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I was listening to the Read Aloud Revival podcast about Starting a Reading Streak a few days ago. Sarah encouraged her listeners to print this nifty free calendar and hang it somewhere conspicuous to remind yourself to read aloud to your children every day — even if just for a few minutes.

I promptly printed the calendar and stuck it on our fridge. Not only because I really am committed to doing a better job of reading aloud to my kids this year, but also because I love checking things off.

That love of checking things off stems back to my childhood. My mom made chore lists and achievement lists for us in various areas — when we were toddlers and getting potty-trained, a chart to check off how many times we brushed our teeth every day when we were a little older, and so on.

Little white boxes on a piece of paper hung in a can’t-miss place beckon me to actually do stuff and follow through with stuff, not just set goals and then forget about them.

Maybe you’re the same way? If so, I encourage you to choose one goal for this year that’s highly important to you. It could be anything that you feel will make a lasting difference to improve your life and/or the lives of those you love.

Here are some examples:

• writing 200 words each day
• exercising for 15 minutes
• reading 5 pages from a book every day
• eating a big salad every day
• working for 10 minutes on a foreign language
• spending 20 minutes on a craft project
• investing 15 minutes in playing with your children

There are so many great ideas I could list, but you must just choose one thing. Decide on that one thing, keep it simple, and then commit to follow through with it every day by printing out the mini calendar and checking off each day that you hit your goal.

We’re only three days into the new year, but the constant reminder of that calendar on my fridge has served to motivate me to make reading aloud with my kids — even just for a few minutes — a priority each of those three days. I’m excited to see how many days long our reading streak will continue for!

Want to join me? Choose a goal, print the calendar, and then leave a comment here letting us know what goal you chose!

If you missed Part 1, be sure to read it here first. We left off in June — here’s a run-down of how the rest of the year went:

July

We began the month by heading back to Kansas to celebrate the fourth of July. It was good to go back, though Silas had a lot of asthma struggles when we were there, so we didn’t get much sleep at night as a result.

The following week, I flew to Chicago to give the keynote presentation at the Firefighter Wives’ Ball — which was my first time to ever attend, let alone speak at, a ball. It was quite the experience, as I wrote about here.

Jesse also started playing on our church’s softball team this month. I was so excited to see him taking initiative to do something fun and I felt like it helped him to start turning the corner in a small way. He also met with our campus pastor about possibly being apart of the men’s small group they were starting. Again, after weeks of him really struggling, for him to be taking strides to work on personal development and plant roots was huge to witness.

At the end of the month, we took a family trip to South Carolina to visit my sister and her family and for me to attend the She Speaks conference. We had a great trip and we realized how wonderful it was for us to be able to just pack up and go somewhere without having to plan months in advance due to Jesse’s full schedule.

August

August found us on the road as a family again, this time for an 11-day trip to Arkansas and Branson, MO. We spent the first part of the trip with my family at our annual extended family trip to Bull Shoals Lake. We then headed to Branson, MO, to meet up with Jesse’s family and got to Silver Dollar City.

While there, I also learned to knee board, which I was pretty stoked about!

I also started working on writing my next book in August. The first two weeks of the month, my ghost editor and I spent hashing out some of the bones of the book’s outline and then on August 15th, we jumped in full force.

On August 19, we re-launched Grocery University and you all blew us away by buying thousands and thousands more copies of the course than we ever dreamed. We’re learning never to underestimate you all. 🙂

Near the end of August, I flew to Las Vegas for Michele’s dad’s funeral. It was a bittersweet time — it was such a gift to get to be there to support Michele and to witness how much her dad meant to she and her family. But on the other hand, our hearts hurt so much for our friend and her loss.

September

The first week of September, Jesse began meeting with the men’s small group from our church — a group that has turned out to be such a gift and encouragement to him. Silas also started soccer this week and some local friends generously offered to come over and help me finally get some things hung on my wall. I was amazed at what a difference it made in our home to have wall-hangings up!

This month, my friend, Ginger, came to visit for a weekend. Her husband was deployed at the time and the days were getting long for her. So it was fun to plan an impromptu girl’s weekend at our house. We stayed up way too late talking, but it was oh so worth it! 🙂

We celebrated Jesse’s birthday this month really simply and just as he wanted — spending an evening hanging out in downtown Franklin and trying out a new-to-us restaurant that he’d been itching to go to. The kids all saved up their own money and I took them to dollar store (at their request!) to buy him gifts. I had so much fun watching them giggle and plan and wrap their gifts for him — and then he had so much fun opening up each one!

September was also the month where I realized that trying to homeschool, write a book, and run a blog all at the same time just wasn’t working. I was run down, exhausted, and felt like I wasn’t really doing a good job in any of the three areas.

So Jesse and I sat down and had a real heart-t0-heart talk about what our options were. I was feeling really at my wit’s end and unsure of what to do. Well, Jesse came up with an idea that I never saw coming and would have never even thought or considered to suggest myself… he said he’d like to take over homeschooling while I finished up my book.

He’d already been doing part of the homeschooling and I knew he’s such a great teacher, but it’s a big task and I didn’t want him to feel like he had to do it. As we talked more (and I sort of tried to talk him out of it!), I realized he really wanted to do this.

And so I handed homeschooling over to him for the next two months and I buckled down and got in full-on book writing mode.

This turned out to be a completely blessing in disguise as Jesse was still struggling and grappling through what his calling in life is and what he was supposed to be doing in this new season. He had made some good strides in the right direction, but taking over homeschooling gave him a new purpose and drive that I hadn’t seen before. He OWNED the homeschooling, and in doing so, I saw his spark really come back again.

It also helped him to solidify more long-term what he wanted to do and that he really wanted to make being involved in homeschooling an important priority.

October

My Mom & Dad came to TN for my birthday — which was so kind of them. My dad helped do a number of projects around the house, my mom and I got to spend quite a lot of time talking and hanging out together, and they also took the kids one evening so Jesse and I could have a date night!

Kathrynne had her first swim meet — something she’d been wanting to do for awhile but had been really fearful of. Watching her go out and face her fears with courage and bravery blessed my Mama heart more than words can say!

I feel like I spent almost every waking moment of October working on my book manuscript… I ate, drank, and slept (or more accurately didn’t sleep!) book-writing. The hard work paid off as I made a LOT of headway on it in October and had almost finished the rough draft by the end of the month!

The last week and a half of October were spent at the Allume conference and back in Kansas again. It was wonderful to get to spend some quality time with dear people — and so refreshing after it felt like I’d been completely holed up all month long!

November

The first bit of November was spent polishing up my manuscript in order to send it out to a few friends to critique.

Once that was done, I left for MN to go speak at the Hearts at Home conference and then meet up with Jesse in Colorado for the Platform Conference. I had really been looking forward to both conferences, but as it turned out, finding out that Michele’s cancer had come back made the week really, really hard for me.

A few days after we got back home, our dear friend and previous mother’s helper, Susanna, came to stay with us for a few days. I was completely physically and emotionally drained and God knew how much I needed her to be staying with us for a few days. She was like an angel in our home — loving on our kids, doing our laundry, doing some organizing and cleaning projects, and just all around blessing our family at a very deep level.

While she was here, Jesse and I drove up to Atlanta with some of my team for a meeting with the company who is designing and manufacturing our product line in 2015. We’re really excited about the possibilities and what the future holds there!

I made another quick trip to Colorado for a one-day filming project and then got home just in time to unload my suitcase, wash my clothes, and repack it to leave a few hours later to go back to Kansas for Thanksgiving.

December

The day after we got back home from Kansas, my sister, Olivia, flew in to stay with us for a few days while we had our end-of-year executive team meetings. I had been really nervous about these as we had some big decisions to make and had spent quite a bit of time worrying over them, planning for them, and praying about them.

Turns out, I should have skipped the worrying part, as the meetings went FAR better than what I could have ever imagined and we all came into the meetings with the same hopes and on the same page — without even knowing it!

We made some big decisions for 2015 that I’m really excited about — namely, to streamline some areas and pare down in some areas so we can prioritize better and have more breathing room in our lives. I’m stoked about this coming year and our mission to be even more focused and prioritized. I don’t regret 2014 in any way, but the pace of it was not a pace of life I aspire to continue at long-term!

The rest of December was incredibly laid back and peaceful — a much-needed respite after many, many full months. We hung out together as a family, we made special memories, we read together, we slept in, we watched movies, we went to a few fun outings, and Jesse surprised us with an overnight stay at the Gaylord Opryland. We’d heard it is beautiful this time of year and it truly was. It was a great way to close out the year!

Looking back on this past year, it kind of takes my breath away that we did as much as we did, traveled as much as we traveled, and accomplished as much as we accomplished! I truly feel like God’s hand was so faithful to carry us through over and over again when we were tired or fearful or overwhelmed. We got to see Him show up on our behalf and give us what we needed to do what He had called us to.

Our faith grew so much this year, our marriage grew so much, our relationships with our kids grew, and, probably the biggest blessing for me, Jesse had a major personal transformation this year. Honestly, while he was busy with law school and then different legal jobs and then running his own law firm, he never stopped long enough for me to realize how much he was struggling deep down — with fear, insecurity, and feeling like he wasn’t good enough.

As we processed these things together and I challenged him to replace his long-believed lies with truths (just as I had learned to do myself a few years ago), he slowly ever so slowly started changing from the inside out. It’s been a beautiful thing to witness!

He’s now so full of life and drive and ambition, but also just so happy. He loves overseeing/managing all the legal and financial aspects of our business, he loves managing our two rental houses, and he’s getting a lot of opportunities to do pro bono legal work — which he finds so much fulfillment in. Plus, he’s loving being in charge of our kids’ sports and extracurricular activities and helping with the homeschooling.

Sopping wet after riding a water/boat ride at Silver Dollar City together. 🙂

These struggles and the growth over the past year has only served to strengthen our marriage at a deep level. So looking back, I am incredibly grateful that we made the decision to move — even though it didn’t make sense to a lot of people and even though we weren’t even quite sure how it was all going to play out.

For the sake of our marriage, our spiritual growth, and our personal growth, it was every bit worth it — and we’re only six months into this adventure! We’re excited to see what 2015 holds!

Happy New Year!

2014 was such a growing year for our family. I spent some time looking back over the year and it still amazes me all that happened! Just for fun, here’s a run-down with some of the highlights:

January:

The year began with a bang: I released my second book in January, was on Good Morning America, traveled to NYC for a media tour, hit the New York Times list — all within the first few weeks of January! Crazy!

Kathrynne also turned 9 this month and had asked if she could plan her own birthday party. She blew me away by writing out meticulous and detailed plans, choosing the activities, making the guest list, putting together invitations, sticking with a budget to buy all the supplies, and putting together all the party favors!

That girl has mad party-planning skills — and she loved every minute of the planning part! It’s been so fun to see her blossoming, growing, and maturing. Her personality is so different than mine in so many ways and yet she has the biggest heart and loves me so fiercely that it constantly humbles and touches me.

February:

I recorded my book as an audiobook the first week of February. We broke it up over three days since I’ve learned that my voice only holds out strong for around 4 hours.

The third week in February, we took a much-anticipated trip with two other couples to Belize. It was such an adventure requiring many different methods of transportation, lots of new sights, tastes, and experiences. And we had a wonderful time of unplugging (mostly) and just resting and soaking up the sun and beautiful views.

March:

This month was booked solid with traveling and moving preparations. We had initially planned to move April 15th, but when we started looking in earnest for housing to rent, the house we found and loved wasn’t available until May 1, so we extended our move date until April 30 which bought us a little more time.

Jesse spent the month taking care of the hundred and one moving details and wrapping up things with his law firm so he could officially shut down right around the time we moved.

I traveled to Colorado to spend a few days with three dear friends of mine (Michele, Renee, and Kathi) in a cabin Buena Vista. It was such a good time — especially because we were able to rally around Michele right before her cancer surgery.

The next week, I traveled to Colorado (again) for radio recordings with Focus on the Family and then flew from there to Illinois for the Hearts at Home conference. The following week, I was back on the road again — this time to Nashville for the Teach Them Diligently conference.

April:

We started getting into the final stretch of our big moving day, so the month of April was packed with, you guessed it, packing and paring down the house.

It was also full of many, many goodbye get-togethers. Honestly, while I felt so loved by so many people, goodbyes are so hard for me so this part of the move was really draining. I wanted to be strong for my husband and kids, but I had many moments when I wondered what on earth we were doing!

This was an especially hard month for our kids. They’ve been so brave in the whole move thing, but they all had to grieve in their own ways and we did our best to have lots of conversations, be cognizant of their needs, and to make sure that we did all we could make the transition as smooth for them.

I only had one trip this month — and Jesse got to come with me! We went to South Carolina for another conference and my parents and most of my siblings came to. For most of them, this was their first time to hear me on stage and that was a big unnerving for me. But they were all so encouraging and I punched another fear right in the face!

The week before we moved, Jesse went to Phoenix for a conference on email marketing. The timing of the conference wasn’t that great, but he really wanted to go and since we had wrapped up just about everything at home, it worked out just fine — and I’m so glad he went because he learned so much and had a great time.

(We’ve known for quite some time, that we’ve outgrown our current email service, but we’ve struggled to figure out what to upgrade to. We spent a lot of time this past year researching different email services, researching, test-marketing, and talking to business owner after business owner. We’re so grateful to have finally landed upon a solution the past few months… and I think it’s going to be the perfect long-term solution!)

May:

Our moving day arrived. There were so many bittersweet things about this day… so many emotions. Excitement. Sadness. Eagerness. Fear. All rolled up into one.

My sister, Olivia, drove with us to TN to help us unpack and that was SUCH a gift. We ended up driving the 15-hour trek straight through and made it to TN completely exhausted, but grateful to have arrived!

It was so weird to drive up to “our” house for the first time. We’d rented it sight unseen so it was a little surreal to drive up and know this was going to be home to use for the next two years. (Our good friends the Scheers had gone through it and done a video tour for us long-distance, though, and we’d had extensive conversations with the landlords. Otherwise, we probably would have never felt comfortable signing a two-year lease without seeing the house first!)

The week of the move was a whirlwind. My sister helped us get almost everything unpacked — I knew we had a busy summer, so it was important to get it done right away or it might not happen for months! — and the community welcomed us so warmly. Within the first week, we had met most of our neighbors and many of the folks who have become dear, dear friends to us. And that was such a gift!

I can’t believe my baby is 5! So grateful he still loves mama snuggles!

We went back to Kansas for Jesse’s brother’s graduation and to celebrate Silas’ birthday (it was very important for him to celebrate his birthday in Kansas and we wanted to honor this as a way to help him make the transition more smoothly).

The following week I flew to DC to speak at a conference, the following week to speak at a conference in FL (and got to go to Disney late that night for a few hours — my first time to go to Disney! I just wish my family had been able to come with me!), and then a few days later I flew to Arkansas for a radio taping with Family Life.

I love this boy more than words can express! And he loves his mama well — here was a tea party he set up for us and invited me to. 🙂

June:

My brother and his wife came and visited us for a few days and we had fun exploring some new areas and showing them some of our favorite TN places.

Kathrynne also started swimming lessons this week and Silas had soccer camp. We wanted our kids to plug in as quickly as possible, so we encouraged them to each one activity that they’d like to participate in over the summer and we signed them up for it almost as soon as we moved.

Kathrynne wasn’t being pushed in her swimming classes, so we asked around for some more recommendations and found a homeschool swim team that she was able to qualify for — which was thrilling for her as making a swim team had been a months-long dream for her.

Kaitlynn turned 7 this month and asked to go to the mall for her birthday (typical fashionista!). We had a fun mommy-daughter date.

She also started ice skating lessons again (her chosen activity). She had taken lessons before in Kansas, but this time around, she had a new drive and commitment to them and, pretty soon, she started really advancing.

The ice program encouraged us to enroll her private coaching, in addition to group classes, and we’ve been so proud of how hard she’s worked! Her goal was to make it through all eight levels of Learn to Skate by the end of 2014. She’s finishing up the final level and now has her sights set on the Olympics… which might be aiming just a wee bit high, but I’m not going to any way discourage her enthusiasm or drive! 🙂

June was also the month that we for sure knew we’d found a church home here in TN. We were pretty sure that we had picked out a church that we felt would be a good fit for our family, but you never know until you go and visit for at least a few weeks.

We were so grateful that not only was Fellowship Bible everything we’d prayed for and hoped for in a church, but it was so much more. We’ve been beyond blessed by the gift of this church — especially the depth of the preaching.

Jesse had a sort of identity crisis that started in June and lasted well into August. It was a hard, hard, hard few months for him — and for us all. I’m positive our kids have never seen Mom and Dad struggle and argue so much.

I had expected this might happen, but I was completely unprepared for how difficult it would be for me. I didn’t know whether I was supposed to be the sweet, loving, listening, and empathetic wife or whether he needed some hard, strong truth to be spoken to him.

He struggled to figure out who he was apart from his job. He realized that he’d always defined his value and worth by what he did (stressful positions as an attorney/running his own law firm) instead of who he was as a person.

He struggled with some really dark days and was depressed and stressed. I am so grateful for the solid people around us who walked with us through this time and encouraged us, prayed for us, and loved us in the middle of our mess. It wasn’t pretty, but I truly clung to the belief that it had to get worse before it could get better. And it did — as I tell you about in part 2. 🙂

…to be continued tomorrow.

It’s been a big year for our family — with lots of changes, lots of new experiences, lots of goodbyes, and lots of hellos. We’ve grown as a family, our marriage has grown, this blog has grown, and I’ve grown a lot as a person.

I spent a few hours today going back through all of the content pieces I posted this past year and picking out the top 10 posts. It was quite a walk down memory lane to go through these and remember the highs and lows of this year and to see how I’ve grown in my openness and authenticity this past year…

The Top 10 Posts From 2014

1. How Do You Find Good Friends — this post on my journey from feeling lonely and not good enough to cultivating some amazing real-life relationships sparked a flood of comments and emails from people who are also desperately hoping for deep relationship. If you struggle to find and maintain good friendships, be sure to read this post.

2. 5 Keys to Have a Strong Marriage — Even During the Storms of Life — this post was written after we experienced a rough, rough few months in our marriage after we moved to TN. The principles in this post have carried us through many a storm of life and helped us to stick together in the midst of it. If you need some encouragement or ideas to strengthen your marriage or are just going through a rocky patch, be sure to read this post.

3. My Nail-Biting Habit, Shame, and What I’m Learning About Authenticity — this post was hard for me to write since it was so personal and putting myself “out there”. The response of encouragement and “I struggle with that, too!” completely blew me away and encouraged me to continue to be really authentic in my writing.

4. We’re Headed to Nashville & Some Changes I’m Making on the Blog — I wrote this post as we were driving from Kansas to Nashville to make our big family move. This post was monumental for me as it was the day I decided to really change the way I’d been blogging and go back to my blogging roots.

I’m so grateful I made this change as it’s brought back so much passion and love for blogging for me. It’s been the best change and I’m so thankful to have you all along with me on this ride! And in case you missed it, here’s a post on why we moved to Nashville.

5. I’m Done With Being a People Pleaser — This post was a follow-up to my announcement on our moving to Nashville post that I was going to be going back to my roots as a blogger. In it, I opened up about why I had struggled to be open on my blog the past few years and what changed for me.

6. How I Stopped Yelling at My Kids & How It’s Changed Our Home — This post was one of my most-shared-posts ever. Apparently, I’m not the only one who struggles with yelling!

7. Let’s Stop Photoshopping Our Lives — I was a little embarrassed to share this post, but at the same time, I really want to be real and authentic on my blog. And well, this is the real deal. We certainly won’t be featured in Better Homes & Gardens or as Best Home on Pinterest, but that’s okay. 🙂

8. Why We More Than Doubled Our Grocery Budget — This was another post that I was sacred to push publish on. Honestly, I waited for weeks to write it because I had no idea how it would be received. But by and large, you all were incredibly supportive and you reminded me why I love you all so much!

9. This Crazy Journey I’ve Been on the Last 10 Years (and Yes, You Can Make Money Blogging) — I had so much fun writing this post and reminiscing over the last almost 10 years I’ve been blogging. If you’ve ever wanted if it’s possible to make money blogging, I think my story will encourage you.

10. Dear Mom Who Is So Tired of Living on a Tight Budget — If you’re feeling overwhelmed and discouraged about your budget as we head into 2015, this post is a must-read.

Runner-up posts that almost made this list:

• 9 Practical Ways to Yell Less & Love More
• On Perfectionism & Disappointing Readers
• A Crazy Eye Episode & Why I Sometimes Drink Starbucks Coffee
• Ponytails, Sweatshirts, & a Mother’s Love
• Choose Love Today
• Sometimes Courage is Just Showing Up & Giving It Your All
• Why We Pay Our Children For Doing Chores
• How Can I Save Money on Food When I’m Never Home?
• Muddy Feet, Messy Rooms, and the Seemingly Mundane

What were YOUR favorite posts from 2014? I’d love to hear as I make plans for 2015.

It might feel like you can’t do much, that you don’t have much to give, that you don’t have much to offer to world.

But you do. There is only one you. And the world needs you.

Love generously. Give of yourself. Take time to smile, to listen, to give a word of encouragement, to write that text, to pick up the phone and make that call, to ask forgiveness, to cheer instead of criticize, to pour into others.

There is a lot of heartache, hurt, and hard things in the world right now. Instead of cursing the darkness, lashing out in frustration, or getting frustrated over things we can’t change, let’s light our own little candle and hold it high. And then inspire others to also light their candles, too.

Let’s spark a revolution of light and hope. One small candle alone can’t produce much light, but collectively, if we each let our lights shine, we can make a huge difference.

Let’s be the light this Christmas!