Happy New Year

We rang in the new year with some great friends last night! I don't know how we all stayed awake, but at 12:30 we were still there and the kids were all going strong but the parents were all yawning. We got home a little before 1:00 this morning and everyone crashed. Thankfully the kids slept until 9:00, but I have a feeling that early bedtimes are going to be happening tonight. :)

2014 was a great year for our family. Matt finished his Ph.D. and that pretty much was the capstone of our year. We moved to a new school district which we've all fallen in love with and discovered that the little town it is in is a great fit for us as well.

Matt and I had one big goal for 2014-- besides him finishing school. :) We decided to read through the whole Bible together. I haven't read the Bible in a year since college and it was something that we both felt extremely convicted to do.

Doing this has been life changing for me. I have read a lot of great Biblical based books, and I will continue to read them. But reading what someone says about what the Bible says and actually reading what the Bible says are not the same. There are a lot of great Bible scholars out there that know a lot more than I do; however, I learned so much from reading the Bible in its entirety that I might never have learned otherwise. I have learned that reading a Bible Study Book cannot compare with opening my Bible and reading the truth of God's word. I plan to do my best to never let a day go by that I do not sit and read His word, even during the busiest times of life. This is something that I want to model to our kids -- I want them to see us praying, reading our Bible, and I know that Matt feels the same. The habits that they see in us will hopefully become habits they develop one day.

There are some things I learned this year during this that I want to remember--
*I really enjoyed reading some parts of the OT that I wasn't expecting to enjoy. I thoroughly enjoyed Kings and Chronicles. We did a study of these books at church late in 2013 and I was excited to read them through again.
*I noticed how many times it says that God Changed His Mind in the OT. I needed to be reminded of the fact that we can pray and God may change His mind.
*This began to be one of the highlights of my day. Matt and I were keeping the same reading schedule and talked a lot about what we were reading. It help our spiritual life as a couple grow more than ever before.

So, what's new for 2015? Well, I never set goal for the new year until a few years ago. Now it's something that I think about and pray about each year starting late in the fall. And, every year it seems to be clear what I need to try and accomplish in the new year.

This year, my biggest goal is going to be getting up early and doing my Bible study. Last year, I often did it at night before bed, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wanted to spend the best, freshest part of my day doing this. I used to be quite a morning person, but years of very interrupted sleep and days that seem to be packed from end to end have made me less and less a get up and get going person. I'm hoping that if I maybe write it down here, I'll have to actually do it. :)

So, for 2015, I'm planning to read through the New Testament and Psalms. We didn't get to the NT until late this fall and I just felt a little rushed reading it, so I'm going to take my time and go through it this year. And, I'm hoping Madeleine will do the NT with me. I also have several books sitting by the bed already that I'm looking forward to reading.

My other goal is to blog more -- at least 10 times each month, but hopefully more. It's been hard finding time to sit down and write about our life, but I know that I will regret not doing it one day.

Finally, I'm hoping to continue with something I started last fall -- making the most of this last year with Charlotte at home. I know that the coming year will bring a big change for her with starting kindergarten, but also for me as I transition from being a mom with kids at home to be a mom of school age kids. It's a transition that I've dreaded for years, and I have loved having my kids home with me. But Charlotte will be ready and I'm planning to embrace this new phase when it gets here (after lots and lots and lots of tears, I'm sure!).

So bring on 2015! Hopefully, you are filled with lots of laughter, fun and great memories!