new year, new thoughts

I have seen a couple friends posting on Facebook this week about what their word of the year is, what word they want to define their life in the coming months.  Although I don't usually engage in this exercise, I saw the question enough to ponder what my answer would be and I decided my word would be "persevere".  2017 threw a pretty major punch at me and I'll be living through its after effects throughout the coming year.  I'm prepared to put my head down and push through, but it's definitely going to take some perseverance.

You know who did not persevere to stay up till midnight?  This guy.  Maybe next year dude.

 
I'm also not usually one to make New Year's resolutions but without really meaning to I kind of have.  One resolution that we'll be working through as a family is to read every single book that the boys own and decide what to keep and what to pass on.  I check out 15-20 books from the library every week, so the ones we own have been pretty neglected.  Time to either enjoy them ourselves or pass on the literary wealth!

Little P's bookshelf

Little B's bookshelf

Everything removed from the shelves and stacked together, not sure this picture does it justice!

My seminary class last semester was about living a Christian life and trying out different practices in our everyday lives to help us live more faithfully and know God more fully.  One practice that stuck with me is "presence," as in conscientiously remembering God's constant presence with us.  During that week in class we were challenged to choose a phrase that had spiritual meaning to us and then try to remember to say it every time we stood up or sat down, or walked up the stairs, for example.  I chose to say my phrase every time I picked up my phone.  As you can imagine, that happened many, many times a day and after the first couple days I got better and better at remembering the phrase each time I picked up my phone.  I decided to continue the practice into the new year, but with some adjustments.  For this first week I wrote my phrase on a sticky note and put it on back of my phone.  Then, if I can get into this habit too, I'll set my phone down face down so that I see the note each time I pick it up and be reminded to pray/breathe the phrase.  This practice will take a bit of discipline, we'll see if I can keep it up.

I set a Goodreads goal to read 40 books this year, which I think is manageable, although I'm starting off with a 900 page biography of Robert Kennedy so we'll see how long that takes!  I'm trying to find at least ten minutes each day to play piano, but I'm not confident I'll be able to keep that up once my (final!) semester starts up in another week.  A thoughtful family friend gave me a gratitude jar and pads of paper for Christmas so I'm trying to get in the habit of adding a thought every night, as cultivating an attitude of gratitude is healthy in so many ways.  And finally, I've been pondering how to use this blog space more productively and am thinking about sharing more of what I do professionally at church, so hopefully/maybe stay tuned for more of that content.

Whether I was ready for it or not, a new year is here, and despite the baggage I'm bringing from last year, there is much to look forward to in this year too (graduation, Disney, both boys in school!) so from all of us to you - here's to 2018!!