I've been thinking about what I want this year, 2016, to look like.

I used to make resolutions. Every year, I would read this book called How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life. It leads you through a series of writing exercises where you list things you've dreamed of doing and things you need to do and has you put them in some sort of order. You list long and short term goals and make different categories like “physical” or “spiritual.” I'm not opposed to doing that again.

I guess I just got frustrated because it took so much time to get control of my time, you know? I also really didn't like seeing the exact same goals for this year that I had last year. Still need to get healthier, still haven't made anyone's wedding cake, still haven't published a children's book (seriously, those things are all on my “goals” list!). My life, year to year, looks remarkably the same. My kids are changing, some of our activities are changing, and the location has certainly changed. But, those goals are still hanging around out there.

So, when I've been thinking about this year, I'm just making a ragtag list of things I'd like to do and do often. I'm sure I'll be able to check some of them off.

So, in 2016, I'd like to...

cook fish more often because it's good for us, read really good books, do something crafty just about every day, play the piano and guitar, sing with my eyes closed and my hands raised, hear God tell me to do something crazy and run out the door to DO it, shake my tail feather at Zumba, laugh with abandon, make snacks for my 16 year old kids to eat after school, try all the pizza joints in Berwick, take Davis' computer to the coffee shop and spend the afternoon writing, write letters and call friends, use the good china, invite people over, read God's Word and take the time to PONDER it, take a picture every day, go to IKEA, wear my pink jeans, use all the candles in my candle stash, make something lovely with my Daddy's ties, post random quotes on Twitter, color a lock of my hair with the purple hair chalk I bought but never used, go to movies on Tuesday afternoons.

I could include things like teach a Bible study and volunteer as well. But, I don't want to put so much pressure on myself that I just chunk it all. There should be joy in the journey, right?

So, while I'd like to say I'll do, see or make all my pins on Pinterest THIS YEAR, or that I'll exercise 4 times EVERY week or that I'll pray for my husband Every Single Time I stop my car at a stop sign, I know I won't. Will I check some of those things off my list? Sure! But, I'd also like to leave the door open for God to lead me to do something else. Because aren't they all really His goals anyway? Aren't they ALL spiritual?

I'd like to look back at 2016 and feel a bit less rushed, a bit more peaceful. I'd like to look back at all those 365 pictures I've taken and bask in the glory and splendor that was LIFE in 2016.

Maybe 2017 will be the year to dust off my copy of How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life. But, not now. Now, I think I'll light a candle while I figure out the way to IKEA.