Happy New Year friends! Once again it’s been a while since I’ve written on the blog. I wanted to document 2021 more than I did but once again we had a year of a lot of change. In February our sweet Brooklyn Grace was born. We knew that it would be the most life altering and wonderful seasons of our life but we thought that a new baby would probably be it. We both had some dreams brewing under the surface that came out during our Family Summit last January but I don’t think either of us imagined them happening so quickly.
In August we made the move back to Kansas City after spending the summer applying for jobs and working out my work from home situation with my employer. We had been praying about and felt like God was leading us to move closer to our family and towards what we saw Him doing in KC. It was bittersweet to leave our home in Pittsburg and move to be closer to both of our parents and extended families. Leaving a place with a lot of good towards another place with a lot of good. My parents were gracious enough to let us move in with them for 5 months while we worked to sell our house and find a new one.
August through the end of the year was a good season but also a season of feeling a little bit in limbo. Our parents were immediately so helpful with Brooklyn and work continued on for me like it always had. Josh started his new job and his new construction business. I also started a new little side hustle. But we’ve really missed our friends and the life of our own that we had built in Pittsburg. I’m glad that we’ve started out 2022 in our own home and that many of our goals revolve around building friendships, meeting neighbors and making our new house a home.
We had our Family Summit again this year following the same guide from Abraham’s Wallet that we went through last year. This plan leads us through four stages of reviewing, dreaming, planning and consecrating. We had a “stay-cation” again this year in our new house but next year we’re hoping that just Josh and I can get away for a weekend in a new place. On Friday we spent the evening reviewing 2021, we talked about what was good and bad spiritually, relationally, physically, intellectually, and financially.
In our review we determined that God grew our family with Brooklyn’s birth and used that big change in our lives to bring us to KC. Coming to KC has allowed us to join a church we’ve admired from afar and let our daughter grow up surrounded by family. Now that we’re settled we pray He would use our family to reach the lost in KC.
On Saturday we got to dream! The rule was that we weren’t allowed to tear each other down in any dreams but instead to simply listen. We went through the same five capitals: spiritual, relational, physical, intellectual, and financial. We dreamed through each, considering what we should stop, start and keep doing. At the end we summarized a vision for 2022: To get plugged into our new church and find places to serve, to continue getting to know our daughter and to teach her about God, and to rest.
But we’ve learned that God usually has a lot of curve balls to throw us that will grow our faith. 2020 and 2021 were years full of change and while we hope 2022 is a little more status quo we trust that even if it’s not, He’ll lead us through it.
Last year we waited until Sunday to plan but this year we finished our planning on Saturday night. Through our review we identified things that didn’t go well, and in the dreaming phase we envisioned ways to make those things better. I’ve listed some of our family goals and most of my personal goals for the year. The guide led us to create a weekly and yearly calendar to make space for these goals to be attainable. I hope this list may give you some ideas for your family or just for yourself. Leave me a comment below, what are your goals for 2022?
Spiritual
- Become members at our church
- Find a small group
- Pick a Homeroom topic to study each month
- Read God’s Word daily
- Keep a gratitude log
- Serve in youth ministry
Relational
- Host lunch monthly after church
- Invite Pitt friends to KC to visit
- Get to know our neighbors
- Continue our weekly family meeting
- Go on a monthly date night
- Plan Brooklyn’s First Birthday!!
- Reconnect with old friends in KC
- Take two Mom & Dad only trips
Physical
- Invite a new friend over each month (once we make some lol)
- Develop a list of 20 meals to make meal planning easier
- Go on a weekly family walk
- Get in shape
- Make our house a home
Intellectual
- Check in on our goals once a month
- Open Etsy Shop!!!
- Read 5 books
Financial
- Make a profit with 27th & Monroe
- Max out our Roth IRA
- Plan a trip to Glacier National Park
- Meet our Mortgage goals (we’re trying to pay our new house off ASAP)
- Review Budget together monthly
- Honor our budget