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I’m back for 2025! And I’m doing great so far!! Deciding to find purpose and intention in EVERYTHING has made all the difference in conquering my lists.

After I wrote my first post Jean pointed out that breaking the tasks into categories made it easier for her. I LOVE that idea and decided to try it myself. I wasn’t exactly able to break it down into 5 things into the 5 categories, but I tried 😀

A “Word of the Year” sets your intention or theme for how you want your life and year to flow.

In my case I decided a single word just wouldn’t work. There are still too many things I want to accomplish so I chose a few, well actually 10. I even tried to make an acronym out of them, which didn’t work 😀 My words are:

• BALANCE all my responsibilities with more fun and adventure
  
• BREATHE before making a decision to get involved in ANY project
  
• EVOLVE from the rut I’ve been in to a new lease on life with a Passion Project
  
• SIMPLIFY by continuing to downsize all the stuff in our life and de-clutter most of it
  
• HEAL or AKA continue to stay healthy and work on dietary issues
  
• INSPIRE my own creative outlet and as many others as possible
  
• PERSEVERE through all of my health issues and life itself
  
• THRIVE despite the medical and dietary issues
  
• PASSION for getting back to more of my favorite pass times – reading, quilting, painting
  
• GRATITUDE for everything and EVERYONE in my life
  

In the end, I realized I’d be extremely happy if any one of these words would happen for me on any given day 😀

My list for 2025 is (some are holdovers, okay MOST are):

HEALTH & WELLNESS

• Follow a nightly skincare regime DONE
• Learn YOGA or Pilates or both! I’ve been trying some chair yoga just because I can do it at night.
• Take at least a 3 mile walk daily. I’ve been getting in close to 5 miles a day.
• Avoid gluten and fats to help keep my body happier. DONE most days, BUT it’s really hard to give it ALL up!! The cravings are killers.
• Eat at least 1 piece of fruit daily and more nuts for protein. DONE

ADVENTURE & FUN

• Complete 4 quilts – at least 1 for each quarter. I’m not done, but I have some pillow fronts started.
• Finish as many already “started” projects as possible. I finished two Christmas jewelry trees that I started back in 2023. And I’m working on a jewelry “forest” with an old frame.
  
• Read at least 48 books or 4 a month. Hopefully it will be more, but I think this is a realistic goal. I did join a local book club and that is helping me read new authors I might not have chose otherwise. Books read to date are:
  • Society of Lies Lauren Ling Brown – BOOK CLUB CHOICE
    
  • The LAST ONE at the Wedding Jason Rekulak – BOOK CLUB CHOICE
    
  • The Rose Code Kate Quinn – BOOK CLUB CHOICE
    
  • Lilac Ink, The Knocknashee Story by Jean Grainger
  • A Certain Kind of Starlight Heather Webber
    
  • The Book Charmer – Dove Pond #1 Karen Hawkins
    
  • Cup of Silver Linings – Dove Pond #2
    
  • The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove Pond #3
    
  • The Bookshop of Hidden Dreams Dove Pond #4
    
  • Blue Waters – Caribbean Adventure #1 Eric Chance Stone 
  • PICTURES OF YOU by Emma Grey – BOOK CLUB CHOICE
  • NONE OF THIS IS TRUE by Lisa Jewell – BOOK CLUB CHOICE
    
  • The Boyfriend by Frieda McFadden – BOOK CLUB CHOICE
    
  • That’s NOT my name by Megan Lally – BOOK CLUB CHOICE
    

FAMILY & FAITH

• Do 1-2 devotionals every day – I really need to get better at this, spare time has just been so scattered. I did start The Bible Recap
  
• Make a better effort to reach out and connect with friends and family more regularly. I’ve been doing well on this one. Sometimes too well! I’m not getting all my chores done for the play time.
• Do a date weekend once a month – exploring a new place we’ve never been before. We’ve always done pretty well on this topic, but we’re running out of ideas in this small town. We did find a great new little restaurant, The Atom, when we went to the river in January to see Colliding Rivers with all of our flooding. We’ve been back every other week or so because their menu is amazing!!
  

DAILY PROGRESS ~ NO PROCRASTINATION! I’m developing a notebook that works in conjunction with my calendar for lists and tasks that make my life operate in a smoother daily operation.

• Do a Happy Homemaker Monday post each and every week. 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. I haven’t missed a day in years!
• Finish indexing the recipes on my food blog, Savory Kitchen Table. LOL I’m working on it.
  
• Finish indexing the recipes on Chasing MY Life blog. 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. LOL still working on this too – spare time… is fleeting…
  
• Continue to downsize and declutter EVERYTHING. I think this will be an ongoing effort for the rest of my life.
  
• Clean out photo files that date back almost 15 years! This too will be an ongoing effort for the rest of my life.
  
• Create shutterfly photo albums for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 and then delete the photos from ALL my devices. Working on it.
  
• Go through scrap recipe tote and eliminate all the recipes I will never try – they’re just not worth saving. Partially done.
  
• Do more drawing and painting – at least one per month. I did this fun Paint-N-Sip in February with friends at the Eagles as a fundraiser for the local Cancer center.
  
• Focus on rewriting more recipes to work for only 2 with no leftovers. The NEVER ending chore. I’m trying to only work on recipes that stand out in our memory as superb.
  
• Clean out old files and recycle or destroy old papers. I spent MOST of February re-working these files and LOVE the progress I made.
  
• Clean out craft cabinets and donate craft parts no longer needed. DONE

RANDOM ACTS

• Do at least 1 random act of kindness every time I leave the house whether it’s just a wave hello to an elderly neighbor, a meal for a sick friend, holding a door open, putting my cart in the designated spot… 😀 DONE
• Volunteer at least once a month for a community project. DEFINITELY DONE!!
  
  • I proofread the newsletter and I manage the kitchen (keep it staffed, do the shopping for the kitchen and bar each week as well as keep it organized and well stocked with whatever is necessary) for the Eagles, do random maintenance as well as donate at least one auxiliary fundraiser meal each month and bake for the bake sale. I’ll be taking over as editor for the newsletter on June 1st.
  • I also do the Costco shopping for the bar and grill a friend manages.
    
  • This quarter I prepped, manned, cooked and donated meals for January 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th. In February I donated a cooking/baking raffle basket full of so many fun things, helped organize the Paint-sip on the 8th, Superbowl party on the 9th, Valentine’s dinner on the 14th and Valentine’s dance on the 15th and then filled in for the lady who cancelled on February 28th. In March I began organizing and managing the Friday night dinners as a whole and I cooked on the 21st as well as worked the cribbage tournament for 3 days. I also reconfigured the storeroom and hung shelves for storage and tool racks for brooms and mops this past month in preparation for the new refrigerator that the senior center gifted us.

What do you think? Do you want to join in with us also?