THE BIG 5

New years is a fun holiday to me. Mostly because I love fresh starts. I love goals and, of course, confetti. A few years ago a friend of mine wrote down her “BIG 5”. Five things you are glad you did, five things you wish you did, five accomplishments, five obstacles, and five goals.  I liked the idea and stole it, just like you should. So here is my “BIG 5”:

5 THINGS YOU ARE GLAD YOU DID:

-Scheduled two, one week family vacations which were just my four. Time away with my crew was priceless. We spent endless hours together, just us. I will never forget these sweet days with my kids and TC.  

-Joined an exercise class (FITMama). I love to run. It is my time. It’s the time where I unplug from the world and connect with God. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But this year, I started going to a bootcamp-type exercise class once a week. It is amazing. I have been pushed to get stronger and it just feels good. I still run on the reg.  

-Saw Ellie Holcomb live. She is special to me, y’all. Her album “Red Sea Road” got me through some very tough years.

-Split middle and high school within our student ministry at 3Circle. Though I miss those middle schoolers, this has been so healthy for our ministry and for TC and me as leaders.  

-Purchased an inflatable water slide for $250 before summer began. This may seem odd but it has provided endless hours of summertime entertainment for our kids.

5 THINGS YOU WISH YOU WOULD HAVE DONE:

-Budgeted better. Working on this in 2019 already, but there were seasons where I was not careful with budgeting. I want to be a good steward of all I have been given and not live in excess. I want to be content.  

-Memorized more scripture.  

-Read more books. There is a saving grace here yall… AUDIO BOOKS! Though I Iove to tangibly hold a lot of the books I read, audio books have helped me complete books.  For those books that are easier reads this is life changing. Maybe I am behind on this.. but get off me, I have toddlers.

-Shown up more. Something I have learned walking through tragedy is you just show up. If someone is going through something or walking through tragedy and you don’t know what to do to help, just show up. No words are needed, nothing special. Just be there. There have been seasons of my life where this was tough for different reasons. You can’t fake being there for someone.

- Put my phone down more. Who really needs it all the time, anyway? I want my people to know me without a phone, face to face, totally there.

- More late night, fire pit chats with my husband. Dishes can wait.

5 ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

- Running a 10k for the first time - I’ll be doing it again in 2019!

- Leading our very first summer camp. We usually attend BigStuf each year as a group but in 2018 we put on our own camp.  

- Potty training!!!!! We have arrived.

- Split our student ministry into high school and middle school ministries.  

- I KEPT MY CHILDREN ALIVE.

5 OBSTACLES:

- Grief (this may always make the list).  

- Moving out of our student ministry room into a shared space.  This is all part of an amazing process… but it is hard.

- Injuring my back right before summer started. I am not 85.

- Lots of tough things to work through in ministry. This is a part of the job. It's a job/calling I love. Sometimes there are just situations that are tough. You pray a lot… and walk by faith on the daily.  

- Losing my third pair of expensive sunglasses. This is why we can’t have nice things.   

5 GOALS FOR 2019:

- Run a 10k and place in my age group in a 5K

- This blog :)

- Write a high school girls devotional.

- Save money (no new debt) and start kids savings accounts and another retirement account.

- Measure what matters (I explain more later)....

*****it’s so scary to say these out loud

CHEERS TO 2019!  Let’s do this.