A Year in Review and What's Next

This is going to be one of those New Year's Resolution posts.  If you're reading, I am assuming you want to. I hope!

This past year was intense and took a lot of faith building.  As a family, we've really worked on the idea of Life Balance as Fabian has had about two jobs for most of the year.

I think this picture is hilarious.

Life balance isn’t about a 50/50 split. It’s about being 100% present.
Life balance isn’t about doing everything for an equal amount of time. It’s about doing the right things at the right time. - Christy Wright

It's about quality not quantity.

2015
Malachi entered our family this year.
Benaiah turned 2.
We had our 4th wedding anniversary.
We moved into a new home in a wonderful neighborhood.
Fabian had the opportunity to be an Interim Youth Pastor to an amazing church in Channelview.
He got promoted at his job and got to be located 15 minutes from home.
I set a personal goal to lose 10 pounds, and lost 12 pounds.
We are 4 days away from paying off our car loan. :)
We paid off 13,976.36 in debt in 2015.

We've had so many good changes this year! My scripture for the year was "Many are the plan's in a [woman's] heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails." As I'm about to write my goals for next year, I'm keeping that scripture in mind.

2016
This year is going to be an exciting whirlwind, I'm sure.  We have lots of changes coming in the next months!

1. I'd like to be intentionally grateful more.  I am a firm believer that we choose to be happy.   By being grateful, it's easier to be happy, joyful, and most of all content.

2. The obvious goal. I'd like to lose 15 pounds.  I don't pretend to be naive to the fact that I'm a curvy girl.  :) I've been that way since Junior High.  I strive for healthy, not small or skinny. I enjoy losing weight slowly. I've taken on Trim Healthy Mama. My mom told me about them and I really really like it! I, in fact, made a chocolate cake this week for my sweet tooth from a recipe in their book. It was delicious. Believe it or not, it was sugar free. I hope to share more about it in the coming months.

Corpus Christi (My home.)

3.  I'd like to read one book a month. I've made my list and will be posting about which books I'll be reading soon. Reading is vitally important.  If you tell me you don't like to read, I'd say you haven't found the right book yet! Reading gets my brain working and thinking.  I've read books this past year that made me a better Jesus follower, wife, and mother.

4. This is a huge goal for us this year as a family. We'd like to pay off $20,000 in debt. That's not all our debt, but it's a large chunk of what's remaining!  Our money is not ours.  Our money is God's.  We want to be good stewards of His money.  That means continuing on this journey. If not 2016, we'll be debt-free in 2017!

5. Blog more this year! Yes, including about finances and budgeting! Finances are such a HUGE part of our lives.  It affects everything we do. I don't feel that money is talked about enough. If it means sharing our past money mistakes in order to detour others from making the same mistakes then I'm going to keep sharing.

 I write this blog to encourage, uplift, and inspire.  I'm hoping you will find it so!

Happy New Year!

Love,
Leah

P.S. This is the evolution of their brotherly relationship.