Tying up loose ends

Last year my motto was "simplify". About the time January 2007 was over and February hit, I realized that it was time to simplify our lives. On pretty much every front: organizing, scheduling, moneying, and familying. (OK, moneying and familying aren't real words, but you get the picture)

We started with the most natural things like getting rid of stuff. And then we organized the stuff that we still had. This was easy because we were moving. When I packed our old house up, I just didn't keep anything that we didn't use. I gave much of it away, and trashed a lot, too. But when we moved I didn't want to take anything that wouldn't have a place in our new house.

Like every other normal person, I started with good intentions and got about 90% of the purging and putting away done. And then I got ADD and moved on to other things before I finished the job. So our garage and office became storage places for stuff that still needed to be organized.

When we moved houses, we told ourselves that it was just a temporary downsize until we got back on our feet financially. We hoped that in a couple of years we could look for a house that was more "us". It helped me deal with letting go of a house I loved. And for almost a year, I didn't give my heart to the new house. I still hadn't found places for some of our furniture, and I didn't put any effort in to making this house feel like home. I just made it functional.

Last year Honey was also in job limbo. He had a job, but it wasn't one that he wanted to keep long term. And so last summer, he began his current job. And, for the most part, he likes it. And after almost 9 months, he feels like he's settled for a while and we are no longer in this financial holding pattern of waiting for something better.

Now that we are almost a quarter of our way through 2008, it's time for a new theme. And during my month of rest, I prayed a lot about what this year would mean to our family. And over the course of the last few weeks, I feel like my motto for 2008 will be "getting settled in". We spent last year in transition. In so many ways we went from complicated and busy to simple. And now it's time to settle in. It's time to tie up all those loose ends that are keeping us from being in a peaceful place. 2007 brought so many changes to our lives that we need 2008 to learn how to manage our new life. We need 2008 to finish dealing with our stuff, to put a few homey touches on this house and call it our permanent home, to learn how to work with our new budget, to allow ourselves to enjoy this new season of life.

In January, Honey and I started taking the "Financial Peace University" class by Dave Ramsey. We are about half way through it, and so far, it's served as a great reinforcement to all of our current money morals. It's also been a great way to get us back in to the habits of saving, giving, and planning in advance for expenses. We had given up all of those things last year when our income was so unstable. We are looking forward to what he has to say about planning for the future and gaining insight about where to go from here.

And now that spring is just around the corner and there are no more weekly Community Group meetings that require our house to be presentable, we are full steam ahead on adding some of those "homey" touches to the house. The kind of touches that require your house to be a little "unsettled" for a short time, but the end result is totally worth it!

So, I'm curious. Do you have a motto for 2008? Is there a direction you feel the Lord is leading you this year? If so, what sorts of things are you doing to follow His lead?