My Goals for 2009

As I said in my earlier post, I don’t usually set New Year’s Resolutions. However – this year, it just feels right. I have spent a lot of time figuring out what it is I want for my life – it’s funny how this changes somewhat over the years.

I realized just a month ago or so that part of the problem I am having has to do with the fact that my son, James, is turning 18 in two months. At first I couldn’t figure out why I had this feeling of desperation when it came to all those “ideals” I have had that have not quite been realized over the years. I want to hang on to the time we have left – desperately.

I have four girls at home ages 14, 12, 8, and 5. I always knew the time went by fast. When my second baby was born, I realized how quickly my son had gone from being a little baby to a big three year old. I have tried hard to savor the moments over the years.

I take lots of photos and document our family’s life by scrapbooking each week. But as our lives have become ever more hectic and crazy, that time to really savor the moment is fast disappearing. So… there are changes that need to be made now – not when they are all grown up.

My goals for this year have a lot to do with that – some are less obvious than others, but they all have to do with creating the life of peace and simplicity that I so desire.

1. Have family worship twice a day without fail instead of once a day.
This has always been on my schedule, but for some reason, it doesn’t always work out that way. Things get in the way, people come over, we are at church a lot, etc. I don’t want anything to take the place of family worship.

2. Live a sustainable life.
This has been on my mind for months. I have been planning and planning… and planning. We are currently pouring over our seed catalogs and composting and getting ready for our large garden this year. I have not done much gardening over the years, but I finally have space to have a large garden. My goal is to get to the point where we don’t have to purchase anything from the store except for staples like flour (or grains), sugar, vinegar, TVP, etc.

We are vegetarian so living off of a garden is not totally out of the question. I began a food journal on January 1 and have been writing down everything we eat. I plan to keep the food journal for the entire year to give me an idea of how much food we really eat. Our family of 7 (plus 12 other family members that I feed regularly) eats quite a bit!

My husband is building a large raised bed in our backyard for me to have an herb garden as well. I hope to grow all of the herbs I regularly use – using the fresh while in season and harvesting them to dry for over winter use.

I also plan to preserve everything I possibly can. I canned large amounts in the fall of 2008 and kept a journal of what I made. I plan to chart our usage – as we use a canned item, mark it as used and see what our habits are, and how much of different items we are likely to use in a given year. (I ended up canning 250 jars of food in 2009.)

Of course, I will be using what I have and doing my best to plan my meals around what I have in my pantry, but what if I found that we enjoyed two jars of homemade pickles a week and I had only made enough pickles to last half the year? The following year, I could plan a larger crop of pickles and put more up.

My step-daughter and I (along with my children) are planning to do the garden together. We are ordering our seeds from Seeds of Change because they sell only Heirloom and Open Pollinated seeds, which means the harvested seeds will produce fruits and vegetables.

We plan to harvest our seeds and thereby reduce our need next year to purchase seeds. I do realize that this is our first garden and it will be a learning experience. I doubt we will be overjoyed with our results, but I am giving this garden to God and letting Him have the control.

We harvested several bushels of hickory nuts this year. I hope to be able to do this every year and reduce our need for store bought nuts. We also have lots and lots of blackberry brambles on our farm and are looking forward to those this summer! We also have three apple trees which produced abundant and delicious crops this past fall. We have plans to plant a good number of blueberry bushes, a male and female kiwi plant, more fruit trees, and more.

We plan to have a nice little flock of chickens this spring and hope to have lots of fresh eggs. We are in the process of looking for a good horse for my girls. They have literally dreamed of owning a horse for years, and this is something I desperately want to give them before they are grown. We are learning everything we can about horses. Thankfully, my girls have some experience already.

And, if I had my way, I would own my own milking cow… maybe one day. But we will have some goats in the near future – maybe a milking goat?

3. Make all of my food from scratch.
I already make the majority of our food from scratch. However, I know of a few areas that I could improve on. I used to bake my own fresh bread, but stopped due to health reasons. I want to begin this again, this time being very carefully not to eat fresh bread right out of the oven, but allow it to sit for two or three days before eating it.

I want to make my own homemade mixes. Things like Taco Seasoning and Self-Rising Flour. We have used King Arthur flour for years. I believe it is the best. They do not add aluminum to their Self-Rising Flour. But it has become increasingly difficult for me to find the flour in our area. I’d like to learn to even make my own flour and corn tortillas.

I also have a Wheat Mill, that I would like to use more often.

4. I want to work on Scripture Memory with my children.
I have not been nearly as consistent about this as I should have been. I want to incorporate this into our Family Worship time.

5. I want to spend more quiet time with my children.
My girls and I like to scrapbook once a week – currently Thursdays. This is a really fun time for us. I want to have more time in the evenings to just sit with them and teach them to sew or do other quiet activities. Our evenings over the last couple of years are generally very hectic and with our schedule being what it is, there are periods of weeks where we are at church every night. But on those nights when we are home, I want to create a quiet routine so that there is no rushing, no frantic pace. I want to spend more time snuggling up with my girls.

6. I want to reduce, reuse, and repurpose.
I am slowly going through every closet, every attic, every storage bin, every drawer in our house and purging as much as possible. I simply do not want to have more than we need. I want to buy less. I want to live a practical, ordinary life. I want to find ways to make what we have work. The older I get, the more I realize how futile “stuff” really is. The only treasure I can take with me to heaven is my precious, sweet family. Nothing else matters.

7. I want to spend more time outdoors with my family.
We will be gardening a lot this year. So, we will be outside more than in the past. But I want to spend even more time out in God’s creation exploring the world around us. I want to take more hikes. I want to plan a week long backpacking trip into the wilderness with my kids. I want to go camping every chance I get. If I had my way, we’d plan a camping trip for every month, but I suppose I will have to settle at this point for once every two or three months. I want to spend more time studying nature with my children. We have done quite a bit of this over the last couple of years, but I want more! I want to work on my nature journal/ field guide that I started last summer which has sat unused for months now.

8. I want to paint more.
My little girl Hannah has been asking for a week now for me to teach her how to paint with watercolors. I want to find the time to watercolor with my children. We gave each of the girls a really nice art set with watercolors and bought four easels this year. I want to nurture their creativity.

9. I want to spend more time playing the piano.
I have been taking lessons for six months now, but I struggle to find the time to practice. I am learning in spite of this! My goal is to be able to play for my churches by the end of the year. I also want to teach my children to play the piano.

10. I want to learn to play the guitar.
You can’t take a piano on a camp out, but a guitar can go everywhere!

11. I want to paint two or three more murals for my churches.
In reality, I may only get around to doing one this year and one next, but I want to see it done.

12. I want to see A Virtuous Woman grow and reach and serve more women than ever.
I have had a great vision for this ministry for many years now. I spent the week talking to some women that I know who are all pastor’s wives. We prayed together over this ministry and I have a greater peace than I have had in over a year. I know God is working and in His perfect time, things will be better than ever!

I could share more specific goals I have for my children, our homeschooling, our worship, our local ministry, but then this would go on forever. I believe this is going to be a good year. I am looking forward to every minute!