nothing.  Our house, funnily enough, still remains cluttered.  Ah well, I’ll keep on keeping on.  It is improving every month and hopefully this will be the year I get it all under control.  Probably not, but I love the feeling of anticipation which comes with kidding myself that I might yet master this.

Another thing we will be banging away at is our finances.  This Christmas has been the best financially speaking, since we moved back to England.  We are not stretched going into the new year, and even had a few pounds spare to spend on Christmassy ribbon for next year.  That said, we are still working away at being frugal and feel like we might be moving in the right direction.  As with everything in my life, change happens slowly over months rather than days.  Habits need to be broken and replaced, which is neither a fast nor an easy thing to do.  I see us making progress though and so long as we are heading to where we want to be I am happy.

During the last few months of 2014 I put myself on a diet.  Again progress is slow.  This year I hope to learn lots as I daily place my appetite for all things food related in God’s hands.  I have been overweight for thirty of my forty years.  I’m hopeful this year will be the year to change this.  My first goal is still to lose the first thirty pounds which is proving really hard to do.  Again, I intend to keep at it and should eventually get there.  Gary and I are doing this together now and it is always much more fun to do something in tandem than do it alone.

However, these are small goals compared with my main goal which is to nourish.  The past few years I feel as if I have been hurtling from one health disaster to another without time to breathe or take stock.  This year will be a time for building up, a time of nurturing and taking care of both myself and my family.  I want to nourish us with God’s word, with good nutrition, with love and some great habits.  I want the children to develop a life style which, instead of depleting them, will nourish them, building them up to face the world God has for them.  Just the word nourish nourishes me!  It is a word full of goodness.

Nourish.  One simple word which will pervade every part of our family’s life.  This year I intend to nourish the relationships which matter most to me; nourish my soul by surrounding myself and my family with meaningful scripture and activities; I will be mindful that the activities we choose to fill our days with can either build us up and nourish us or slowly tear us down;  I want us to nourish each other with the way we talk to each other, again being mindful that words can build up or tear down.  I tend to be outspoken in my manner and whilst I never mean harm I know that thoughtless, throwaway comments can hurt.  This year I will try harder to think before I speak, always maintaining authenticity (telling the truth) but maybe in a kinder more gentle way;  I will put aside time to research nourishing food to really feed our bodies with; we will choose nourishing activities such as walking in nature over screen time and we will all look for the beauty in the ashes, the extraordinary in the ordinary and develop nourishing family traditions which will continue to nurture us all for many years to come.

I am moving into this year with optimism, clarity and purpose.  It is going to be a good year.