By All Means Do It!

It’s the 21st month of the year 2021. And here I am, finally ready to commit to those 21 goals that I’ve been trying to nail down over the last 21 days. I know what you’re thinking—“21 goals? Are you insane?! Shouldn’t you maybe choose one or two and really dig into those? I mean, doesn’t making 21 goals really set yourself up for failure?!”

The truth is, I probably could narrow these down a little bit, but 21 for ‘21 just sounds too good. Besides, I believe in challenging myself and dreaming big. I also believe that by speaking them into existence in a public way means I’ll actually try to work towards them, so buckle up. 2021 is going to be full of fun and excitement!

I did organize them into categories, because that made 21 feel more achievable. If you look at them in small chunks, it doesn’t feel quite so overwhelming. I’m just going to take them one step at a time—or as one of my favorite authors says, “Just take it bird by bird.”

Personal Goals

Buy new bras

You know you’re a real adult when buying bras has to be listed out as a goal in order for you to really do it. I hate buying bras. I haven’t had a good one since before I got pregnant with my oldest - and she’ll be nine in just three weeks. The last time I bought bras I got them at Costco. I can do better than that. I must. I will!

Crochet-a-long (CAL) project

For the past several years I’ve followed communities of crocheters all working on the same project and have loved watching what they make. I have a closet full of yarn that is begging to be used, so I’m going to join in this year and end up with a crocheted sampler afghan. I can’t promise it’ll be beautiful, but I can promise it will be unique.

Read—and write—more poetry

Poetry always scared me before I started homeschooling. I still have nightmares over my high school English teacher making me diagram poems and talk about their meanings. How the heck am I supposed to know what that old dead poet was thinking when he wrote this two hundred years ago?! But now that I’ve been reading and reciting poetry with my girls, I see the beauty of it. And ironically, I found a book of poems I wrote when I was in high school—so there must be a part of me that really wants to write poetry! I decided this was a personal goal instead of a writing goal, because it’s not about the writing. It’s about the appreciation of poetry.

Find a pen pal and write monthly letters

I miss the days of old-fashioned letters. I want to resurrect the habit of handwriting letters to someone, especially someone with who I may not be able to connect through social media or email. I want to find an older person—a woman I think—and share life stories through written letters. And then I want to keep them in a box until I grow old and I’ll share them with my grandkids and tell them about the time when the entire world went virtual, but I kept writing paper letters.

Disconnect from screens

Too much screentime is bad for my soul. I want to turn off my phone several days a week and on the weekends. Well, maybe not every weekend…but maybe once a month. I want to pay attention to what’s happening around me and to really be present in each moment. I want to disconnect from screens so that I can reconnect with the people and things I love.

Homeschool Goals

Teach Eden how to crochet

I’m already off to a great start with this one. It’s nice when your kids can help you achieve one of your goals right off the bat! But in all seriousness, she’s been begging me to teach her, and I just haven’t found the time to sit down with her to get her started. She’s a fast learner and is doing a great job with it, so I just need to be consistent about sitting down with her to practice several times a week.

Help Autumn make 4 outfits - 1 each season

I really struggled with writing this one down. Her greatest dream is to design and sew her own clothes. She already has a design book where she draws dress designs. I can sew pretty well, but clothes have never been something I wanted to make, so this is a challenge goal for me. Last year we found someone to give her sewing lessons, but we had to stop them because of Covid. Although ordinarily, this is something I’d find a way to outsource, for 2021 I’m going to work really hard to make this happen for her.

Write a curriculum for Nicholas mouse

I adore writing curriculum. It’s one of the things I miss most about doing ministry in a professional setting. The girls and I are reading Nicholas: A Massachusetts Tale for Geography right now, and there are so many really great opportunities to dig in. I’m making notes as we go through it and hope to be able to pull it all together in a fun little curriculum before next Fall.

Help my girls find a pen pal

Writing letters helps them practice their handwriting and composition skills in a fun and low-risk way. Besides, if I start getting mail, they’re going to want their own mail. So they’ll each need their own pen pal. Anyone interested?

Writing Goals

Write something every day

Something. Anything. Just write. If I let a day go by without writing, I will forgive myself and pick it up the very next day. The only thing that doesn’t count is a list. Because if I say writing a list counts as writing, I’ll write a book full of lists and not much of anything else. Except maybe poetry. See above.

Publish a monthly newsletter

Just as I love writing curriculum I also love writing newsletters. I love compiling all my favorite books, blog posts, recipes, and fun things to do and sharing them with the world. I have no idea if anyone will read the newsletter (you can sign up here), but I’m going to write it anyway. Because it’s fun! And it’s a way to practice writing. And because I want to.

Revamp Soul Munchies. Really think about mission, vision, and branding moving forward

This is another goal that I’ve started working on already. Soul Munchies has been around a long time and has traveled with me through many stages of life. In some ways, I still have the same vision as when I started blogging 15 years ago, but in many ways, that vision has changed. I want to spend some intentional time thinking about the purpose of this space, and start putting that vision into action.

Find places for submissions and submit at least 6 pieces of writing

This is another really scary goal for me. I’m terrified of what people think of the things I write. That fear is part of the reason I have gotten stuck so many times before when I try to be consistent in writing. But I’m learning that I have to let go of that fear so that I can be true to the person God has created me to be. And submitting writing to a publication is one way I can take a big huge risk in living into that person. If I never submit anything, I won’t ever get feedback, and I won’t ever get better. So I can do at least 6 submissions this year! Here’s to living bravely!

Financial Goals

Pay off that last credit card

Money is hard ya’ll. It’s hard to talk about, and if you don’t have a good foundation in financial planning, it’s hard to deal with. But we’ve worked hard to get to where we only have one card balance left, and this will be the year it disappears!

Pay next month’s bills with this month’s income.

This is something I’ve learned through You Need A Budget, which is the tool we use for our budgeting purposes. The goal is to pay next month’s budget with the money that comes in this month. Once you can do that, you end up with a safety net that helps tremendously when surprise expenses come your way. You know, when the car battery decides to die when you least expect it. Or the fireplace refuses to turn on when it’s the coldest day of the year. Not that either of those has happened to me already this year.

Save for a tow hitch and a camper.

Once we can meet the first two financial goals, we want to save for a camper. With family over 1000 miles away, our annual vacation typically ends up being a visit to Georgia. While we love that visit, we also want to see other parts of the country. A camper will allow us to take road trips without needing to buy flights or pay for lodging, which means we can travel more often and to more places!

Physical Goals

Exercise 5 days a week

It can be yoga. It can be hiking. It can be playing Just Dance. Just MOVE.YOUR.BODY!

Eat Breakfast every day

This is hard for me because I hate breakfast. But it’s the most important part of the day, and it makes my body function better, and it makes me be a better parent, so I’ll do it. This is going to be the year that I find creative ways to eat breakfast. Like eating leftovers from the night before. Or making tacos. Or eating beans on toast. So long boring breakfast. 2021 is the year of the Fun Breakfast!

Drink water before coffee

I’ve been working on this for several months now and I’m still not very good at it. Goals.

Food Goals

Empty my freezers before CSA season

We are heading back to our beloved Springdell Farm this season and have a huge CSA share coming starting in Spring. Although we have two chest freezers that supply our food throughout the winter, neither one was completely empty before the 2020 season began. They both need a good defrost before storing 2021 produce for next winter, so the next few months we’re eating as much as we can out of them. It’s really my favorite time of the year, because I can basically never leave the house and still eat really well.

Bake my way through my bread book.

I got an awesome new Sourdough book last year featuring recipes with a Latin American twist, and I have not been disappointed with anything I’ve made from it. I want to make every recipe in the book this year. And never have to buy any kind of bread/tortilla product ever again.

So there you have it. The 21 ways I’m going to make 2021 an excellent year. Ahhh … just writing them makes me feel like I’m going to be successful. I already feel better about life, don’t you?