2023 Goals Recap

Every January I make a few goals for the new year. Generally, it involves fasting and prayer. This year was no exception. Today, I got to think back on the goals I made and how well I have done with them.

• Read twelve books I already own that I have not previously read. 

I started off pretty strong with this one, but eventually got side tracked. I realized I am not much of a non-fiction reader, of which most of my non-read, already-owned books consist. I switched to a series that Matthew had purchased and got into it enough to purchase the rest of the series before realizing that the author veers fairly substantially from her young adult fiction into straight up adult fiction. It started affecting my mood for the worse and I ended up giving up and switching to re-reading a series Matthew has written and is trying to prepare for self-publication. So while I haven't kept strictly to my original goal, I did read over 12 books and have a better habit of reading before bedtime instead of being on my phone. I'm calling this a win-win.

• Walk/run 5 miles at least once a week.

This one ended up being a great goal for me given my new work schedule. It was a doable goal, but one that still kept me moving to some extent every week. This was especially good in September and October when I was working more or less full-time. It was a good reminder for me to prioritize moving my body along with making lots of money.

• Say yes to at least one invitation once a month to do something with friends.

I'm not sure I did this every month, but I was better about keeping an open mind and being flexible as friends invited me out to do things. Oftentimes when I have an idea of how my day is going to play out, I have a hard time letting it go in lieu of playing. I need to have it scheduled. This year I worked at keeping this goal in mind. It was definitely helpful to keep in there.

• Expect miracles

This goal was definitely an inspired one for me since it didn't really seem like a goal, and I had no action items I could attach to it. But I was grateful, again, for the reminder to have it in my mind. Between Matthew doing therapy, getting a new job with more pay, his parents moving 15 minutes away, working again and actually enjoying it, it definitely felt like a year of miracles.

I love goals. As you can tell, I am not 100% perfect at them, but really, that's just fine. I am definitely better at the end of this year than I was last year, and I am so excited to sit down with God and come up with four new ones. I have no doubt God and I will come up with just the right ones tailor-made for this next year. 

New Year's Eve 2023

We had a fun time saying goodbye to 2023 tonight. Dude and I made it all the way, but Matthew and Luca only made it to about 10pm. The past several years, we've rung in the new year with my sister Melissa's family, but with most of her kids in town, the Jones decided to do their own thing, which meant we were doing our own thing. If left to our own devices, the Marlers are prone to board games and movies. But with New Year's Eve falling on a Sunday, we were forced to reach deep and get slightly more creative. 

We had Matthew's brother's family over for dinner which was fun. They were supposed to come the Sunday before for Christmas Eve, but as their whole family was out for the count with bad colds, we had to reschedule. They left about 6ish to start getting their babies ready for bed. By about 7 we were ready to kick off our own festivities. We had gone to Target earlier in the week trying to come up with a game plan. We bought slime, a new game, silly string, and a yummy snack.

It ended being a really fun evening, even if we did spend twice as long cleaning up the silly string as we did battling it out with it. The kids declared it a rousing success and claimed the silly string needed to become a new annual tradition.

After the silly string battle of 2023, we did bedtime. Everyone went to their respective bedrooms. I promised Dude nothing, but said, if I was still awake at midnight, I would celebrate midnight with him, which we did, just the two of us. There wasn't a lot of fanfare. Just the count down and a few poppers Dude bought with his own money. And just like that, we made it to 2024. 

2023 ended up being a pretty great year; it honestly makes me a little nervous that 2024 might not live up to its predecessor, but here's  at least hoping that we finally make it to the financial goal that has loomed so distant for so long.

Happy New Year!

December Sewing Projects

I promised to make a dear friend a quilt. We took a long time looking for just the right fabric and the right pattern. I fudged on the pattern and found some different background color than I was anticipating. I loved it until I hated it and didn't want to continue. I finished because I knew I had to eventually and then loved it all over again. Quilting is funny. Thankfully she loved it as much as I did.

And then it was Christmas break and we had a lot of time together, and I decided to make use of a bunch of scraps I've been holding on to for years and years.

This one I put together in a pleasing way, but then I didn't know what to do with it. Facebook to the rescue, and a friend (incidentally the one from above) said her daughter wanted it for her dolls. Love it.

While I was buying the orange fabric featured above, I saw this adorable charm pack and bought it on a whim. I've been wanting a cute little mat upon which to put my laptop on my desk. This is perfect.

More fabric I've had since the kids were babies. I finally pulled out all the miscellaneous pieces and came up with these interesting blocks. This is probably my favorite random something I made. I especially love that when I asked how I should quilt it, Luca suggested circles so that's what I did. One large spiral that was surprisingly really fun to do. And now it is my new Christmas table topper.

Christmas 2023

This Christmas was an interesting one, mainly because everyone knew what they were getting ahead of time. Matthew and I went to REI and bought all my gifts at the beginning of December and they just lived, unwrapped, behind the tree for the rest of the month. Luca only wanted one thing, an American Girl Doll that she wanted to pick out herself. They are pretty expensive so it was more or less her only gift. Dude wanted Warhammer figurines, also pretty expensive. Matthew wanted new shoes and to share in my REI backpacking supplies. The only surprises came when we opened the gifts the kids had purchased for each other and for Matthew and I. The gifts the kids give each other are normally opened on Christmas Eve, but with so few presents to open in the morning, they opted to wait until the next day. And yet, despite the more or less lack of surprise, they were still so excited to wake up Christmas morning, open their presents and have a day of family and cousins.

This Christmas was also special, because we were able to spend some alone time with each set of grandparents. We exchanged gifts with Matthew's parents a couple of weeks before since they were headed out of town for the rest of the month. They have never watched their grandchildren open their presents before, for any occasion, so that was a fun experience for them and us. Thankfully, my kids are wonderful about being thankful and enthusiastic for their gifts (so long as they aren't clothing).

Christmas Eve after church, my mother invited us over to her house to open the presents she had for us. What I thought was going to be a 10-20 minute experience, ended up being gifts, brunch, and a Sabbath-appropriate Christmas movie. It was so lovely spending time with them, even if we do see them on the regular. 

Overall, we had a lovely Christmas. We are thankful for all that our Savior has done for us during 2023 and are so excited to be able to celebrate His remarkable birthday.

 

Our only picture from Christmas - the kids having a slumber party in Dude's room on Christmas Eve.

Luca Reads the Book of Mormon all by Herself

I finished the book of Mormon today. This is not the first time I have finished it alone, but it was the first time I made the goal to read it all in one year. I started out reading one page a night over and over again, but I was not feeling like I was gonna finish by the end of the year, so I started reading two pages every night, except when I was away from home or something like that. my experience with this was an all year long kind of experience. I think it is so cool that guys from ancient times poured their soul into this book. and then Joseph Smith translated all of it! just wow. I don't get the tools he was using, like the stones!? how did that work? Kinda confusing. I was able to read most of the words, which makes me very proud. T At one point I was just reading, but now I try to read to get something out of it. but that's about all I can talk about, so I'd say I've had a pretty good time with it.