The Weekly Ramble 12/14/24

Hello! Hi How are you? How is it that we’re already halfway through the month? It seems like the days have been flying by.

While I know that most people are focused on Christmas preparations, I know from experience that if I don’t also give some attention to the arrival of the new year, I’ll feel like I got blindsided.

This week I spent some time working on setting up my planner for the new year.

I had the best time curating images and graphics from my phone and the web to create my vision page. You might not get all the things — I’m honestly still working on articulating them — but a sampling of what I want in the next year, in no order of importance:

• to lean in and really master my responsibilities as a homemaker
• to save more money
• to trust God more fully
• to visit Disneyland (We’re going as a family in January and possibly making a trip to Tokyo Disneyland)
• to travel to Japan with Bryan and most of the kids (this is our tentative plan for May/June)
• to make getting 800 grams of fruits and veggies a solid habit
• to enjoy more fresh flowers on a regular basis – maybe planting some so that it’s affordable?
• to enjoy more time as a family
• to dig deeper into the Word
• to read more books

I also used Jen Fulwiler’s word of the year app to generate those BOLDED headlines: renew, delight, here. I usually run it three times because there are bound to be duds, but this year all three felt applicable and I was able to find two really great verses to go with!

If you think you might be wanting a spiral bound version of the Print & Go Planner this year, I highly recommend ordering them from Lulu.com. I set up these files so that you could save a chunk of change versus printing it yourself through Staples or FedEx Office.

Yikes! Were those turkeys expensive!

I love how these matte colored covers turned out. Now is a great time to grab the planner in your choice of color so that it arrives before the end of the year. You can order it in:

• ​blue​
• ​chocolate​
• ​blush​

You can also buy the PDF and use it digitally, which is what I’m doing currently through the Good Notes app for iPad.

For the last few years, I’ve really worked on financial contentment, with the phrase, “Enough is good,” as my little mantra. It’s a quick paraphrase of Proverbs 30:7-9:

Two things I ask of you, Lord;
    do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
    give me neither poverty nor riches,
    but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
    and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
    and so dishonor the name of my God.

While I have not perfected it, I feel like I’m getting to a better place in this area.

Earlier this fall, I crunched the numbers to find my MVI (minimum viable income). I always had a vague number in my head of what I needed to earn each month as a freelance writer. Turns out I was really really close. Like scarily close.

The Lord has been very gracious to provide enough work and opportunities this year for me to hit the yearly number this week. I am so thankful. Enough is good, indeed.

Not that I’ll be getting too cocky, though….

You know when you know your feelings aren’t right? When the tug in your heart isn’t good?

I explored one of those feeling in my journal this week and the word envy kept coming up. That’s always a sobering thought, don’t you think?

I had already checked out ​Seeing Green: Don’t Let Envy Color Your Joy​ from Kindle Unlimited, so I started reading it yesterday. I was sobbing within the first chapter or two.

The Lord always shows us more ways to grow, doesn’t He?

I told Bryan I must be an ogre. And this is just another layer that God is working at in me. That’s a good thing, don’t you think?

In other news, we’re just plugging along here at the house, trying to stay healthy (two of the boys have been sick this week), attending Xmas parties and Bible studies, and getting ready for both 1st and 2nd Christmases.

You can read what we did last year as I still have a post coming about 2nd Christmas. It’s a little bit like the Hobbits’ 2nd Breakfast but for families with grown kids.

Leave a comment and let me know what you’re up to!