Being Intentional

January 9, 2015January 9, 2015 by theseordinarygraces In Courage, Goals, Photography 9 Comments

I’m a little late in the New Year’s Resolution post. I keep sitting down to write and then staring at the screen, completely blank. So I redesigned the blog, started to learn Photoshop (geez, Louise), rearranged a room. You know, the usual avoidance/procrastination routine.

You see, if I write these things down and send them out for the world to see, someone might expect me to do them, to actually follow through on the things I say I’m gonna do. That makes me nervous, pressured, accountable. And, see, I don’t have hard, concrete things to declare. Maybe I’m too scared to set some true goals for the things I dream about. Or maybe I’ve seen myself set those goals and then flake out on them over and over and over again, so it’s easier to just daydream about them. Culinary school, run a marathon, keep the house clean. . . the list goes on.

This year I’ve joined the crowd and picked one word to focus on: Intention. 

I’m trying to work it into every area of my life, from my marriage to fitness, from raising the kids to photography. So, without further ado, here are some of my goals for this year, in no specific order.

Photography While I’ve been dreaming of our next home (I forgot to tell you we’re moving this summer!) I’ve come up with my decorating style. Finally. After 4 homes now. I want my walls to be covered in photos I’ve taken that ooze family and all the notions that conjurs up: love, laughter, security, comfort. Think “Modern Photo Gallery” not “Grandma’s Wall of Embarrassment”. So I really want to intentionally capture those images within my own family. I’m going to intentionally  take, edit and print those images and frame them. Really, I am!

One of my lifelong, secret dreams has been to have my photos in National Geographic. I drool over that magazine. Therefore, I’m also going to be intentional about going out and taking pictures of this crazy, beautiful place I live in. It’s hard because it’s cold and going outside when it’s cold is super lame, but I am going to do this.

Writing I love writing, I just don’t do it as often as I’d like. You should see my stack of notebooks and journals. One thing I will do this year (and I’ve already started) is keep a journal between myself and each of my children. I ordered the boys each a Between Mom and Me journal from Gadanke and they are awesome. I didn’t think Grace was quite old enough for that yet, so I just found her a pretty journal and some stickers and we’re going to write and doodle back and forth in that.

I’m also going to blog at least once a week. I added a photography and a travel section to the ol’ blog and I hope to fill those in pretty quickly. (Hawaii in March, anyone?)

Books I’m going to read them! Lots of them! I set a goal on Goodreads of 100 books this year. That makes me laugh until I remember that I’m counting all the books the boys and I read for school. I’ll be halfway there by May. So far I’ve finished one personal book and started War and Peace (by Leo Tolstoy). That one will probably take me all year to read. I also created a 2015 Book List menu to keep track of them all.

Don’t tell the boys I told you, but they are really loving Anne of Green Gables right now. 😉

Finances Wes and I sat down and made some goals for the year. We decided my main goal should be to just stick to the budget we made. Ha Ha! Easier said than done, but we have some pretty good incentive. We want to start the adoption process sooner rather than later so we have some things to pay off and some serious money to save up (adoption ain’t cheap!), not to mention just general retirement plans and our slightly ridiculous travel dreams.

So that’s most of it. Feel free to call me out if you don’t see any new pictures or posts around here!