A productive 2015

In 2014, I came up with a list of "40 things to do in ’14". I did okay accomplishing those goals, so I shared them here last January. Since I wrote a similar list for 2015, I thought it was time to share those accomplishments here once again.

First the stats. Coz I am crazy like that.

Instead of jumping to “50 things in ‘15”, I came up with the odd number of 42 things. Of those 42 goals, I succeeded in 31 one of them, or 74%. That seems pretty good to me. I came close in 3 of them and failed at only 8.

So here it is:

            READING

1.       Read the book of 1 Kings 3-10-15

2.       Read the book of 2 Kings 3-28-15

3.       Read the book of 1 Chronicles 12-12-15

4.       Read the book of 2 Chronicles

5.       Read the book of Luke 05-28-15

6.       Read the book of John got to chapter 7

7.       Finish Kisses From Katie 1-21-15

8.       Finish Shantaram 11-30-15

(I read more books than that - these were just my goals, books I really wanted to get through)

WRITING

9.       Finish writing Early Ministry of Jesus 08-13-15

10.   Edit Tale of an American Woman 02-09-15

11.   Submit 10 pieces of writing submitted 7

12.   Have 3 pieces of writing accepted 12-01-15 YES!

13.   Attend a writers conference 08-16-15

14.   Attend ¾ of the meetings of the writers group (the whole group has kind of dissolved)

NONPROFIT

15.   Finish writing Business Plan 09-24-15

16.   Do a large scale fundraiser for Tumaini 10-04-15 gofundme  campaign $1650

17.   Sell four items in Etsy shop  

18.   Recruit and retain 3 board members 12-07 recruited one

19.   Take our first volunteer trip 10-18-15

SEWING

20.   Sew winter scrub top 01-21-15

21.   Sew Snoopy computer cover 02-01-15

22.   Sew top from Ghana fabric 11-20-15

HOUSE AND YARD

23.   Clean Nick’s old bedroom   01-09-15

24.   Clean under the basement stairs 02-07-15

25.   Plant my garden and flowers 05-24-15

26.   Route new trail in the woods 08-20-15

TRAVEL

27.   Go to Texas in June 06-27-15

28.   Go up north for a day 07-27-15

29.   Go away in the fall

CHURCH

30.   Work on Easter Dinner 04-05-15  

31.   Write children’s Christmas program 12-11-15

32.   Do the Christmas program 12-19-15

FAMILY

33.   Move Val into her house 03-27-15

34.   Take Ciaara horseback riding

35.   Take Ciaara on a road trip

36.   Attend Jacob’s wedding 06-27-15

37.   Attend Val’s wedding 08-08-15

38.   Attend Sara’s wedding 09-12-15

39.   Host Thanksgiving dinner 11-25-15

HEALTH

40.   Walk the rest of the streets of town

41.   Run in a 5K

42.   Lose 5 pounds and keep it off 12-30-15

That's it for 2015. Makes me sounds awful ambitious, doesn't it? I think if I could pace myself I could do even better in 2016. I got a start on my list; let's see how it goes in the next 358 days. 

Have a productive year yourself.

At Jacob's wedding

At Val's wedding

At Sara's wedding

With Dino up north 

My top from my Ghana fabric

In Kenya on the roof of the volunteer house

Thanksgiving - a participation holiday

 Keep your roots deep in Christ Jesus, build your lives on him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7Good News Translation

Because my husband had to work on Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving Day on Saturday. It seems funny using the word “celebrate”. Celebrate makes it sound like we danced or sang, maybe jumped around a little or at the very least opened presents.

I suppose the better word to use would be “observe”. But to observe something makes it sound like we sat back and just watched it happen. Ok, I know that is what goes on in a lot of American households this time of year. After eating way too much turkey, stuffing, potatoes and pie, many sit back and observe football games on TV. The rest of us nap.

I guess that’s why I can’t decide whether we celebrate or just observe.

Nope, I think I decided that the word should be celebrate after all. Giving thanks is definitely a participation activity and one which we should do every day, and not just the fourth Thursday of November.

What are you thankful for this year?

 Thank you Lord for filling this table with food and these chairs with my family. You bless me every day through out the year.