2011: A Great Year!

2010 was an amazing year. Looking back, it is crazy how much has changed. A brand new amazing job, my boys (triplets I nanny) are 4!, visited new cities: Philly and San Francisco, elected to a board, put on a conference, remodel the living room, pulling up all the carpet in our house..... It was overall one of the best years of my life. I was awarded "Nanny of the Year" which was a huge honor. Blessing after blessing, this year just had God's gifts and provision all over it. I sat thinking the other day, how could 2011 be anywhere as awesome as 2010. Well, quickly I felt impressed that our lives are not measured by how exciting one year is. In fact a great year only seems so wonderful in comparison to the difficult ones. As I sat longer, more questions began to pop up.

Am I living a life that is pleasing to the Lord?
Am I honoring my husband and thus leading him closer to Christ?
Am I discipling in anyone?
Am I in community with others that are challenging me?

I have areas I need to grow and need to posture my life to bend that way.

Over 10 years ago, God spoke to me. (There are those moments, when you know that it is beyond you... and this was one of them). I was on a youth retreat and the Lord gave me a mental picture, how he often does when He speaks to me.

The picture was of a pitcher. The pitcher was not sitting still on a table (like the one on the left) but tilted and pouring. The pitcher needed to continually be filled to have the ability to continue to give of what is inside it. God was showing me that this pitcher was me, and that I consistently need to be filled to be able to to give to those around me.

I feel pretty full to overflowing, blessed and cared for. It is time for me to give more of myself. Also, I must consistently be filled.

So here are some resolutions (or better said - goals, vision, mission, plans) for 2011and beyond. It is important for me to put it in writing.  "And then God answered: "Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.This vision-message is a witness pointing to what's coming. It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time." Habakkuk 2:2-3

1. Reading Wednesdays (with Doug): Doug and I both love to read. We have a pretty big library of books that we haven't completed. We wished we spent more time reading, so we decided to have a quiet night without TV and music, where we focus on reading books individually and reading the bible together.

2. Community Game Nights (with Doug): We hope to have game nights once a month to invite different friends over, just to spend time together. We enjoy cooking and hanging out with others at our house, so we decided to make more of an effort to plan things and invite others over.

3. Family Days (with Doug and his parents): One Saturday a month Doug and his dad will get together and work on our house and his dad's house - projects are more fun with someone. Doug's mom and I will cook or shop. We'll then meet up to hang out, eat dinner, etc.

4. Our New Budget (with Doug): Over the last couple months we have been changing our budget. January begins some new areas in our budget including: date night, house fund, & Game Change campaign.

5.  Finish Our Fully-Funded Emergency Fund (with Doug): We are so close to finishing this! Very exciting. We follow Dave Ramsey's plan, so this is 3-6 months of your expenses.

6. Save Money for New Truck for Doug (with Doug): We are still figuring out what he wants and how long it will take us to save to pay cash, but after our Emergency Fund is done, this is our next task.

7. Two Vacations (with Doug): We will be taking a "friends vacation" around a friends wedding and our 5 year anniversary vacation that we had to cancel last fall!

8. Work Up to Working Out 4 Times a Week: One of my new benefits with my new job is a gym membership. I am so glad to be able to swim often, take Zumba and lift weights among other things. Though I love to dance, I plan to slowly add and increase my workouts.

9. Cook Two New Meals and One New Dessert a Month: I have so many recipes on lists that I have never tried. This is one thing that is not only fun for me but rewarding for Doug. I will be learning recipes from Mom Schraer and trying new recipes from my Christmas presents:  Rachael Ray Look & Cook, Martha Stewart Cupcakes and more!

10. Drinking More Water: I need to drink more water. I know that, but how much. It seems that I need 100 ounces/day from this Hyrdation Calculator, which asked me about 10 questions specific to me.

11. Carving Out More Time for Bible and Prayer in the Mornings: I now have a 30 minute commute each morning and afternoon. This has come to be a good time to enjoy my coffee and pray. I want to add to that Bible (from Doug's audio bible) and worship. I plan to make a playlist on my iphone each weekend for the week ahead (takes just a minute to drag the mp3s to the day). I have never read the whole bible in a year, but listing to a few chapters a day could make that easy. 

12. Community/Small Group: I have been involved in a few in my church, but none that I have been long-lasting. I also have felt impressioned to begin discipling. I am not sure of all the details, but will actively seek the opportunities this year. 

13. Honoring Doug: I just re-found a book I purchased last year called Sacred Marriage. I am only on chapter 3, but completely challenged to more aware how I treat Doug. I am not sure how or what this looks like, but I am on the journey to live this. 

14. More Nesting: I love our house. Over the last year, we have accomplished a few projects on the house. Lately I have been reading new blogs, like Young House Love, and so encouraged that you can do a lot with a little money. I cannot wait to tackle some creative projects that will make our home just a little more ours! 

15. More Writing For Pleasure: Writing for me has always been a discipline that bring me peace, inspiration, direction. Even as I wrote today, I feel encouraged and challenged. For many years I have journaled privately, but I feel that if my thoughts, challenges and experiences can be a benefit to even 1 person, why not let God use that. While I will continue to write on CincyNanny and Regarding Nannies,  you will see more personal writing here or possibly a new blog.

So that is what has been on my mind. Not a list that I threw together, but things that I have already been working on and other that I have been thinking or nervous about.

What are you committing to for 2011?
Anything on my list that you share the desire for?

Allow God to speak to you, and write it down. It is going to be a GREAT year!