It's Coming . . . . .

2019 is just days away. I say this every year, but my wish is for the new year to be better than the year before. Hahaha! Famous last words! We have had about five to six years of hurtles, deep ditches, and road blocks. I do have to say this December was the first one in a long time that I could enjoy the holiday season. I was not recovering from surgery, I was not so dizzy that I could not drive, and I was not wearing the boot of doom. So, progress has been made!

I am looking forward to crushing my goals in my Living Well Planner. My major goal of the year, that I have tried to tackle many times before to no avail, is to clean and organize the house. It gets the best of me every year, but this year my plan is to blow this goal out of the water. In January, I plan to focus my sights on the sunroom. Wish me luck! 

I am also about to embark on a second go-around of the elimination diet. I will be starting it up this coming Saturday (January 5) and a few friends are also going to tag along. I hope that we all find the answers that we seek along the journey. I feel much more prepared this time and have a better idea about what I am actually doing. I am curious if I missed any food intolerances during the first go-around. I am also looking forward to getting my body and brain reset into eating healthier again.  

Well, off to plan my day and week!

Faith of A Child

 

Today, I went solo to church. Hubby needed a day to recoup from the craziness of the last few weeks. Sunday is typically the day of the week that he can call his own. Pumpkin, of course, then decided he was staying home with daddy. By that point, I decided to let the Bear sleep in and go solo. It is nice to occasionally go solo. I don't have to worry about what the kids are doing, how they are acting, and it is more peaceful. I was set to enjoy a kid-less church service, or so I thought.

I have been making scarves for a few Christmas gifts, so I took along a crocheting project. I rarely take a project with me, but with Christmas only nine days away I wanted to maximize my time. I am not an expert by any means and fail miserably at reading crochet patterns. I typically just triple crochet row after row, so it is a great project to mindless do while watching tv, waiting for the kids to get out of school, or listening to others speak.

Grandma sat down next to me in the pew. Then three little sprites arrived and peaked at me from the pew in front of me. I have only seen the trio a few times in church. They began chatting with me, mesmerized by the crocheting project. My own personal fan club!

They pelleted me with questions, lots and lots of questions. What was I making? How did I do that? Who was it for? I wish I had a scarf. Do you make hats, too? Do you believe in Santa? Does the church hand out presents to everyone? I wish I could do that. I can't even draw. My birthday is next month. How many days until Christmas?

The little sprites were a lively crew. I answered the questions they ask, asked a few simple questions myself, but let them chat for the most part. I found out that one girl was in the 4th grade, one girl was the 2nd grade, and one boy was in kindergarten. They came to church all by themselves. Outside the church, I had noticed a child's bicycle and a push scooter in the grass. The oldest little sprite talked about coming from her grandmother's house many blocks away. She talked about her grandparents, but never mentioned her parents.

They watched me crochet a simple scarf before the church service. The oldest stating when she grows up she is going to crochet, too. Before the service started they scurried off to sit with an adult friend that they had made in the church on a previous visit. It is amazing how God turns the simplest, most unlikely things into something profound and meaningful.

Oh . . . to have the faith of a child, to seek out God, and to create your own path to follow! I hope that the little sprites return and that they experience the hope, joy, and love of the season.

Plans For the Future

Wow! It is December 1. Where has the time gone? 

December is a good time to get a game plan going for the coming year. Where do I see myself? What would I like to do? What is important to me? What do I want to accomplish? How am I going to keep myself motivated?

I am lousy at writing goals and sticking to them. I am well-intentioned, but lose momentum when hurtles pop-up and I just do not get back on track again. In recent years, I have gone to monthly goals instead of yearly goals. With monthly goals, you can reassess how it is going and redirect yourself much easier. 

In 2019, my main objectives would be to work on improving my health and to tackle the daunting task of the organization of the house. I have been following Living Well Spending Less and have purchased their fancy planner to see if I can become more organized with my time in 2019.

The planner is beautiful! It has sections to help me plan out my long-term, monthly, and weekly goals. I am excited to start using it in the new year. 

For the month of January, I plan to start the Elimination Diet for round two. I haven't felt as healthy as I was before I was diagnosed with cancer and I want to get back to that place. This week marked the one-year anniversary of my mastectomy. I definitely have not eaten as healthy as I was before the journey started. Easy, quick, and fast were the goals of food prep for months and months. I am ready to retrain my body to eat healthy again. I also want to pinpoint if I have any additional food intolerances that I may have missed during the first round.

Organizing the house is my other main objective. I am going to have to sit down and create a year-long plan that can be broken into monthly, weekly, and daily goals to crush the task at hand. This is an extremely overwhelming process. I feel like the clutter grows, has babies, and spreads at an alarming rate. I need to get the whole family on board for this project. It is difficult to make headway when you are the only one attempting to tame the clutter. So I will have to create goals for myself, but also discover ways to encourage the kiddos to clean-up after themselves and to help out with household chores.

Have you started to think ahead to 2019? What do you plan to do? It seems like the "in" thing to do at the beginning of the year is choosing a word for the upcoming year. I think determination will be my word for 2019. Have you chosen a word yet?