I Dodged a Bullet | A Winter Walk

 

This is video is really important to me. It's probably the most important one I've made.

Looking forward to 2024 in this last Shabbat Prep Day Radio of 2023!

 

 

Looking forward to 2024 in this last Shabbat Prep Day Radio of 2024!

My 2024 Goals: Reading, Writing, Wellness, Discovery

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

Robert Burns, "To a Mouse"

The start of a new calendar year always has me making plans; yet I know as a follower of Yeshua, my plans may not be His best for me. I try to remember that my ideas are to be penciled in and frequently run by our Father for His approval or refinement.

With that said, there are a few concepts I want to focus on this coming year:

Intentional Peace: Focusing on rooting out causes of stress and anxiety, setting and enforcing boundaries, being ruthless about this.

Alignment: I hope this will be a season of discovering and rediscovering who I am, why I'm here, and how my life is to be used.

Contentment: Prioritizing being sure that my attempts to find peace and rest are pleasing to the Father. I won't get this right every time, but I want my motivations to be pure. I don't want to get lazy about trying to honor and obey Him and I don't want to become apathetic about gaining His favor.

With those three concepts in mind, here are some personal goals I have for education and relaxation in 2024:

Reading

Read 80 books.

    My reading goal for 2023 was 60 books and it looks like I'm going to barely make it. So why would I add more? Audio books. I've discovered audio books are a great alternative to prepping freakout videos.

Read more American history, poetry, short stories.

No obligation reading.

    Sometimes I feel bad for giving up on a book in the middle of it--especially when it was a gift or I spent a lot of money on it. I need to be better about abandoning ship when a book is not meeting my standards or I'm just not enjoying it. Life's too short to read lousy books!

Writing

In some cases, this falls under that category of obligation. I made a couple of writing commitments to myself earlier this year regarding publishing and now I'm not so sure I want to tackle that right now. I've definitely not been in the mood to work on those projects lately.

However, I write for Torah Sisters magazine and just submit articles as I finish them so I'd like to make a commitment to try to write one every two weeks. I think it would help me tremendously to write out a schedule of when I'm going to write what.

I'd like to update my personal journal at least once weekly.

I'd like to write out the Torah.

I'd like to start writing out my reading notes instead of putting them in my phone. My husband is teaching himself bookbinding and made me these beautiful books. They'll be perfect for taking reading notes.

This one might be a little far-fetched, but I'd like to write out a monthly schedule at beginning of each month and stick to it without adding a bunch of non-essential stuff.

YouTube

I don't want to make a lot of specific goals here because my literature channel is new and my ministry channel is (hopefully) God-led. The main thing in this category for 2024 is that I want to form relationships with people who share my interests and be an encouragement.

Wellness

A very big priority this year definitely needs to be a focus on my physical and mental health. Years ago when I was trying to work on overcoming the people-pleasing mentality, I made a goal for the new year that it would be a no-obligation year. I don't remember how well I did with all that but I know it was the catalyst to help me learn to put up boundaries and manage my time commitments better.

I don't have a people-pleasing mentality anymore about people who live outside my home, but I find myself struggling a bit at home now. Most of my kids are older teens or adults and I feel a lot of pressure to mold my life in a way that works for one person in the moment, and another in the next moment, but doesn't actually work well for the family as a whole. It really stresses me out to try to juggle all these things, and much of the problem is that I'm not carrying those lessons of boundaries and time commitments into my own household.

So that's my biggest goal this year: peace in the home and peace in myself. There are some personal health and attitude changes I need to make in myself, but also just in how I manage the responsibilities in my life. I need to think more "big picture" and not continue just putting out small fires every time I turn around.

Discovery

I made a commitment back in October on my birthday to do new things. For a little bit, I've kept track of some of the new things I've done each day and I want to carry that thinking into 2024,

I want to visit 15 new-to-me bookshops.

I want to travel more. I have a couple trips to England planned, two trips to Michigan, one to Oregon, and maybe one or two more.

    My friend bought me a gorgeous travel journal for my birthday so I plan to write in it all about the new places I visit on my travels.

Here's to a new calendar year full of many beautiful things!