Guiding Words for 2014

{For my Skywatch Post, see here}

Hi friends, I trust you are all settling in to a New Year.

I love the changing of years where we say "goodbye" to one year and "hello" to another.  In recent years I've used it as a opportunity for reflection and planning.  A time to reflect on the year gone by to see what things went well and what things didn't go so well. A time to discover whether there are things that I have the ability to change or whether I need to "let go and let God". It is also a time to think about the coming year and plan and look forward to limitless possibilities.

If you have followed me for a few years you might remember reading my review of goals set for the year.  At the same time I consider whether I had to change my goals in mid-year, accomplished them or had to carry them forward for one reason or another.  I usually also plan and post my goals for the coming year in late December/early January.  This year however I felt the need to do something a bit different.



Instead of posting my goals publically I will be keeping them private. It isn't because they are so secret.  Rather I've just not been as passionate about blogging this past few months.  I still want to blog and connect with my readers.  At the same time, I want my readers to connect with me.  However, I'm trying to find a balance between the two objectives.  So I've started to blog less and visit blogs less often as well. {For now I won't be giving up blogging.}


It is all part of my desire to "simplify" and "streamline".

These two words will be my mantras for 2014. They will guide the goals I set for myself also.

I am a bit behind schedule in terms of what I've usually accomplished in the early days of the year.

But in keeping with my two words, "simplify" and "streamline" I've already spent a bit of time over the past several days doing just that.

Some of the things I've managed to accomplish in the early days of January:

• simplify - made New Year's dinner with less variety of foods to enjoy and didn't invite anyone over for dinner. {While I did have guests over Christmas having a few days to myself to recover from sickness was less stressful because I didn't have to entertain}.
• streamline ~ took down the Christmas decorations several days early. {I usually keep them up until January 2 but this year they came down on December 27th. I think this will be my new norm so I can start the year clutter free.}
• streamline ~  Deleted duplicate and triplicate entries for individuals in my email address book.  {Some people accumulate excessive emails in a short space of time when they switch internet providers.   It's one good reason to simplify by using a free email account.}  
• streamline ~  Got rid of old files and photos from my desktop.  {I should have done this sooner in preparation for installing Windows 8.  I have more streamlining to do from my hardrive folders & photo files.}

I hope that through more simplifying and streamlining there will be progress on the continual process of decluttering which is so necessary to living in a smaller space.  I also hope there there will be much more "me" time.  This "me" time is for reflecting on the deeper things of life and spending time on the things that are most important to me.  There will also be "me" time to take better care of my health.

I look forward to the year ahead and to connecting with you all.  I pray you all have a bountiful and blessed 2014!