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Can you believe 2023 IS OVER? LOL ,There are only 359 days until Christmas! 🙂 All kidding aside I want to make the most of 2024. I don’t make resolutions per se, but I want to do more this year. I LOVE the idea of embracing my age… living more, being better, having more joy, happiness, sharing your life, getting back to basics and being led by Christ in EVERYTHING because it sounds like the perfect attitude for a GREAT 2024. Happy New Year my friends. May it be our best one yet! We even get and extra day to make it that way!

When I took that silly Facebook game last December it said my word was RESILIENCE, but I liked PROGRESS better and I was wrong. 2023 truly became the year of RESILIENCE as I dealt with the adversity of a truly narcissistic witchy woman and multiple family health issues. So deciding on using both words for RESILIENT PROGRESS was better. I was only wishful thinking though! But seeing that the meme spoke to me I decided to add BALANCE which was insightful and very helpful in the end! I truly believe all three words worked hand in hand to make life easier and happier in the long run for me.

In 2024 I have new words, but I don’t want to “throw out” the old words. I decided to ADD to them to last year’s words. This year I’m adding SURVIVAL and CONTENTMENT. But, the story doesn’t end there. Day 1 of 2024 threw yet another curve ball at me with some Eagle’s issues and such so I’m adding yet another word – FLEXIBILITY!

RESILIENT PROGRESS with BALANCE, SURVIVAL, CONTENTMENT & FLEXIBILITY!

I no longer have a word, but a sentence to live by!

Oh, and that witchy woman? We ALL persevered and she’s now being nice to MANY people 😀

Update to MY list for 2023 WAS:

• Do a Happy Homemaker Monday post each and every week and link up with Sandra over at Diary Of A Stay At Home Mom. This keeps me more on track and organized about my home life. Doing Happy Homemaker Monday so extensively helps keep me on track as it summarizes the past week and lays out a fairly concise plan for this week. DONE I haven’t missed one in years I’m proud to say.
  
• I joined Sandra over at Diary Of A Stay At Home Mom for her Blog 365 challenge. A blog post every single day of 2023! This task became VERY challenging during the summer from hell, but I did it (for the most part)! Sometimes the post was a full one, but other times it was simply an inspirational picture. I may not always have gotten the logo in! This was a HUGE endeavor last year with the summer from hell with the water main break and rebuild of the EAGLE’S lodge. 2024 brings a new opportunity to try again and even adds in an extra day with leap year 😀
  
• Do a devotional every day. This category was serious wishful thinking and I tabled it to a 2024 goal. I seriously need to get better in this category. When time falls short and there is so much to do, personal time AND pampering time always take a back seat 🙁 I chose “100 days of FAITH over FEAR” devotional to begin 2024 with.
  
• Follow a nightly skincare regime. This has become habit and has been working really well.
  
• Complete 4 quilts – at least 1 for each quarter. 2023 started off right with these 2 Christmas beauties being bound. I have several others that are 90% done, but need bindings and I’m STILL hoping to get to them in 2024. The plan for 2023 had been that my girlfriend and were going to do 8 table runners for the Eagle’s Lodge, but that was before we were overloaded with the great rebuild. We’re going to try and get those done in 2024.
• Make a better effort to reach out and connect with friends and family more regularly. This category was going well, even pretty good before it took a dive, but I took the fall/holiday season to improve! Now to just keep it going in 2024.
  
• Learn YOGA or Pilates or both! I can’t seem to find the time to do these, but will keep working on it.
  
• Take at least a 2 mile walk daily. While I USUALLY get this done in just my daily routine, it is something I need to be more conscious of accomplishing. Once again with the cooler weather this will become a more accomplished category.
  
• Continue to downsize and declutter EVERYTHING. DONE TO DATE As we continue to go antiquing I have added more questions to my thought process about whether I really need and/or will use something before I buy it.
  
• Clean out photo files that date back 13 years! I’m working on it, but it’s really hard. This is a serious work in progress that will ALWAYS take ALL year, EVERY YEAR, mainly because I keep taking pictures 😀
  
• Create Shutterfly photo albums for 2023,2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016. These have been in the works for awhile, but I’m going to get them done this year. 🙁 I’m hoping to use the January rainy indoor time to accomplish this category.
  
• Do more drawing and painting – at least one per every other month. NOT so good last year as it was filled with working on the estate sales with a friend as well as our own garage sale through the horribly long and cold/wet winter and spring followed by the summer of excessive work. Hubby and I did schedule a date night paint class last October and a I gave a friend a gift certificate for the paint class of her choice for a girl’s day out. I did this guy done as a pillow and want to another on the backside of the pillow soon. And hubby and I did do a date night for the black and white wolves.
  
• Focus on rewriting more recipes to work for only 2 people with NO leftovers. This is a work in progress, but doing REALLY well still. It has been seriously complicated by the increase in grocery prices 🙁 A friend loaned me her mom and grandma’s recipe boxes which was fun for some new recipes. It also helped with the “clutter” since I only photoed those recipes I REALLY wanted to make – so I only “rented” them and I am still making my way though those recipes with GREAT success.
  
• Volunteer at least once a month for a community project. Since I’ve gotten more involved in the Eagles this is a category I SERIOUSLY accomplish regularly and enough for the both of us. 😀 2023 included the the weekly shopping for the Lodge, the Chili Throwdown, Blackberry Festival, Trunk or Treat, Timber Town Parade and I’m now helping write some grant proposals and do some fundraisers to get the Eagles building updated externally, a paved parking lot and a few other beautification projects.
  
• Do a date weekend once a month – exploring a new place we’ve never been before. In February we planned a Valentine’s couples painting class that didn’t happen but in March we went for a special romantic dinner to TRUE KITCHEN for hubby’s birthday and it was fantastic. In January we were going to go to the beach antique shopping and a special dinner out at Waterfront Depot, an old train depot on the bay, but weather was been so bad and medical appointments didn’t line up so we postponed that until later. In April we finally made it to the coast and did some antiquing also. We have done several dinner nights and out to see a popular local oldies band several times including New Year’s Eve. And we did go to a paint class in October that was a bit challenging being all black and white. We have the same plan for this year of once a month date night, but have yet to decide on specifics.
  
• Clean out old files and recycle or destroy old papers. This is still an ongoing work in progress, but I’ve made seriously good progress in 2023 and so far through 2024 and will finish through next winter.
  
• Eat at least 1 piece of fruit daily. 😀
  
• I’m all about leading a positive life and carrying the Christmas spirit year round. There is no better way to do that than to do at least 1 random act of kindness every time I leave the house no matter what year it is!
  
• Read 36 books which I fell a bit short of. I was hoping for double this year over last year! 36 WAS a realistic goal and I actually reached 59 in 2022 which made me REALLY happy, but yet life took over in 2023! I read an article just today about how reading is good for your mental health.The ones I read in 2023 were:
  1) The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by Pam Jenoff
  2) Undertow by Jana DeLeon
  3) Someone to Love by Marie Force
  4) State of Bliss by Marie Force
  5) A Vineyard Lullaby by Katie Winters
  6) A Vineyard Vow by Katie Winters
  7) At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber
  8) The Menu Match by Philipa Nefri Clark
  9) The Christmas Match by Philipa Nefri Clark
  10) State of Denial by Marie Force
  11) Fortune Teller by Jana DeLeon
  12) A Vienyard White Christmas by Katie Winters
  13) A Vineyard Thanksgiving by Katie Winters
  14) August Sunsets by Katie Winters
  15) Firefly Nights by Katie Winters
  16-19) House Above the Bookshop by Sage Parker
  20) Clue Krewe by Jana DeLeon
  21) The Long and Winding Road by Marie Force
  22) August Sunsets by Katie Winters
  23) The Sunrise Cove Inn by Katie Winters
  24) The Heart Match by Phillipa Nefri Clark+ a few cookbooks and several magazines
• Here’s a list of the books I have in queue for 2024 – a double baker’s dozen+ to get this year started. When I’ve actually read them I’ll change them to green in color. This category suffered tremendously from July-September 2023 during the 7 day work weeks I was too tired to read at the end of the day and I was slow to get back into the habit so we’re rolling them into 2024.
  1) A Fire Sparkling by Juliane Maclean
  2) The Honey Bus by Meredith May
  3) When It Falls Apart by Catherine Bybee
  4) The Brighter the Light by Mary Ellen Taylor
  5) The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman
  6) The Woman with Two Shadows by Sarah James
  7) The Silent Woman by Minka Kent
  8) Waking Kate by Sarah Addison Allen
  9) Real Bad Things by Kelly J. Ford
  10) The D’Angelos by Catherine Bybee
  11) Brewed Book #1 in the Cozy Coffee Shop series by Heather Sage
  12) Cauldrons Call by Kristen Proby
  13) The Resistance Girl by Mandy Robotham
  14) Someone to Hold Wild Widows #2 by Marie Force.
  15) State of Shock, First Family #4 by Marie Force
  16) Summer Magic #1 The Thorne Witches by T.M. Crom
  17) Find Her by Chris Patchell
  18) On The Market (Texas BBQ Brothers #1) by Audrey Wick
  19) We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
  20) A New Choice (The new Beginnings Series #1) by Michelle MacQueen
  21) The Copperfield House (A Nantucket Sunset series #1) by Katie Winters
  22) Under the Maui Sky #1 Maui Island by Kellie Coates Gilbert
  23) Justice, A Rocky Mountain Thriller by Ann Voss Peterson
  24) The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
  25) Girl One Murder ~ FBI Suspense Thriller #1 by Maya Gray
  26) Lost & Found ~ A Clean Small Town Romance #1 by Lucinda Race
• I had added a “SEASONAL” list too. I started with fall that you can see here. And a simple winter list is here. I’ll work on a spring list if it ever happens 😀 – never got around to the spring list and it turned into the summer list which is primarily figuring out and solving the irrigation and water issues around here. I never got around to a spring, let alone a summer list so this category has been a COMPLETE dud!
  

• Finish indexing the recipes on my Food blog, Savory Kitchen Table. This is a serious work in progress and hold over from 2022 that WILL take ALL year LOL NEXT year.
  
• Finish indexing the recipes on my Life blog, Chasing MY Life. When I merged my old blogspot blogs into this single blog it duplicated many things and added an “ALL” category that I am having to eliminate one by one so it’s taking a LONG time. This is a serious work in progress and roll over from 2022 that WILL take ALL year into the next again.