Read More. Write More.

January.

Cold.

Dark.

Depressing.

Blah.

The holidays are over and now there is January. In the past several years, January and I have become fast friends. What other month gives us a more slower pace of life, gives us time to reflect and gather strength for the coming months. January has become my month for reading, decluttering, regrouping, reevaluating. breathing more deeply. I even have come to prefer running in January versus July. With January also comes goal setting which I gave up years ago. I do think about where I've been and where I'd like to go but that happens all year long, not just in January.

However, this year I'd like to:

Read and write more in 2024. Has kind of a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Reading is hard.

Writing is hard.

Social media is easy.

This is my Goodreads list for books read in 2023.

Not bad. 18 books (although 2 I didn't even finish). 5200 pages. Until I tell you that in 4th grade I read 10,000 pages in one term to earn lunch with my teacher. I was the only student who completed that challenge. I think pages are more important than books when it comes to stats.

So I'm challenging myself to break that 10,000 page barrier this year. It's going to be tough. I have a lot of things vying for my attention and time. Reading takes a lot of mental alertness and focus which isn't easy to come by in the evenings when social media is so much easier to digest.

I challenge my students to read every night for 20 minutes. If they do, they earn a penny (2nd graders still LOVE pennies). If I read AND they read, they get 3 pennies. They love to keep me accountable.

Writing has taken a back seat to . . . I'm not even sure. But I do know that there is a connection between writing and remembering. I need to write more, especially about my scripture reading. I read them. I mark them. I write in them digitally and physically, but I'd really like to write to connect my life to what I am studying. Maybe it will be on this blog. Maybe it will be in my journal. We'll see.

YES to reading and writing more in 2024!

_________________

These are the days of:

Discovering how smart I was as a mom when I finally got to the last child. With all my decluttering, I found Alex's school poster and as I was dismantling it, I found that I had originally created it when he was in kindergarten and knowing he would have another to do in 1st grade, I kept it and simply swapped out the "All About Me" paper and kept the photos in the same place. I did this again in 2nd grade. I guess by 3rd, they no longer did birthday posters. Pretty genius of me and saved a lot of time. Just wish I had figured that out with my first 4.