Reflections on 2013 and Goals for 2014

I have had fun reading over my list of goals for 2013 lately. It is fun to think back over the year and reflect on what went well, the areas that we have grown in and some of the struggles I have had. It was a good year and God again blessed us abundantly. I can never say thank you enough!

  Simplifying and Organizing were big goals that I had for 2013. These went well in many areas- we did continue to go through the stuff in our house and clear things out and use things up. We ended up having two garage sales though one of them we did with some others from church and we ended up dealing with all the things that didn't sell and I think we may have ended up with more in our home afterwards that we put out to sell in the first place possibly. Anyway, it wasn't all that successful for decluttering.

  We did do very little shopping (other than food this year). I think I bought a total of 3 clothing items that were needed one for each of the oldest kids. (Ken did buy some things for himself - he does his own clothes shopping and isn't into challenges like I am.) We concentrated on mending things and using what we had instead. We were also blessed with some hand-me-downs and a few other gifts as well. This week I decided to do a thorough going through of our clothes to see if we did need to make a buying trip after this year of not buying. I had a paper and pen ready to make a list on but nearly found that unnecessary. I did write down that Jonathan needed some dress shoes (we found some cowboy boots yesterday at a second hand store that he is quite happy about), and would be needing tennis shoes and socks pretty soon. Mara needed one undergarment and would like some new sandals come summer, Aaron said he didn't need anything (and he didn't - neither does Megan) and I don't really need anything but I would like some dress boots, some sandals and a couple of nice new tops. I did find a "new" sweater and jeans for me at a second hand store too. Still looking for boots - I am quite picky and don't want to spend money on something I don't like really well. So instead of finding that we needed very much stuff instead we filled several bags with stuff to donate that we don't need. I am just amazed at how well God provides for us.

   My goal to not drive more than 3 times a week rather went by the wayside a few months into the year. It isn't that we went all the time but we only walked to places like church a few times and then we didn't bike around nearly as often as I would have liked either. It seemed like our schedule got rather busy and we were running far more than I hoped. Oh well, things like that can happen.

 This ended up being a really good year for us at keeping up with dishes (I have actually kind of learned to like washing dishes) and laundry. The kids chore charts were updated and we have put them to use quite faithfully. The kids are helping far more than they used to and it is so nice for me! Sometimes I can feel a little lazy with the kids even taking care of various meals.

  Menu planning went fairly well and life certainly went more smoothly the times that I did have a menu made. With the kids cooking ( a total of 3 breakfasts and 2 suppers) it was very important for us to have the meal figured out on the menu ahead of time.

  We did do a lot of "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do or do without". We saved money but didn't end up paying off the mortgage early - instead we made our emergency fund bigger and saved up money for buying new land.

   I had a goal to pay more attention to others and minister to them. I still have lots of room for growth in this area but it sure was a fun one to work on!  One of the areas I did really concentrate on was my marriage and I feel very blessed in this area. I think this has been one of our best years yet.

 This year....

2014 will probably be one with quite a few changes and some times of uncertainty. Yesterday we did buy some land (near here- on the Mississippi) that we hope to build a new home on. We will need to sell this home before we build so we will have quite a bit of limbo time which we are not quite sure how we are going to handle just yet. Thinking and praying on that one! :-)

Because of the fact that we could be spending the Summer (or another time this year) camping out or in a rental house or something like that I don't plan on making any major goals for certain projects or big challenges because I simply don't know what we are going to be facing this year.

I do have the goals of:

• Being patient. I think this will be a big one this year. So many changes ahead- patience will be needed!
• Serving others (with my children). It is so easy to get caught up in our own lives and what we need and want - I want our focus to be broader than that.
• Encouraging the elderly at the nursing homes. I have been wanting for a while now to see about doing a program every so often there (like singing and playing music for them) as I think they would like that. I just need to get it down.
• Learning more about harvesting and using wild foods. Ken got Mara and I mushroom books for Christmas so we are ready to go looking. There is quite a lot of foraging opportunities at our new place. I am excited about that!
• Keeping my focus on Jesus even in the midst of change.
• Being better prepared for times like sickness or other changes so that life doesn't get chaotic.

A couple of years ago I thought it would be fun to see if some year we could enter something in every class of the Home arts department at the county fair. We choose this year as Mara is now old enough to enter as an adult and so she and I would cover the adult categories and the younger 3 would do the kids. I don't know if it will work this year since we will probably be moving and building a new house. It is however still a fun dream that we have. Who knows.... maybe we will accomplish it anyhow.

  It is fun to think and dream about a new year. It feels like a fresh slate that God has given us. Let's use it to His glory!

Beautiful Birds ~ A fun art project

 Some of the kids and I had fun doing some painting not long ago. Last year my Dad had made me some wood slices for me to use for decorating at a banquet. After that was over I have had fun using them in other decorating ways but I also thought they would be fun to paint on.

 So a couple of weeks ago I pulled them out and we got to painting. Jonathan isn't so interested in that sort of art (he is very good at other kinds however) so he (and Ken) skipped out on the project but the rest of us enjoyed it.

 Megan working on a blue jay. She decided it ended up looking like a Sailor Blue Jay. I think it is pretty cute. Megan loves art but can get quite frustrated when things don't go perfectly. We had to work on learning to accept our best even though it might not be quite what we imagined.

 Mara had fun making a cardinal.

 I worked on a chickadee as they have long been one of my favorite birds. They stay here in the winter time when many birds leave and they are so cheerful!

Aaron painted an Indigo Bunting.

I painted Matthew 6:26-27 on another circle. It says:
    "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? "  

  Our little art project was pretty fun. It caused us to spend some time pouring over the bird books in deciding which ones to paint. We also studied them a little better in order to paint them. We are obviously not expert painters but each little project gives us a little more confidence to try other projects. Personally I prefer to decorate my house with things like this that we have made, like this, or things that are made, photographed or painted by people I know. To me they are much more interesting then some great piece of art that was mass produced.  

   I also just really enjoyed spending some creative time with my children working on this.

 Do you like to paint or work on creative projects like this?
 

A fun week!

We have had a busy but fun week. I am guessing maybe you did too! :-) I thought it would be fun to share some pictures of what we have had going on around here in the last week and a half.

We have a lot of snow but no real nice slopes at our place so the deck stairs got turned into a sledding hill. Safety is questionable but so far everybody has survived. :-)

Since the stairs are for going down a ladder got moved out for the going up.

What fun!

Well, it looks like everything is falling in place for buying land on the Mississippi river. Our closing is set for this week. We went over last Saturday and took another look at the land. We also did find that you could walk on the river. We were are pretty cautious about that this year though as a large snow cover made it so some ice didn't form as well as it should have in these frigid temperatures that we have been having. The picture above is of the kids on the river right by the land we are getting.

Aaron by some trees on the property. We are excited to think that not only will the river be good for boating, swimming and fishing but also ice skating. Yeah!

Tuesday we had some friends over for lunch and I also did quite a bit of baking and cooking. I made hamburger buns, little loaves and ravioli among other things. The kids thought my "bible time loaves" (their title) were pretty fun.

Christmas morning saw us with a pretty typical American scene of opening presents from our stockings.

Ken got Mara and I mushroom identification manuals. We are excited about adding a lot of mushrooms to our diet this summer. The younger 3 for the record would rather we didn't do that as they aren't overly fond of mushrooms but we oldest 3 are game.

Our traditional Vanacka Braid Bread for breakfast along with sausage, hot chocolate with whipped cream and candy canes.

Megan trying out the ballet slippers that I made for her.

 

Jonathan wearing a hat made by Mara and mittens made by me.

Around noon my extended family started arriving along with our friend  (my youngest sister's boyfriend) Benjamin. These guys decided to get a picture together wearing their wool hats. Benjamin had given Aaron his for his birthday last year. I made Aaron's mittens.

We had a variety of pasta and lots of veggies, fruit salad and jello salad for our lunch. We did also quickly whip up a carrot cake for dessert as Ken remembered that was what he had growing up and asked that we make that a new tradition.  Some of our family from Nebraska got to join us this year. In the picture above is my cousin and uncle.

Games were (as is normal in our house) one of the big things to do while together.

I am not sure just how many times The Settlers of Catan was played over the course of this week. I played it twice but it was played way more than that! It is definitely the favorite around here.

 Friday was the warmest day we had had for what seems like a very long time! The weather got up to right around freezing. It was so fun to by outside and drink in the sunshine! We went over to my parents for part of the day and most of the kids and some of the adults (me included- Ken had to work) went sledding. My parents have a large selection of nice sledding hills and we enjoyed using one in their southeast pasture.

  While out there we saw this really cool snow formations. Lots of little tubes of snow that had rolled down the hill.

 Bea and Bea (Sister-in-law and niece) going down the hill with my cousin Donna in the background. Besides sledding many of us also had fun snowboarding. My sister Anna and family had come up on Friday to join us all and brought several snowboards with them.

 Beautiful Birch trees by the sledding hill.

Most of the boy cousins had fun playing with some goats and trying to teach them how to work in a harness. I am not sure that is was terribly successful but they had a lot of fun.

 Gregory was to big to be pulled but he worked good as a brake system.

 Friday night we were back to our house for supper. While there we enjoyed some pretty music.

 I didn't join with the music making as I was busy cooking chicken curry for 27 people. I did have some very good help.

 My brother-in-law Travis with some assistance from my cousin Patrick did some tuning up on my accordion so it is ready to play again. I am very happy about that!

  While some of us were busy playing games Travis gathered a group of kids and read aloud to them. Our kids really love being read to.

 My niece Margaret had gotten a very nice camera for Christmas and she was willing to use it to take a family picture of us.

We are hoping you had a very Happy and Blessed Christmas and that your New Year is Joyful and filled with Love. May you seek to follow in Jesus steps this year and always!

A Reminder

Some neat wind blown snow art that we saw when out sledding.

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us,

 But to Your name give glory

Because of your loving kindness.

because of your truth."

Psalm 115:1

 

 

This is such a good reminder to me. It is unfortunately so easy to get caught up in thinking about me and being self centered and selfish. I need reminders regularly that my focus needs to be on glorifying God and worshipping Him! He deserves it and life goes so much better when my focus is on Him!

 

  To God be the glory!

Choices

"Better is a little with the fear of the Lord,

than great treasure and turmoil with it.

Better is a dish of vegetables where love is

than a fattened ox served with hatred."

Proverbs 15:16 &17

 

 

These verses really struck me as ones that are appropriate for us to remember this week. Remember that even though treasure (nice gifts) are fun to receive or give, that if they come with turmoil it would be so much better to have a little instead and to focus on fearing the Lord. Also a fine feast can be really nice to enjoy or prepare (I think it is fun to make sure that things look pretty and nice) but if it brings about hatred or stress or anything like that - than don't you think it would be better to have something simple accompanied with love?

 

  I hope you may have a blessed week and that it will be a time of love and following Jesus!

15 Years!

 

   Today (yesterday now- I didn't end up getting this posted yesterday)  Ken and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary. I feel very blessed! Life and marriage have not always been perfect but God is faithful and good and I have grown from and feel very blessed by my marriage.

 

  When I think of weddings I often think of these verses:

 

'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH '? "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." Matthew 19: 5& 6

 

 Marriage is a gift from God. It is worth working on, worth protecting. God has joined us together - no matter what curve balls life might throw towards you and your marriage. I hope that you will stand strong and fight for your marriage.

 

 This will be the last post in this particular series as I won't be posting much next week. I hope that maybe this focus on marriages was encouraging for you and I hope you continue to work on your marriage. I will continue to post on marriage from time to time as I believe that is important for a Proverbs 31 woman but my weekly (or nearly weekly) posts on this subject will be done now that this year is done.

 At our wedding we had quite a bit of music as that is something we like. I have been having fun going through those songs and I thought it would be fun to share them with you too:

 

 

 

"To God be the Glory" is the song that Ken and I sang at our wedding and that is still my prayer, that He will be glorified!