My 2023 word of the year was “Level Up!” As part of Simply Convivial Community Coaching, I’ve attempted to define my vocations several times over the past few years. With life being as it was since 2018 (severe anemia while pregnant, Dan’s medical condition, and Covid), I’ve focused almost exclusively on being a faithful Christian and educator (both at home and KOR). I haven’t intentionally improved in homemaking or general parenting. Last year, I wanted to restore the years the sleep deprivation had eaten by intentionally getting back to where I had started in my vocations — Christian, wife, mother, educator, and homemaker — before 2018. Because I slept eight hours a night most of the year, I was able to make significant progress on getting back in the groove I had lost.
For my 2024 word of the year, I wanted to play on the RPG theme, but tweak it a bit. In addition to maintaining my current levels in these five vocations, I wanted to add some new abilities. For example, I’m fairly successful with the homemaking skills of cooking and tidying, but I struggle with actual cleaning. I’m going on some “Side Quests” to develop new abilities which will improve my ability to do my vocations well.
Side Quest: Sweep and Smile
In the Simply Convivial community, there’s a course on morning and evening routines. I’m using the habit tracker to record my cleaning activities. Each full sheet improves my cleaning ability on my character sheet. (Can you tell I’m enjoying nerding out on this analogy?) Mystie wrote about the magic of routines if you’d like to learn about the kinds of tiny habits I’m building.
Side Quest: Writing
I’ve maintained a strong reading habit through all the craziness of the past few years, but I’ve lost my writing routine. My baby step goal is writing at least once a month about what I’ve read. I hope to write more than that, but I don’t want to discourage myself with an overly ambitious goal.
humble adoration 