Thoughts For This New Year
Resolutions. I never stick to them. I have sincere intentions about improvements I want to make in my life, but that format of resolving and proclaiming to do it never has worked for me.
Written by BreAnn Tassone
Resolutions. I never stick to them. I have sincere intentions about improvements I want to make in my life, but that format of resolving and proclaiming to do it never has worked for me.
This new year comes with so many prayers for a better experience for us all. Having that much expectation of our hopes and dreams placed on the new year, the last thing any of us need is the feeling of ,yet again, another failed attempt at a resolution. So, this year I’m trying something new.
If there’s anything we can all take away from 2020 is that there are many more ways than one way to do something. We have learned to think outside of the box, to make it work with what we’ve got, and how to adapt. I’ve used those freshened skills to construct my New Year Checklist.
To me, a checklist gives you some time. The items on the list are there until you’ve completed them and crossed them off. There is also an end. It isn’t this proclamation to live up to from now until eternity. It’s just a list of things you’d like to get done. Here goes!
My 2021 New Year Checklist
Begin (and maybe finish, but not a requirement) a crocheting project.
Read for pleasure.
Sew something for each of my children.
Continue to work on forgiving those who have never asked for my forgiveness.
Show up. Refuse to cancel.
Continue to write.
Sing every chance I get. Anytime and anyplace I’m asked.
Create the peaceful home setting I yearn for. Do this by being conservative with screen time, filling the home with comforting scents and calming music, and building a reading culture within my family.
Spend more time cooking with my daughter and foster her already strong interest.
Create more opportunities to enjoy the outdoors with my son.
Put on my makeup every single day.
Touch base with forever friends at least monthly.
Fill in my daughters baby book (Yikes! She’s turning four in February and not one stroke of an ink pen has hit the pages in her book).
Spend a portion of each day in meditation and focused, specific prayer.
Find opportunities to volunteer within my community.
Finally join the church that we’ve been visiting for two and half years.
Make it a priority to meet a friend for coffee.
Create a realistic weekly cleaning schedule.
Make those important medical appointments!
Forgive myself. Allow myself grace when needed.
Breathe.
There it is. My 21 things for this new 2021 year. My kids have checklists for everything. This one is mine. They are mostly self care items and very personal to me and my life, and that’s intentional. Yours will look different than mine, but as a caregiver we must endeavor to care for ourselves, too. Special needs parents and parents of children that are medically fragile, need to make a point to care for themselves. This list is my way of attempting to do that.
To be totally honest, some of these items have been on my to-do list for a few years now. Our daily plates are pretty full. The time just isn’t always there to follow through. That’s why the list is good. If it doesn’t get checked off this year, it just rolls over to next year. And as I go back over my list, it really boils down to an attempt to improve my day to day experience, to take care of long overdue business and prioritize the right things in my use of down time.
May your new year be one of peace and hope. May you find little corners of time to pamper yourself, even if that means to stop and take a few deep, cleansing breaths. May you grow in your faith and hold strong to it when fear and doubt inevitably creep in. We don’t know what will come tomorrow, so let’s be the very best version of ourselves today. When we can’t be, maybe we can allow ourselves the grace to pause, and tackle more of our list tomorrow. Happy New Year.
Written by BreAnn Tassone
BreAnn is a wife and mother to two beloved children. Her 8 year old son is twice exceptional and has been diagnosed with PANS/PANDAS, and her 3 year old daughter is his most incredible advocate. They both bring joy to this world in their own individual ways. BreAnn lives with her family in central Virginia. She is a former Special Education teacher and serves as a volunteer at her church within the special needs ministry. She is a homeschooler and coordinates groups and events within her community to support the childhood experience of her neighbors and friends. It is her conviction that all children benefit when all children are included, accepted and can live this life learning from and supporting each other.
When Your Bible Time Goes Stale
In the past, when my son was so sick and required 24/7 care, there were months I didn’t have the time or energy to even open my Bible to read one verse. Written by Sarah McGuire
I pulled out my Bible to complete my Bible reading. I finished Revelation 22. The last book and chapter of the Bible. It was December 31 and I had done it again. I’d read the Bible through in a year.
In the past, when my son was so sick and required 24/7 care, there were months I didn’t have the time or energy to even open my Bible to read one verse. This was before smart phones, YouVersion audio Bibles, and Audible. So, if I was holding my screaming son who was in pain, I couldn’t be holding my Bible.
For several years now, I’ve had the privilege of being able to read the Bible through in one year. (I really like the chronological format.) Yet, as I closed my Bible this December, I knew I needed a different focus for the coming year. I could feel how it had become more of a task to complete, a goal to achieve, rather than time spent with my Father.
With the new year, I like to take time to set some goals for the coming year. I evaluate where our family has been, strengths, weaknesses, needs, vision for life, work, family members, self. I think about what has been working and what has not been working. I think about what or how I dream of being and of what and who I dream of my kids becoming and set some intentional steps to move us in that direction.
If you’ve spent any time goal setting, you’ve probably heard of SMART goals. Goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. Reading the Bible through in one year fits that metric perfectly. Yet, I knew that repeating that goal again this year would not get me where I wanted to go. It wouldn’t help me with who I want to be and to become.
My real goal is to know God more; to love God fully; to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, gentle, and self-disciplined; and to abide and rest in Him because all those things I just listed are a result of Him in me. Those goals are a little harder to define as a SMART goal and for me to make them into SMART goals would defeat the purpose.
Next week I’ll share with you my solution and what I’ve chosen to do this year as well as some suggestions for how to get some Bible or God time in when caring for a child that takes your everything and your every moment. In the meantime, comment and share with me what types of Bible or God-time goals you have used and enjoyed.
