New year - here we go!

   Dear readers, I'm not dead. I thought I had scheduled this post, but it turns out, I had only saved it in drafts. Please don't hate me. I love you all. Abby

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     Happy New Year readers! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season. This new year is going to be full of wonderful, new, challenging, and exciting things so jump in head first! Let God give you something new, a dream, an idea, and follow it wholeheartedly!

     It’s a new year. Wohoo! Party time! I am not really the person to make resolutions in the traditional sense, but I did have a few goals that I wanted to accomplish in 2018:

• Be kinder – I have a tendency to let whatever is going on in my life or head to get the better of me and affect the way I treat people. So I’m working on being a nicer, kinder human being: smile more at people, say “please,” “thank you,” and “you’re welcome” more, check in with people, listen to comprehend, not to just respond, etc. 

• Study my Bible (not just read it) – I have a tendency to just read something in my Bible or on my Bible app and move on. But this year I want to actually study it. I decided to go through some of the books of the Bible I don’t always read and really study them – I’ve started with Exodus and wow! So much good stuff in there! Maybe I’ll do a post on some of the things I’ve been learning. 

• Drink more water – This one is practical but I’ve been doing pretty good with it and I’m honestly feeling better. It’s kind of weird how just a few more glasses of water a day can have that much of an impact on you, but it’s true. My skin is also clearing up a little so that's a bonus.

• Get more sleep – Who doesn’t need more sleep? I honestly think I’m still catching up from college on my lack of sleep. Okay, I’m probably exaggerating here but sleeping more than 5 hours a night, I feel so much better. I’m averaging 6.5-7.5 hours which might be a little too much, but again, I’m feeling better, not getting as many headaches or migraines, etc. so yay!

• Take my vitamins – Another super practical one and I love it. I take a couple different vitamins for specific things as well as a multi vitamin, and again, I can tell the difference. I take a magnesium supplement a few times a week (I know I should take it every day, but I sometimes forget.), and that has been helping with a lot of the little headaches I get. 

• Journal, read, & write more – This one is in in connection with finishing school: I did a lot of reading and writing as a student but most of it was because I had and it was often something I did not want to read or cared about or a format I had to follow for writing a paper/thesis/etc. This year, I want to read genres I normally would not think about or authors I’ve never heard of and I’ve set a pretty high goal of 100 books in a year… so far I’ve started 3, finished 1. That’s okay too because I also decided that I wasn’t going to make myself finish a book if I didn’t enjoy it, since this is supposed to be enjoyable and not forced. I did enough of that in school (amiright college students?) The writing and journal-ing part is just to get better at expressing myself both in written and spoken format. Plus writing out all your feelings/emotions/reactions is good for the soul. 

• Eat better to be healthy – Okay, this was a reality check for me. I wanted to lose weight because who doesn’t? But I didn’t want that to be the reason I started to eat better because I knew it wouldn’t last. So instead, it became a lifestyle choice. Already eating gluten free, I decided a few months ago to try paleo. I like it. Well, some of it. Some of it was easy and some of it wasn’t. So I’ve compromised and I eat probably 60-70% paleo. I still put half & half or milk in my coffee and I still cook with certain oils or vinegars and I eat certain gluten free things like pasta or an occasional desert. And I still go out with people, but for me, it’s about making conscious decisions about what I’m eating and questioning how that food will make me feel. It’s sometimes hard, but good in the end. And I feel better in general. 

• Keep Christ first. Always. – This one is self- explanatory. Christ first. Always. No matter how hard. No matter what the cost. No matter the sacrifices. No matter who or what I gain or lose. Him first. 

     These a couple of the really practical ones I’m working on, as well as some other more personal and private ones, but what are you going to change this year? What are you doing to improve yourself? What dream has God given you to follow? How are you working on your relationship with Christ and others? What awesome things are you going to do in 2018?!

Abby