Beginning Again for 2020

Photo by STIL on Unsplash

As we walk into the last two months of the year, I’ve been craving a reset. Reminding myself that its never too late to start over and to focus on the things that I can control, I’ve spent the last few weeks noodling on what I want the rest of our year to look like.

This is not a rah-rah post about smashing goals and nailing it (unless you’re in the hand sanitizer business, let’s just assume that we’re all focusing on surviving right now), this is just me sharing the things that inspired me to begin again and what I’ve been working on the past month to prepare my heart and home for the holiday season and whatever else may be…

A few months ago (okay, so it was August, I did mention that I’ve been thinking about this for a while…) Nancy Ray shared a podcast about “A Vision For This Season” and while it was geared more towards families heading back to school, I think that this 17 minute episode is very helpful for anyone who feels like they need the courage to start again. She had good advice for assessing your current situation and how to fix your outlook, no matter the circumstances around us. It encouraged me more than I can say and when Josh and I had our little beach trip I sat down with a fresh notebook and wrote down a few things I needed to do and some things that I wanted to do going forward.

Here’s what I wrote…

Change my mindset– I’ve been too negative and defeated. There are certain words that I’m actively trying to remove from my vocabulary (crazy year, busy, insane, etc…) The wife and mom and person that I want to be in this season is someone who sees a need and is happy to help, I want to make the time to be creative because that is so life-giving to me and especially with Christmas, I want to be a joyful, maker of magic.

Clean and organize house- We’ve been in our house for 6 months and we’re definitely settled but it was time for a deep clean and purge. It was especially helpful for me to clean out all of our closets while I put away our summer clothing and go through Hugo’s toys before Christmas morning happens (in all honesty, we still have too many toys, I’ll do one more pass when he’s not looking). With this completed we can move into the winter months knowing what we already have, not purchasing duplicates and with everything in its proper places. (I also sat down and re-read A Simplified Life by Emily Ley again for a some fresh inspiration. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo was also on my list to re-read, but I couldn’t find it. The irony is not lost on me…)

Family budget meeting with Josh- We sat down together and updated our normal budget as well as created new budget for the holidays. It helped us to see some upcoming events and plan how to save and spend wisely.

Organize and decorate our main living spaces- I picked out curtains for our living room, we swapped out our tv for the GLORIOUS Samsung Frame TV and I spent some extra time deep cleaning our kitchen. With family coming for Thanksgiving, we wanted our main living space to be organized and welcoming.

Take better care of myself- I’m in need of a good haircut, regular home manicures, skincare for the winter months, and making sure that I’m fully stocked on my favorite epsom salts for regular detox baths (so very relaxing!) I also want to be more intentional about giving myself time off to work on the things that I enjoy like reading, sewing and writing.

Schedule our annual medical appointments- I still have yet to do this, but I need to be sure that we check in with our dentist and doctors before the end of the year since most of our appointments earlier this year were canceled.

Schedule Christmas photos and order our cards!

Start our Christmas lists and shopping!

I am by no means perfect at this, currently my dining room table is overflowing with things that I’m working on and “organizing” and my office floor was only unearthed last week and is in no position for any actual work to be done. I’m figuring this all out with the rest of you. But it was so helpful for me to stop for a minute, realize how grateful I am for what I already have and then to reset. I hope that this inspires you to focus on the good and the blessing as we finish this year.

I’d love to hear the things you’re focusing on and what your vision is for the rest of 2020…