• 2019 •

Each night (or as often as I can), write down something that made me happy that day. ✓
I didn’t actually complete this for the whole year, but honestly, I’m okay with it. I started feeling guilty when I would miss a day (or twelve days), and the whole point of doing it was to bring myself joy, not guilt. So…I quit! And I gave myself permission to not feel bad about it. Instead, I’ve been taking more candid photos – my mom friends cuddling their babies, Daniel and his friends laughing while watching a game together, church friends quietly serving behind the scenes. I’ve still been memorializing little moments of joy, just with a camera instead of a pen.

Plan a “stay-cation”.
As much as I wanted to make this happen…I waited too long. :( I wanted to try to plan one in the midst of Daniel’s busy season, to give him a breather, but it didn’t work out like I had hoped. But I’m not giving up, and we’re going to do this soon!

Learn something new – an intimidating recipe, common phrases in a few other languages, maybe a yoga pose. But something brand new to me. ✓
1. Ear candling! Super weird. Still don’t totally understand how it works, but I’ve always wanted to try it at least once.
2. Aerial yoga, for Robyn’s bachelorette party – SO fun!! I wish there was a studio near me so I could take classes.
3. I planned my very first wedding (Nicole and Ben’s) as a paid event coordinator!! One of the most stressful, magical days of my life!
4. I made my own butter, and it was FREAKING amazing. Just cream + a jar with a lid + salt. Yummmmm.
5. Kaci Walston taught me how to make her famous pie crust!

Finish reading through the whole Bible chronologically. ✓

Do just enough cardio to keep my heart from literally bursting at two of the most anticipated, most emotional, and most exciting weddings of my life: Robyn + Travis and Amanda + Ryan. 2019 = THE YEAR OF LOVE ♥♥
♥ Ryan + Amanda = ✓
♥ Travis + Robyn = ✓

Find a fun 5k in my area, train for it, and run in it. ✓
Color Run in Tulsa with Daniel, Robyn, Travis, Jennifer, and Stacey in April 2019

Pray for Daniel every single day. ✓
It may not have been LITERALLY every day, but I made this list to keep myself on track, and it has really helped!

Have at least one TV-free day per week, and one social media-free day per month.
I definitely did NOT do this every week or every month. Again. *facepalm* I think this is something that will always be on my list of things I want to get better at. I’m just going to put it on every goal list from now on until I accomplish it.

Set specific time aside to do something for our marriage: a weekend away, a marriage conference, etc. ✓
1. We had a dinner date alone at the steakhouse while on our friendscation cruise in October, and that time together and our conversation were a breath of fresh air!

Host our friends for a full-fledged, multi-course dinner party.
Between all the weddings, parties, baby showers, and traveling that happened in 2019, I just didn’t have time. This is still on my list for the future, though – it’s going to happen eventually.

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Another tradition I paired with my list of goals was picking a word for the year. In 2017, I chose ‘Hope’ – the anchor of souls, assurance despite repeated disappointment, and the companion of trust – and it couldn’t have been a more perfect choice. Last year, I believe with all my heart that God Himself gave me the word ‘Courage’, which was very appropriate…but to tell you the truth, I don’t know if I really lived up to it. I spent many moments in 2018 feeling weak, scared, and timid.

Because of that, I felt a little more pressure to find *THE PERFECT WORD* for 2019 because I didn’t want to choose something easy or cheesy, or turn my spiritual growth into nothing but striving to live up to a certain word. But much like last year, one word kept showing up everywhere, and I don’t think it was by accident:

J O Y .

Joy is not the same as simply feeling happy. Joy can be chosen and felt regardless of your life circumstances. I’ve learned that worrying obsessively won’t stop the bad stuff from happening. It just keeps you from enjoying the good. I want to stop focusing on things I can’t control and enjoy my life, exactly the way it is. ♥

What is one of your goals for this year? Tell me in the comments!