Friday Favorites- New Years Addition

Thank goodness Friday is here!  Linking up with the usual suspects, Andrea, Erika and Narci. 

 It's been a long week, but a good one.  After last week , I feel like a different person, and it's been wonderful!  

I wanted to talk a bit about my goals for the new year.  I love January 1st.  It's like a new beginning, a fresh start and I am all about new beginnings!

I love making New Years resolutions and  am actually pretty good at sticking with them and I kinda love the challenge.

I decided this year to pick a word.  I thought about it for a few weeks because I really wanted it to "represent" me. This year, my word is:

GROW

Grow in my job:  I started a new job in August, and I feel like it was meant just for me.  It is completely different than my previous job and somewhat stressful.  But I feel like I have a purpose here and my co workers are truly amazing!  I would love to work my way up and be in charge of HR.  Might take a few years, but I know I can do it.

Grow in my friend base:  I have some really amazing friends, and I am ready to get more involved.  I would LOVE to be a part of a book club, freezer cooking club, or just having monthly get togethers to hash out life.  I really need this addition.

Grow in my faith:  I have been pretty good about doing my morning devotionals.  I love, love, love Jesus Calling.  I swear every one I read is meant just for me, haha!

I also do a few prayers from Stormie O'Martians book, 

There are 31 prayers to pray over your kids, I like to pick 3 to pray every morning.

I then do one prayer from her book, Power of a Praying Wife.  Love this book too, 

This is another quick devotional that I love to read in the morning.  

I then get my Bible out and will read some from that.  I have the app She Reads Truth on my phone.  I am (slowly) reading the Bible from start to finish, and this app has it laid out very well.  I read the Bible from cover to cover several years ago and really enjoyed it.

I have been getting up really early in the mornings and am LOVING my quiet time!  I light a candle, make my coffee, start the fireplace and just let myself be in the moment.

Grow my Talents:  I am a crafty person by nature, and have loved doing crafts and lots of scrapbooking.  All that fit well into my schedule when I stayed home and did daycare.  However since working outside the home for the last almost 5 years, I haven't found time to do any of that.  I want to find my creativity again.  A couple weeks ago, Emma and I sat down and practiced some calligraphy style writing and it was SO fun!!

Grow with my Family:  This does not mean grow another family member, haha!!  I was feeling for awhile (last fall) like we were a bit disconnected, but I really feel like we've been together a lot and lots of fun playing cards and games.  I think the best compliment was when Rachel's boyfriend told her that he loves hanging out with us because we have so much fun!  One thing we have slacked on is family devotionals.  We are not regular church goers, but we used to have Sunday night family devotionals and do the rosary once a month.  I want us to get back to that.  Any good family devotional books you love?

Grow With my Health:  My workouts are SEVERELY lacking.  I used to walk/run at least 3-4 times a week.  It's been at least 3 weeks since I've done anything, ugh.  My eating is spot on, but I need to workouts for mental clarity.   

I am also back on track with meal planning/prepping.  My perfect Sunday is finding new recipes and prepping everything for the week, it's so relaxing for me!

This week we had:

Smothered Pork Chops

Chicken Ala King (From Mix and Match Mamas cookbook)

Panini's and soup

Sausage and potatoes

Alayna and I also made a meatloaf and a lasagna to freeze for next week.  It feels so good to have that organized.

So there ya have it.  I have everything organized and together for this week.  And I know that everything will change tomorrow and I will feel completely overwhelmed again, haha!!