Our Life Together

Hello, 2010!

Switching gears to the new year. A time for fresh starts. For renewed commitments and new aspirations. A time, albeit however arbitrary, to get excited about life, and the newness of things, and the things to come.

Goals are already forming for us in our thoughts, and we’ll divulge some of them here. We’d also love to hear your goals, so please share!

Kristi:

- Open an Etsy store

- Complete a Master Gardener program in the fall

- Do more photography, both for fun and freelance jobs — I think we need to put a limit on how much shooting we’ll do for free.

- Develop a proper perspective in all areas of my life. This starts with having a proper understanding of my identity in Christ. I definitely need to work on that!

- Run a 10K to raise money for a worthy cause. And I’ll extend an official invitation to anyone reading that wants to train and join my sister Karen, friend Rebekah, and me in this endeavor here in Lexington this summer!

- Read books. Some of them include titles I wanted to read last year and never got around to it, and some are entirely new. They include:

and

If I can throw in there another Dostoevsky, like Demons which I meant to read last year, then I’ll try to make it happen. But I have a feeling this list is ambitious enough for the present moment.

- Finish watching the AFI Top 100 movies. I started this with my friend Lauren in 2005, continued it the summer of 2008 when Anya was living with me, and with a Netflix subscription given to us at Christmas, I am picking up where we left off with Trevor.

- Visit Belarus, maybe even with some friends and family members.

- Get a bike and become accustomed to using it frequently in the summer.

- Enlarge our vegetable garden for the spring, summer, and fall months.

Trevor:

- Participate in NaNoWriMo

- “Step out” of my comfort zone to take more “risks” (learn to not live life based on fear or even comfort, but joy, faith, and adventure)

- Complete some of the many art projects (beyond just photography) I have imagined doing

- Print off more of my photography (which means taking more, and better, pictures) — and might mean playing around with film and the darkroom (a desire both Kristi and I share)

- Spend the whole year reading. My current 2010 reading list is:

- Use our tax return to pay off our car loan (which will make us DEBT FREE!) and build up our emergency fund

- Practice simplicity by organizing and minimizing material possessions and organizing/planning meaningful use of time and resources

- Continue to complete goals made at our marriage retreat

- Pour into friendships

- Spend more time with my parents and grandparents

- Take life slower, enjoying each day, and not worrying about what I actually complete on the list above

We hope that you have time to reflect on the successes (and even “failures”) of the past year so that you can look forward to the new year as a “fresh start” in 2010. Scripture says that God’s compassion is new every morning, so tomorrow is, in essence, new. We hope you’ll take advantage of the new day by making goals and aspirations that you will strive to fulfill in 2010. And always be open to the wonderful experiences that might not be on your list, but are just as fun, exciting, and meaningful as the rest.

Feel free to share your lists in the comments.