Stepping Into 2025 with St. Patrick

I began writing this blogpost is 2024 and finished in 2025.  If it takes a year to make a blogpost- no wonder I don't do it very often!  ;-)

As we've now entered 2025, so begins my annual yearly reflection and resolve.

Last year's resolutions were a mixed bag.  I didn't accomplish about half the things I said I would- but I did 50% more than I would have had I not made those goals... and that is the reason why I do this every year.  I know I will fail in some areas... it is inevitable... but I find that there is always success is in the striving.  

Great things I accomplished last year?!  My insane month of January cleaning/organizing/purging.   Having my in-laws over every week for dinner.  Having all the ladies and children from the church come over every month- I only missed a few months.  Taking vitamins.  Sending 6 cards (though no more than two long letters).  Christmas shopping throughout the year.  Buying a new (to us) vehicle.  Helping Andrew buy a new-to-him vehicle.  Sorting/purging the ENTIRE Granary.  (Not yet blogged the before and after pictures- but just wait!  It's amazing.)  

Things that were great until about October, when my world came crashing down and nothing but survival seemed to be important: Morning Time with Mama.  Exercise.  

Things that never happened at all: repainting the dining room.  reading Paradise Lost. Saving money.  Making a new variety of cheese.  Grapes.  Carrots.  Keeping a home journal.  BLOGGING.  (I'm sorry!)

Soooo.  Many good things, a lot of healthy and important habits to resume and a few roll-over goals for this year!  All in all, I am happy.  I love this quote:

 If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. - Elisabeth Elliot

(Sometimes the will of God requires you to do MORE.  Sometimes His will is for you to do less.  May we have wisdom to know which is needed at the proper time.)

Goals for 2025

~ Read Paradise Lost and take this free course on it .  

Conveniently divided into 12 books, my goal is one book per month.  This is the 3rd year reading this book has been a goal- and THIS IS THE YEAR that it will be accomplished. I feel it in my bones!

~ Make a quilt 

(This needs to be done by May and I've never made more than a baby quilt before... so wish me luck!)

~ Repaint the Dining Room

~ Create a monthly budget and use the envelope system to be sure it is implemented. More money has slipped through my fingers due to not having a budget than I care to admit.  (And inflation!  It's not ONLY my fault!)  With prices and times as they are, it is all the more reason to be intentional with our money.

~ Begin a SAPHOUSE FUND (The chicken house may never house a chicken.)

~ Keep a home journal this year.  We've had it for years but never write anything in it.  I plan to write in it every single Sunday, at the least.  I really want to document home projects (because I always forget when things are done) and prices of things as they are ever increasing.

~ Use up enough of my cotton yarn to fill a single basket- or less.  (Dishcloths here I come!) I am not sure if I should make this a 'crochet a dishcloth every week' goal or just a 'make it happen how ever you can' goal.  I guess I will start with the latter and if needs must, go to the former.

~ Try to make a new variety of cheese (It's about time I expand my repertoire.)

~ Invite individual families from church over once a month.  (Inviting all the ladies and children over last year was so worthwhile, so fun and did exactly what I was hoping it would do:  provided opportunity for new and old families to get to know one another more intimately. I think having my menfolk rubbing shoulders with other menfolk each month and us giving undivided attention to a single family might be worthwhile in a different way.

~ Read through the Children's Story Bible with the Littles.  Because we often just read straight scripture throughout the Bible, the 'stories' are not so ingrained in my Littles' minds as they were in my Biggles'.

~ Create a better schooling schedule for the Littles- and then implement it. 

~ Make Morning Time Great Again.  (I kid, I kid. Somewhere along the line, though, Morning Time With Mama became just Bible Reading and The Christian Almanac and I slacked off on the daily electives in order to make things quick and easy.  But we are missing out on sweet times and interesting learning by making things quick and easy.

~ Keep my commonplace book more faithfully.  (It is a treasure when it is done so I should DO IT.)

It turns out, quite a few of my goals this year are what I will NOT be doing. 

~ I AM NOT GOING TO WEIGH MYSELF for all of 2025.  

 I am tired of not feeling successful when I choose to exercise  or make healthy choices but the scale screams FAILURE to me every time I step on it.  The results are that I then get depressed about my weight instead of proud of my accomplishments.  I weighed myself on Dec. 31st and I will weigh myself on January 1st 2026... but until then, I am going to celebrate my non-scale victories instead of them being stolen from me by the stupid scale.  If I want to track progress, I will do so either with pictures or with measurements or by how my clothes fit.

~ I AM NOT GOING TO TRY TO LOSE WEIGHT.  Instead, my only focus will be to EXERCISE (in some capacity) at least 3x/week.  The fact is... I am getting older and "strong" is a much more necessary goal for older people than "skinny".  Strong means less broken bones.  Less illness.  It means less damage in falls.  It means less falling.  It means more playing.  It means better heart health and brain function and cellular function, better digestion, better blood pressure, better insulin response, more independence and vibrance.  The Lord gives us our days- we cannot add a single day to our lives- and He also tells us to steward well the ones that He has given.  Fitting into single digit sized jeans has been my aspiration almost my entire life... only now do I realize how opposite that is to "stewarding" my body.  If I exercise 3 times per week, that is a huge accomplishment and deserves being celebrated... no matter what.

~ I AM NOT GOING TO CUT OUT FOOD GROUPS.  For several years and for various reasons, I tried cutting entire food groups out of my diet.  I didn't notice many worthwhile changes and in fact, one of the results was my hair started falling out and never regrowing.  The latter half of this year, I began eating carbs and my hair decided to start growing again.  (Slowly...very slowly... but it is something.)  So this year I am not going to cut out entire food groups.  The only thing I will be limiting (not eliminating!) is sugar.   I will be tracking my protein because I know I don't eat enough of it.

~ I AM NOT GOING TO DRINK MORE THAN 12 DIET COKES this year (that's 1 per month in case of migraine).  

You see...if I fail with the "ABSOLUTELY NO DIETCOKES!" by drinking one in a moment of weakness, then I will most certainly say "Ah!  I failed.  Might as well drink as many as I want now..."  But if I keep a window of success available, I will most certainly be drinking ALMOST no diet cokes and that will most certainly be better for me.  Because they are poison.  But weirdly tasty poison.  :-)  

Do you have any goals for the coming year?  How did you do at your goals last year?  I'd love to hear!

"Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible."  ~ C.S.Lewis