Tag Archives: new year

One Little Word for 2024

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As many of you know, I love to focus on a word for the year versus resolutions and goals, etc. This seems particularly impactful for me this year as I am longing for and desperately searching for anchors to keep me grounded throughout this period of grief and disentanglement I am experiencing.

Last year, I chose BECOMING and because I chose it so late, I considered continuing it this year because it does capture this period of change, transformation, and growth (in a positive forward-looking kind of way that I need reminders to do).

But after sitting with this for the month of January, I decided to pair it down to just the word “BE.” What has happened in my life in the past 13 months has been stripping, pairing down, undoing many many parts of my life. I have always been a “doer”, a motivated, get all the things accomplished kind of person (enneagram 3 problems). But my body taking over to protect me and sit me down with a variety of gut punch life events has taught me to appreciate honor the space that I am in and not focus on everything I need to do to change it.

What “be” means to me:
– to let things be what they are and not focus on what they could have, would have, should have been
– to be in my body and feelings
– to be a human BEing, not a human DOing (love this quote)

– to be myself and share my story authentically with those around me
– to appreciate the roles I hold and continue to get better at them – I want to BE my most favorite version of a mother. A counselor. A disruptor. A mentor and coach. A friend, daughter, sister, romantic partner, etc.
– to be present (“wherever you are, BE there” is a mantra I repeat on a regular basis)
– to accept and appreciate days when my only job is just to be (and survive), not produce outcomes and check off to-do lists

If you’d like to read reflections on my other words, click the tag below this post to see them all summarized since 2016 (I started this blog 8 years ago!). And per usual, I’d love to read what your words are for this year….I always feel inspired and a spark of connection when I read yours and hope mine does the same for you.

39/40 on choosing a word each year

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Like many people, I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s….it’s quiet and a wonderful time for rest, reflection and goal-setting. I began choosing a word during my time at Treasury of Memories as it was big in the scrapbook world back then. And then it grew from there…..some words are more impactful than others, but I do love focusing on a word much more than exact resolutions that never seem to stick beyond January.

Here is a visual of my words so far and I’ll post a few links below of previous blog posts if you’re interested in exploring more on how to I used these.

One Little Word over the years….
2010- me (the year I went to Haiti and met Scott)
2011- you
2012- us (got married)
2013- rooted
2014- connect (Team Brave Dinosaurs formed February 2014)
2015- (survive), didn’t pick a word out of sheer chaos that was our journey this year including criminal trial and extremely hard trauma behaviors
2016- together (adoption!)
2017- allow
2018- spark
2019- value
2020- vision
2021- heal
2022 – reclaim

Picking a word is the hardest part….I love being inspired by what others choose and I usually have a few picked out to let simmer in my brain. Then throughout the first week of January, I see which ones rises to my heart/brain more than others. The moments of clarity in these moments of “choosing” are sweet and simple and help my investment in the word throughout the year.

Recently, on instagram, there have been some fun options to screenshot for ideas of words….here are three that I recently did and although I’ve already used Heal, I do love the idea of power and ideas since I have a whole lot of the latter and have been feeling very little of the former as of late.

And as I do each year, I would love to hear your word and also would love to hear your process for how you choose said word!!! Happy last week of 2022….one more “moment” to post and I will have completed by goal for this 40th year around the sun (better late than never).

On our 3rd annual Team HB meeting

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Two years ago, we started this tradition of sitting down together as a family to review our year and have a casual conversation about what the next year had in store for us. This year, we reconvened our meeting and much to my surprise, there was minimal resistance from the Wonders and my husband.

Listing 22 things we wanted to accomplish year. It was fun to compare mine with Scott’s to see the overlap.

Per usual, the kiddos worked on some worksheets from Big Life Journal (I also like to use these at work with students and still on sale) to capture some of their thoughts.

Although this practice seems a little corny and REALLY feeds into the January “new year new me” hype that I’m not a big fan of, our family has been through some weird transitions this past year so this type of coming together and circling back up together was quite comforting to my Mama heart. Plus, it’s really fun to look back on past years’ work and see how much everyone has grown and changed.

And just because I like to be real and honest here, we also reviewed our family goals from last year and really sucked at all of them except for 8 family hikes….so we live, we learn – and maybe we needed more than just one year to get some of those things checked off our family bucket list.

One Little Word 2021

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I got some practice with my word for this year earlier in 2020 when it was needed desperately after some events literally broke our family and our future’s predictability into pieces. Restoring back to some version of “whole” was my focus for myself and for members of my family for the greater part of the year.

And now, I hope this word continues to be a prominent action (because I view it is an action, not an outcome) in our household but also I hope it takes root and grows and grows within our communities, nation and world.

My intentions for what this will look like:
– explore pathways to healing that we haven’t explored before
– prioritize time for each individual to find their “whole” self (personal development, mindfulness, exercise, etc.)
– prioritize time for relationships to heal and grow (not just as one larger family unit)
– become clear in the “why” of what I do, both professionally and personally

Obviously this is my greatest wish not only for the global Covid-19 pandemic but for the racial reckoning happening right now as well.

Also, a little knowledge to impart that I didn’t know before that inspired my choice of this word – did you know that “holy”, “health” and “hale” all come from the same root word, meaning “whole”? To quote Julie Holland from the book Good Chemistry, she writes “to heal is to restore to a state of wholeness. That’s my first job.” Amen and me too…..

  • My home screen to remind me of my OLW.

Team HB 2019 annual review

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This morning, our little crew took a trip to our local coffee shop to reflect together on our year and make big plans for 2020! We called it our annual review business meeting and even snagged the important meeting room to make it official.

For Scott and I, we reflected on this blog post to determine how far we made it on our goals. Turns out, we still have a lot of items still to check off and make more of so we’ll be continuing these efforts into 2020 (and maybe beyond that depending on the goal):

(From blog post)
“Some missing pieces that we’d like to change next year:
– being more intentional with how we’re showing love to our children (love languages, quality time, etc.)
– accept where they’re at
– commit to a trip together without kiddos
– attend a personal development conference together
– more transparency about mental health struggles in hopes that stigma goes down in families around us
– host more things at our house….we love our space and want more people in it with us!!!”

I also downloaded an awesome packet for both wonders from Big Life Journal and had them work on it together. The prompts and questions were easy for them to navigate while still digging deeper than a surface level conversation starter like “how was your year”? Plus it’s 25% off through Thursday the 2nd if you’re interested in doing this activity with your kiddos also!! Once they are finished, I will share some of their thoughts and writing to check back on later this year.

A little coloring action to highlight my 2019 word – VALUE.

My one little word this year was VALUE – although it didn’t resonate with me big time, when I took the time to reflect on the word and compare my daily actions or behaviors it really helped me stick to boundaries and priorities in my life. Read more about my 2019 word HERE. I can confidently say that my values of connection and growth were lived out on the daily in my life both personally and professionally this year – even when that connection or growth felt HARD and HEAVY.

We decided as a team this morning to keep checking in on these goals by having a “business meeting” each month to bring up our goals and reflect on our growth towards them. This is where having older kiddos has been so great for me – teaching goal-setting, growth mindset, and self-care to two kiddos who will NEED those things big time in their adult lives (plus how it helps the hubby and I right along with them).

On my word for 2019…

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I’m still waiting for the right word to pick me a few weeks in to the new year….and I’m okay with that. These are the ones popping up for me as I think about what I would dream for in 2019 and what could move me and my family forward in healing and love. Last year my word was Spark and it fell a little flat for me in the last 6 months. Although I loved the word and my intention behind it, just some words motivate and stick more than others. I’ll keep you posted on what word I choose and add some detail as the hubbub settles and one becomes clear to my brain and heart.

What’s your word/phrase/intention/mantra this year??? Happy 2019 to all of you – let’s make this a good one peeps!

My One Little Word for 2017

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Throwback to some history on my One Little Word Journey

My one little word for 2017 found me while I listened to this Lively podcast featuring Erin Lochner (very excited to  read her new book, Chasing Slow). They discussed the difference between ALLOWing something into your life (with joy) and TOLERATING something (with disdain). Although I contemplated some other words to focus on this upcoming year, this one kept speaking to my heart time and time again.

I will allow:
– my daughter to dress how she wants to dress, style her hair how she wants to style her hair, and take pictures of what she wants to take pictures of because she is a unique force of a human that I do not want to restrict in any way from developing her true self (I’m putting this first because for some reason, this one might prove to be the hardest for me)
– my son to become a young man even though I so desperately want him to stay little
– my husband to cope with his stuff in ways he needs to cope with his stuff
– my students to express themselves in a variety of ways, not just in my step-by-step directed ways
– myself to connect with friends and girlfriends WITHOUT feeling guilty about missing time with my family
– intentional time to be made for creative pursuits each week
– time each day to reflect on gratitude and express that gratitude to those that gifted me that which I am grateful
– good things to happen to my family without second guessing who is judging from afar
WITH JOY.

I will NOT allow:
– screentime to become more important than eye contact and deep connection with my kids
– my insecurities to block my successes
– others around me to struggle with ailments, both physical and emotional without an effort from me to help (even if it’s an offer to help through the medicinal properties of an open bottle of red wine)
– politics to shade my hope and belief in Americans, America, and our future generations of change-makers

My little family set some goals on New Year’s Eve together. We are using an amazing goal-tracker by Elise Joy (get yours here for FREE) to track our PROGRESS (not perfection) at these goals this year. One week in, and this has already been a great way to keep each other accountable and have some meaningful conversations about reaching our goals, both big and small.Happy New Year to all of my loved friends and family – thank you for checking in on us every now and again. I can’t wait to keep sharing our wins and our struggles this year as we keep chugging away at this little thing called life.

Ready…set…2016

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As a devoted lover of reflection and goal-setting, New Years Eve is a favorite of mine. Definitely not for the overrated party situation, but the time to look back on an entire year and see how much you have grown and thrived in 365 days. This was our second NYE as Team Brave Dinosaurs and my two little wonders love our tradition of hourly games and activities (and getting to stay up super late of course).

I found this free printable online that each wonder completed with their favorite moments and ideas from 2015 and some goal-setting for the next year. My favorite is that WB’s “I always say” is “You’re the best Mama” – we’ll forget for a moment that he says this the most when he wants extra screen time or a granola bar (he’s lucky he’s so darn cute).
wb nye wg nyeOur annual “milk and cookies” toast – cheers to WG learning my Mom’s beloved rice krispy treat recipe. Boo to a sneaky houseguest eating half the batter.

A few favorite gifts from 2015 – my new Cougs hat from my bests and that amazingly HUGE calendar from my HSLP. I was very much looking forward to today so I could fill it out and post it in our dining room.Scott and I got a date night this past week and we took some time to create some family resolutions and goals for the new year. I’m going to post them here to keep me accountable for actually following through (I may also need the assistance of this goal tracker but I’m not sure – I severely lack intrinsic motivation and follow-through – maybe this should be my personal goal – eh, maybe next year).

2016 TBD resolutions/goals:
Monthly – 
Volunteer together
Read-a-thon sleepover
Family hike

Weekly –
Non-screen chill time (board game, reading, coloring, etc.)
30 minute quiet time and scripture reflection

Other – 
Attend a play/musical together
Painting class
Family 5k (insert my instant panic here – yuck)

Happy 2016 to all of my readers – wishing you and yours an amazing year filled of WONDER, JOY, and adventures!