Goals for 2019: Repent, Rejoice, Repeat
I love making intentional goals for myself each year. Whether I achieve them or not is ultimately in the Lord’s hands (as was evident last year when other needs took precedence, but aiming high means I make a little bit of growth and change each year. It’s about cultivating new habits and ideas for cultivating my own growth as a wife, mother, and home educator. I want to keep learning and growing in order to help my children learn and grow, as the Scholé Sisters describe.
Personal Goals:
1. Make a daily habit of reading from my Mother Culture Basket (Read 3 science books, 3 history books, and 20 biographies this year).
I’ve loved the idea of rotating between a stiff book, moderately easy book, and a novel/classic book, and been practicing that for awhile (for more info on the idea of a Mother Culture basket, visit here). This year, my goal is to add more history, science, and biographies to my book list. I want to further my own self-education. My plan is to rotate between a history and science book for my moderately easy or stiff book, depending on the title. I’m always reading a novel or classic on my kindle at bedtime, so that’s easy to continue. In the afternoon, the kids and I all take at least 30 minutes of quiet time to read. I’m using a cute basket with my books and commonplace journal (for writing down any juicy quotes).
Some books on my list, thanks in part to World Magazine recommendations, are As A City on A Hill: the Story of America’s Most Famous Lay Sermon; Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design; House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery; and The Good Neighbor: Fred Rogers. I also love David McCullough’s history books and biographies, so I’m adding his book on Theodore Roosevelt and the Johnstown Flood. Follow me on Goodreads if you want to see more as I aim to read 50 books this year.
2. Practice piano regularly (twice a week).
It has been many years since I’ve had a little more freedom to practice piano and play alongside my husband on the worship team. It’s been a season of tending to little ones and waiting on the Lord. My goal is to be able to serve on the worship team again now that my kiddos are getting old enough to care for the younger set. I really miss serving in this way, so I’m aiming to begin practicing again to refresh my skills.
3. Listen to the whole Bible this year.
Alongside my daily devotional time, where I love digging deep in a certain book of the Bible with my accountability group (currently really enjoy Keri Folmar’s inductive bible study guides for women), I want to read through the entire Bible this year. My attempts at reading through the Bible in a year have been interrupted these last two years, so I’m going to try making it a bit more doable. I know I can listen to the Bible easily in this way while exercising, housecleaning, or taking a nap. If I get the chance to nap, I have better success if I listen to something, so why not be the Word of God? I love the ESV Bible app with the listening feature.
4. Cultivate an atmosphere of repentance in my home.
The Lord has been convicting me in the area of humility. I was struck by the fact that my children didn’t know how to repent to each other when they were unkind because I had not exemplified it well. There have been numerous times when I burst out in anger and then later justified it because I was tired, on my cycle, or because they were not being obedient. How can I expect them to see the importance of true repentance and the beauty of the gospel message, if I haven’t exemplify true humility? So I’m starting to be quick to repent and not justify my actions. I am responsible for my sin. They will see the beauty of forgiveness and grace as I strive to make: “repent, rejoice, repeat” my mantra (thanks to Mystie Winkler for this vision). Daily repenting of my sin, daily confessing my need for a Savior, then rejoicing in God’s merciful free gift of grace and not harboring guilt or fear, and then repeating the process all over again. This is not a goal so much as it is a resolution to grow in this character flaw of mine.
5. Start my own nature journal.
During our morning time homeschool lessons, I’ve been having the kids draw in their nature journals while I read aloud. This year, I’d love to switch to using more audiobooks for this time, so I can join in nature journaling. We either draw something from our weekly nature walk, or the kids practice drawing or copying from an assortment of animal how-to draw books.
Homeschool Goals:
Add a monthly “Just Because We Can” Day to our calendar.
Sarah, at Read Aloud Revival, inspired me awhile back to add a Just Because We Can day into our homeschool routine. This is a day set aside to do something fun! To surprise the kids with a fun outing or field trip, or out of the ordinary experience. I love this idea! It’s so easy to get bogged down into checking off all the boxes, that we neglect to really enjoy the freedom we have in homeschooling. I’ve already put a monthly JBWC day into our schedule. Looking forward to it!
2. Start a 15 minute daily reading time with Helen
My sweet little girl, Helen, is almost four years old. She often gets lost in the shuffle of homeschooling. Thankfully, she has been easy going, and enjoys playing with playdough, coloring, and doing her own “nature journal” during morning time. I did want to try to invest in her more intentionally this year by adding a 15 minute block of time in my morning routine to cuddle up with her and enjoy a selection of picture books, devotionals, spot it books, etc. So far she has absolutely loved it and won’t let me forget to include it each day!
I’m hoping to check in here each month to share my progress on these goals, sharing what books I read as well.
