2016- One Word

2016 totally snuck on me guys!  The funny thing is that my birthday is the 1st.  There was once a time that I spent the better part of the month of December counting down to Christmas along with also counting down to my birthday.... this year, I didn't even realize until Tuesday (the 29th) what day of the week my birthday fell on!  Ha!  Consumed with excitement about Christmas for the boys and making everything happen at the holiday took my mind off of the New Year and my birthday.

So here I am a few days behind on the resolution train.  In years past, I've done resolutions that haven't been kept, and then the last few years I've done my best to focus on one word.  I do a lot better at a one word focus and I get excited about where the Lord leads me each year.   In the past my words have ranged from "intentional", to "green" (as in eco-friendliness) to "submit."

After some thinking and prayer, the word for 2016 is KNOWLEDGE.

This one is really exciting to me!  We've been on an adventure in our first year of homeschooling with Leeland, and daily I am baffled at how much Leeland is picking up and how much he is learning.  In a lot of ways I very much feel like I am reclaiming my own education through teaching him.  He's getting an education unlike the one that I received.

On top of the excitement of teaching Leeland, I have been somewhat convicted about my own learning and studying habits.  How can I expect my kids to develop of a true love of learning, if I myself am not stretching and growing and learning.  Leeland spent much of last year learning to read, and I watch and hope that he will develop a passion and a love for books, and yet I'm not reading books like I used to myself.  How can I expect him to have a love of books and learning if he doesn't witness me growing and reading and studying?

So this year, my word is knowledge.  I would love for the whole family to reignite our passions for learning.  I want to have nightly dates with my Kindle and complete several books by the end of the year.  I want to sit down in the mornings EVERYDAY with my Bible and a cup of coffee and truly soak in the words on the pages of His Word.  I want to be able to teach my boys to the best of my abilities on this homeschool journey, but also grow and learn myself.